Biosketch

Dean Kruckeberg PhD, APR, Fellow PRSA, is a tenured full professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He served as executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations, a service unit within the department, from 2008 to 2013.

From 1983 through 2008, Dr. Kruckeberg was a public relations professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa, serving most of those years as coordinator of the Public Relations Degree Program or of the Mass Communication Division. Dr. Kruckeberg is co-author with the late Dr. Kenneth Starck (former director of the UI SJMC) of the book, Public Relations and Community: A Reconstructed Theory (1988), which won the first (1989) annual PRIDE Award from the National Communication Association Public Relations Division, and he is the author and co-author of many book chapters, articles and papers dealing with international public relations and international public relations ethics.

Dr. Kruckeberg is co-author of the 11th (2013), 10th (2010), 9th (2006), 8th (2004), 7th (2000) and 6th (1996) editions of This Is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, which for many years was a major public relations textbook that had global English editions as well as translation editions in several indigenous languages worldwide. He is also co-author of Transparency, Public Relations, and the Mass Media: Combating the Hidden Influences in News Coverage Worldwide (2017); AI-Driven Threats, Strategic Communicators and Activism: Meeting the Challenge (2024); and Exploring Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Mass Communication Education (2025). He is co-editor of Strategic Communications in Russia: Public Relations and Advertising (2021) and of Public Relations in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (2019). Dr. Kruckeberg is also co-author of Principles of Public Relations (1994) and of Case Studies in Public Relations (1994), which are Arabic public relations texts published by United Arab Emirates University Press. He was co-researcher of a two-year study released globally in 2003 that ranked 66 countries according to the likelihood that their daily newspaper reporters were seeking or were accepting bribery for editorial coverage. This study received global attention in leading news media worldwide as well as in the professional press.

Dr. Kruckeberg was awarded the 2021 Gold Anvil for Lifetime Achievement from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and he received the 2016 National Communication Association Public Relations Division’s “PRIDE Award for Outstanding Contribution/Achievement in Public Relations Education.” In October 2013, Dr. Kruckeberg was presented the Atlas Award for Lifetime Achievement in International Public Relations by PRSA, and he was PRSA’s 1995 national "Outstanding Educator.” He was awarded the Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Research Prize at the International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America in November 2006. This national award recognizes individual behavioral science researchers whose scholarly work has enhanced the understanding of the concepts and theories that contribute to the effectiveness of public relations practice.

Dr. Kruckeberg was the 1997 recipient of the Pathfinder Award presented by the Institute for Public Relations, a leading award for public relations research. Professor Kruckeberg also received the 1997 State of Iowa Regents Faculty Excellence Award. In fall 1998, Dr. Kruckeberg was awarded the Wartburg College Alumni Citation that recognized his accomplishments as one of the nation’s leading public relations educators. In 2011, Dr. Kruckeberg was presented the Infinity Award, the highest award for a public relations professional that is given by the Charlotte Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. In May 2013, he was inducted into Rowan University’s Public Relations Hall of Fame.

He was Co-Chair of the Commission on Public Relations Education from 1997-2012. This consortium, which has representatives from major national and international professional and scholarly associations, determines and recommends guidelines for public relations curricula and pedagogy in the United States. Dr. Kruckeberg is a Fellow of the Public Relations Society of America (inducted into the Fellows’ second cohort in 1990). He was 2010 chair of the PRSA International Section and is a member of PRSA’s Global Affairs Task Force and was its co-chair in 2022. From 2000 through 2002, he served a two-year term as director-at-large on the national executive board of PRSA.

Dr. Kruckeberg is past Chair of the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association and a former Head of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). In 1997, he was one of two candidates for President-Elect of AEJMC, and, from 2012 to 2018, he served as a member of the national Professional Freedom and Responsibility Committee, having been elected to a second three-year term in 2015. He is a past Resolution Chair, Vice Chair, and was the 2018 Chair of that national committee, as well as a member of the AEJMC President’s Advisory Council and National Board of Directors. Dr. Kruckeberg is a former Chair of the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association (1993); was the 1997 Chair of the PRSA Educators Section (now Academy); was the 1997 Co-Chair of the Educational Affairs Committee of PRSA; was a member of the Research and Educational Advisory Board of the Institute for Public Relations; and is an advisory board member of the International Public Relations Research Conference.

He has lectured and taught worldwide, including in Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Taiwan, and Singapore. Virtual presentations have been presented in Russia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Germany, to U.S. members of the Bank of America: Global Risk, Legacy Asset Servicing and Global Technology & Operations Corporate Communications Team and to U.S. higher education institutions. In December 2019, he was an invited speaker discussing Russian Strategic Communications Education and Practice for the II Marine Expeditionary Force Strategic Communication Professionals, Camp LeJeune, Jacksonville, NC. He has been interviewed by media worldwide, including in the Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and South Africa.

Dr. Kruckeberg has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a journalism minor from Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa (1969); a Master of Arts degree in journalism in the public relations sequence from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb (1974); and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in mass communications from the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1985). Dr. Kruckeberg worked professionally as a public relations practitioner at Lutheran General Hospital, a large teaching hospital and health care center in the Chicago area, for four years and as an extension information specialist (publications) for the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Minnesota for four years, as well as part-time during his undergraduate college career - comprising over a decade of practitioner experience in journalism and public relations.

Dr. Kruckeberg was on the faculty as an instructor at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul; as an instructor at the University of Iowa; as an assistant professor and student newspaper advisor at Northwest Missouri State University; and, for 25 years, progressed through the ranks as an assistant, associate and full professor at the University of Northern Iowa before assuming responsibilities from 2008 to 2013 as executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations. He has been a tenured full professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte since 2008.