The Daily Bulletin

Deborah Silverman, chair and associate professor of communication, has been appointed as vice chair (chair-elect) of the national Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE), replacing the late Dr. Pamela Bourland-Davis, who died earlier this month.

Silverman, the current secretary of CPRE, will become co-chair (PR educators) of CPRE next January for a two-year term, working alongside co-chair for PR practitioners Christopher Brathwaite. Silverman was elected to a one-year term as secretary in 2024, the first year of the commission’s operation as a 501(c)(3) organization, and was elected to a two-year term as secretary in 2025.

CPRE, the authoritative voice on public relations education, was founded in 1973 by the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and the Public Relations Society of America to address the quality of public relations education in the United States.

Since then, CPRE has issued periodic research reports and recommendations on undergraduate and graduate education in public relations for universities, accrediting bodies, and professional associations around the world. Today, with 24 member organizations in the U.S. and abroad, CPRE operates year-round as a 501(c)(3) organization in partnership with the Institute for Public Relations and continues to offer a forum for public relations education with a global perspective.