President & CEO
Institute for Public Relations

Tina McCorkindale, Ph.D., APR, is the President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), an independent research nonprofit foundation, founded in 1956, devoted to research that matters to the profession. Formerly, she was a tenured associate professor at Appalachian State University and has 15 years of experience teaching at several universities, including University of Florida, Cal Poly Pomona, University of Vermont, and Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, Thailand. She has taught in West Virginia University’s graduate IMC program since 2009.

She is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, The Seminar, the Commission for Public Relations Education, the AMEC Academic Advisory Board, the University of Florida School of Journalism and Communications Public Relations Advisory Board, the Society of New Communications Research Board, and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management Board. She served as the National Faculty Adviser for the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) from 2015-2017, and was a director on the Universal Accreditation Board. For two years, she served as chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Educators Academy and co-chair of the PRSA National Research Committee.

She was inducted into the PRNews Measurement Hall of Fame in 2018 and received the 2017 David Ferguson award, given by the PRSA Educators Academy for outstanding contributions to the advancement of public relations education on the part of public relations professionals. She has more than 125 research presentations and academic publications in books and journals with her research broadly focusing on social media with specializations in mobile technologies, engagement, and reputation. She is on the editorial review board of several academic journals.

Formerly, she was a senior research analyst at several companies, including Cision and Visible Technologies, where she conducted advanced analytics with enterprise-level clients in various verticals including technology, insurance, pharmaceutical, transportation, and financial services.

McCorkindale received her Ph.D. in communication with an outside cognate in enrollment management and educational psychological statistics from the University of Miami. She earned her master’s degree in public and corporate communication from the University of South Alabama, her bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in marketing from the University of Southern Mississippi, and two certificates in Enrollment Management and Nonprofit Management from the University of Miami. She lives in Seattle, Washington.