Brigitta Brunner

Education

PhD, University of Florida

MA, Auburn University

BA, Juniata College

About Me

Brigitta Brunner is a professor in the School of Communication & Journalism at Auburn University. She has been on the Auburn faculty since 2002, teaching public relations classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is editor of the Journal of Public Interest Communications.

Brunner has been selected for several competitive fellowships, including SEC Leaders, Plank Center Educators, and Imagining America. She has also been recognized for her teaching, mentoring, and scholarship. She was inducted into the College of Liberal Arts’ Academy of Outstanding Teachers (2015) and was named Educator of the Year by the Public Relations Council of Alabama (2013). She was honored with the J. Donald Ragsdale Award for Mentoring and the Michael M. Osborn Teacher-Scholar Award by SSCA in 2018. Brunner served as president of the PRCA-East Alabama chapter 2017-2019 and earned the senior practitioner designation from the Southern Public Relations Federation in 2015. She is active in the leadership of the National Communication Association and Southern States Communication Association. She currently serves as the chair of the SSCA PR Division and as SSCA’s Representative to the Regional Promotion Board of NCA.

Her research interests include the public interest, public relations, and education. She has published four books: Creating Citizens: Liberal Arts and Community & Civic Engagement in the Land-grant Tradition, University of Alabama Press (2016); The Moral Compass of Public Relations, Routledge (2017); Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action, Oxford University Press (2019); and Public Relations Theory: Application and Understanding, John Wiley & Sons (2019). The Moral Compass of Public Relations was awarded the 2017 PRIDE Book Award by the Public Relations Division of NCA. Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action was awarded the 2019 PRIDE Book Award by the Public Relations Division of NCA. Brunner has also published numerous articles in journals such as Public Relations Inquiry, Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Education, and Journal of Public Relations Research.

Research Interests

public interest, public relations, education