RADFORD – John Brummette, an assistant professor in RU’s School of Communication, won first place recently for outstanding poster in a refereed research session for the Public Relations Division at the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication’s (AEJMC) annual conference in Boston.

Several School of Communication faculty attended the event, which hosted more than 2,000 journalism and mass communication educators.

Brummette’s award-winning visual presentation depicted a study he developed to assess the parents of college students and determine any significant relationships between perceptions of university drinking, awareness of alcohol prevention programs and perceptions of organizational legitimacy.

The professor conducted a web-based survey in the spring of 2008 with parents of university students at a state flagship university.

“The survey included assessments of parental perceptions of the university drinking, parental awareness of university prevention efforts and parental perceptions of organizational legitimacy,” Brummette said. “Findings of this study identify how negative stakeholder perceptions of organizational legitimacy may be based on misperceptions that can be corrected by strategic public relations efforts. This study advocates the use of strategic issues management to increase awareness of organizational operations and outputs, correct misperceptions and establish favorable relationships between the parents and the university.”

Assistant professor Lisa Baker Webster placed second in the “Best Practices in Teaching of Diversity” competition, earning a cash prize and a certificate.

Webster was awarded for her paper “Professor for a Day,” which focuses on a research paper and project she regularly assigns in her diversity in communication class.

Associate professor Courtney Bosworth was elected Secretary of the Advertising Division of AEJMC.