Educators Academy Awards

David Ferguson Award

Recognizing Outstanding Contributions to Public Relations Education by a Practitioner

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 David Ferguson Award, to be presented at the PRSA International Conference, October 16-19, in Washington D.C.

Deadline: June 4, 2010

Background:
The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of public relations education on the part of public relations professionals. The award honors the late David Ferguson, APR, Fellow PRSA, in recognition of his outstanding support to public relations education as PRSA President in 1985 and later as co-chair of the PRSA Educational Affairs Committee.

Ferguson recognized the importance of public relations education to the profession and helped to establish the five public relations course rule for creating and maintaining a PRSSA Chapter Charter. Identifying the equivalency of a major, in specific public relations course content, contributed to the identification of public relations faculty and enhanced the support being provided to such faculty. 

In addition, Ferguson's leadership established the PRSA Certification program. This program enabled universities with public relations programs outside of journalism to achieve program review and those within journalism to have the benefit of an in-depth review by teams comprised entirely of public relations professionals and faculty. The review process allowed reporting to top university administration as to the status of the program.

Past Winners:

• Rhoda Weiss, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Ron Rhody, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Harold Burson, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Daniel J. Edelman, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Jack Felton, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Patrick Jackson, APR, Fellow PRSA 
• Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Isobel Parke, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Betsy Plank, APR, Fellow PRSA
• John Paluszek, APR, Fellow PRSA
• Jon Riffel, APR

Nomination Criteria:
Clear past and current evidence of outstanding service and commitment to education through service with PRSA and PRSSA National, District and Chapter committees, as well as other professional organizations, including university public relations advisory boards, educational committees, commissions, and foundation boards.

Please send letters of nomination to the attention of Dr. Marcia W. DiStaso at sections@prsa.org no later than June 3, 2011. If you have any questions, please call Marcia at (813) 215-6543.