Patricia J. Parsons APR, Fellow CPRS
Profile
I
am currently Professor of Public Relations and a past chairman of the Bachelor of Public
Relations degree program at Mount Saint Vincent University where I joined the
faculty in 1989 after a career in health science and medical communication.
My academic research and writing have been primarily in the areas of public
relations ethics and strategy, and healthcare communication. I also write
fiction and am particularly interested in how to cultivate creativity in PR
practitioners.
My interest in ethics began many years ago during my first career in nursing education. I had studied ethics as an undergraduate student and had seen many ethical dilemmas in action in the healthcare system. I taught ethics to nursing students for several years and the day that a student came up to me and told me that she came to my classes with firm ideas about ethical issues and left totally confused, I took this as a compliment (although I don't think she meant it to be). I decided then and there that I was moving in the right direction. If I could do no more than make students and other professionals think about ethical issues in a different way -- challenge their long-standing ideas -- then perhaps I had found my calling. When I segued from healthcare delivery into medical communication and public relations, and then into PR education, I continued this ethics theme throughout my work.
I am the author of eight books and dozens of papers for both the academic and lay press. My most popular book Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice was published in London in 2004 by Kogan Page and recently published in Italy and soon to be published in Indonesia.
I pioneered on-line teaching in the public relations department at MSVU and am currently an on-line course developer (including ethics as well as research and evaluation) and instructor at the University of Victoria. I was the monthly ethics columnist for the on-line journal PR Canada for over five years and I hold the designation APR (accredited in public relations) from the Canadian Public Relations Society. I was admitted to the College of Fellows of the Canadian Public Relations Society in 2005.
My current community volunteer work revolves around providing pro bono public relations advice and services for organizations in the performing arts. Some of these have included the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, The Performance Project, Dance Nova Scotia and Kings View Academy. I am currently the chairman of the Atlantic Regional Advisory Board for Ballet Jorgen Canada. My husband and I live on the beautiful shores of St. Margaret's Bay with our fox terrier. I have one son who dances with the National Ballet of Canada.
If you are interested in more about my work, the following pages may be of interest.
http://www.msvu.ca/Research/ResearcherProfiles/PatriciaParsons.htm
