Letter from the Editor
Adrienne A. Wallace
Grand Valley State University
Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Public Relations Education
Email: wallacad@gvsu.edu
Issue 12-2 showcases how public relations education continues to evolve to meet the demands of an increasingly complex profession, while keeping students’ learning and futures at the center of our work.
Centering Work-Ready Learning
Across the issue, authors grapple with a fundamental question: what does it now mean to be “work-ready” in public relations, and how should our programs respond. Articles in this volume deepen the conversation sparked by the Commission on Public Relations Education’s most recent report, particularly around creativity, critical and analytical thinking, emotional and social intelligence, and the soft skills that employers consistently say they need, but do not always see in new graduates. Together, these pieces argue that work readiness is no longer just a matter of mastering writing and campaigns; it is about integrating knowledge, application, and social intelligence into a coherent professional identity.
Classroom Innovation and Pedagogy
Several contributions offer concrete, classroom-tested approaches that make this integration visible to students and measurable for faculty. From low‑stakes in‑class creativity exercises that explicitly tie measurable objectives to strategic thinking, to carefully scaffolded crisis and ethics assignments that walk students from memo writing to live Q&A, these authors show how active learning and reflective practice can build confidence, collaboration, and higher-order thinking in accessible ways. These teaching-focused pieces will be especially useful to instructors seeking ready-to-implement assignments that align with CPRE recommendations and accreditation expectations while still leaving room for local adaptation and student voice.
Experiential Learning and Student-Run Agencies
This issue also underscores the enduring and expanding value of student‑run agencies as high‑impact, interdisciplinary learning environments. The case study featured here offers a rich, multi‑stakeholder view of a credit‑bearing agency experience, tracing its evolution from a volunteer model to a competitive, prestigious course that blends PR, design, media, and other communication disciplines. Through student, client, and instructor perspectives, the authors illustrate how agency culture, accountability structures, and intentional debriefing accelerate students’ professional growth, leadership, and sense of identity as practitioners. Their findings reinforce what many of us see in our own programs: when we treat student agencies as professional spaces—not just courses—students rise to the challenge.
Ethics, Privacy, and Emerging Demands
Finally, this issue highlights the growing expectation that public relations graduates can navigate complex ethical terrain, including data privacy, cybersecurity, and corporate misconduct. The teaching brief on the Wells Fargo scandal exemplifies how privacy, ethics, and crisis communication can be intertwined in a single assignment that feels both immediate and deeply consequential to students preparing for corporate careers. By inviting students to inhabit the tensions between shareholder expectations, stakeholder trust, regulatory scrutiny, and organizational culture, this work demonstrates how PR classrooms can function as labs for ethical leadership in a digital, datafied world.
As editor-in-chief, I am grateful to the editorial staff, editorial review board, authors, individual article reviewers, and practitioners who contributed to this issue, and to the students past, present, and future whose experiences animate every page. I invite you to read these pieces not only as individual studies or teaching notes, but as parts of an ongoing, shared project to design a public relations education that is rigorous, relevant, inclusive, and truly worthy of the students we serve.
Adrienne A. Wallace
Editor-in-Chief
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
Adrienne A. Wallace
ARTICLES
Do Public Relations Graduates Exhibit Work-Ready Intelligence?
Pamela Bourland-Davis (in memoriam), Elizabeth L. Toth, Charles “Chuck” Lubbers, & Hua Jiang
Experiential Learning in the Public Relations Classroom: A Student-Run Agency Case Study
Alexander Laskin & John Powers
TEACHING BRIEFS/GIFTS
Creativity in the PR Classroom: Answering CPRE’s Call to Strengthen Students’ Critical Strategic Thinking Skills
Amy McCoy & Kelly Bruhn
Integrating Privacy and Data Breach Cases into PR Pedagogy
Sheila B. Lalwani
BOOK REVIEWS
Strategic Planning for Public Relations (7th Ed.)
Lois A. Boynton
Social Media Measurement and Management: Entrepreneurial Digital Analytics
Linsday McCluskey
