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Corporate Social Advocacy
Corporate Social Responsibility Communication
Public Relations Ethics
Holly Overton, Ph.D., APR, is an associate professor in the department of advertising/public relations, director of master’s programs and graduate studies, and the director of research for the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication. She is also an affiliate with the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence. Before joining the faculty in the Bellisario College, Dr. Overton held a tenured position as an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina and a tenure-track position in the department of communication/journalism at Shippensburg University. She brings more than five years of practical experience to her teaching, including positions in corporate marketing, higher education, and the nonprofit sector. She earned the professional distinction of Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America in 2024.
Dr. Overton conducts public relations research in the areas of public relations ethics, corporate social responsibility communication, and corporate social advocacy. Her research also focuses on examining psychological factors that impact information processing and engagement among publics, nonprofit public relations, and the persuasive impact of messages and technological factors in public relations contexts. She has published 45+ peer-reviewed journal articles. Her work has appeared in over a dozen journals, including Mass Communication and Society, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Advertising Research, International Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Communication, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Public Relations Journal, Journal of Communication Management, and Corporate Communications: An International Journal, among others. She is a co-author of the textbook Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning (12th ed.) and co-editor of Sociopolitical Advocacy and the Role of Public Relations: Theoretical Developments and Emerging Perspectives on Corporate Social Advocacy and Related Constructs. She has presented more than 70 conference papers at national and international conferences where she has won numerous top paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (2014 and 2021), the International Communication Association (2016), the International Public Relations Research Conference (2021 and 2022), and the Broadcast Education Association (2021), among others.
Dr. Overton's research grant awards include a grant from the Glen M. Broom Center for Development in Public Relations and four Arthur W. Page Center Legacy Scholar Grants. She was named a Page Center Legacy Scholar in 2014, 2015, and 2018, and Senior Research Fellow in 2020. In 2019 she was named Educator of the Year by the South Carolina Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has won several other teaching and mentorship awards. She is a 2023 recipient of the Bellisario College's Deans' Excellence Award for Integrated Scholarship.
Dr. Overton currently serves as Chair of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility. She is a Past Head of the AEJMC Public Relations Division. She is associate editor of the International Journal of Strategic Communication. She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Media Ethics, and on the Advisory Committee of the International Public Relations Research Conference. She is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society (Page), a prestigious association of leaders and experts in corporate communications.
