Time out for an update from the home front. And it’s more good news for the Public Relations Sequence at Kent State (aka, PRKent).
Professor Michele Ewing, APR, was honored in Salt Lake City this week as the 2006 Teahan Award winner for Outstanding Chapter Faculty Advisor in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Congrats to Michele, and to the students whose performance helped bring her to the national spotlight.
The Teahan Awards recognize excellence in PRSSA, the world’s premier student public relations organization. This is a big deal for Michele, and for all of us associated with the program. So students and alumni, feel free to bask in her reflected glory.
Last year, under Michele’s direction, the Kent State Chapter earned a Teahan for Outstanding PRSA/PRSSA Chapter Relationship (in conjunction with Akron PRSA).
But PRSSA isn’t the first organization to recognize Michele’s performance as a teacher and researcher. Last year Michele earned a development grant from the University Teaching Council, and earlier this year she was named a Moulton Teaching Scholar at Kent State. These awards provided cash and work-release time to develop and enhance her new course, Public Relations Online Tactics.
Last spring Michele earned an Organization Advisor Excellence Award from Kent State. In that same awards competition, her students in Kent PRSSA pretty much ran the table, taking five other top awards from the Center for Student Involvement.
Michele’s a PR pro who joined the KSU faculty in 2003 after an 18-year career that included stints in healthcare and in public relations counseling. Her last stop was with Marcus Thomas LLC (Cleveland) where she was VP/Director of PR. It was during her time at MT that we lured her into a part-time teaching gig here at Kent — an experience that prompted her to apply when the full-time position opened. Michele replaced the late E. Zoe McCathrin, APR, Fellow PRSA.
I asked Michele the typical “keys to success” question, and this one jumped out at me:
A key to motivating students is setting high expectations, then helping the students see that you believe they can achieve challenging goals. Pulling a student aside and sharing that he/she has leadership skills for Kent PRSSA goes a long way, too.
Not to steal any of the spotlight from Michele, but I gotta mention that her award comes on the heels of last month’s announcement about Professor Rob Jewell earning one of just three Outstanding Teaching Awards at Kent State this year. If it’s true that good things come in threes, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I’ll end this salute to Michele by stealing a line from one of my all-time favorite movie heroes:
Awesome, Michele! Totally awesome!
To send your own congrats: meewing@kent.edu
ToughSledding 
There’s no one more deserving. Kudos to Miss Michele and to PRKent.
Yea Michele!! I was lucky enough to be at the ceremony. It was very exciting. Hey Bill, I guess if things do come in threes it only seems fitting that you’d be next.
For any crazy reason that doesn’t happen, just know that we all appreciate you here. You are a tremendous asset to PRKent.
A big THANKS to all the PR professors for all of their hard work and support you have given us.
THANKS!!!
Dana Rader, stop sucking up to your professors!!!
But she is right– we are all very lucky to have such top-shelf PR professors at Kent State!
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