CSW Audio History Project

Public Relations Educator and Trailblazer:
An Interview with Judy VanSlyke Turk

It’s probably safe to say that 2008-2009 ASJMC President Judy VanSlyke Turk is a born leader. Currently the Director of the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Turk is also a past president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), a committee member of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and has chaired numerous AEJMC committees.

A former Associated Press reporter and corporate public relations executive, Turk’s real passion is public relations education. The co-author of This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, she was named Outstanding Public Relations Educator in 1992 by the Public Relations Society of America and has lectured on PR curricular issues all over the world.

But what really makes Judy run? Listen as VCU Associate Professor Bonnie Newman Davis talks with Turk about the transition from a career in journalism to public relations educator:

Click here for podcast
Interview total time is 6:21.*

Turk’s research, primarily in the areas of agenda setting and public relations management, has been published as book chapters and as articles in Journalism Monographs, Journalism Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Public Relations Review and Public Relations Journal.

*Podcast edited and produced by KSU graduate assistant Danielle Wiggins.