EUPRERA has named Prof. Dr. Winni Johansen and Prof. Dr. Finn Frandsen, from Aarhus University in Denmark, Distinguished Public Relations Scholars. The lifetime award recognizes their outstanding contribution to research and education in public relations as a social science discipline on an international level. They have been awarded on October 8, 2021, at Universidad de Navarra, Spain, on the occasion of the EUPRERA annual congress, by the association’s president Prof. Dr. Angeles Moreno.

About Winni Johansen

Winni Johansen (PhD, Aarhus School of Business) is Professor of Corporate Communication at the Department of Management, Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences (Aarhus BSS), Aarhus University (Denmark).

Winni has for many years contributed internationally to developing research and education in corporate and strategic communication. She is both an inspiring and committed educator and a sharp researcher who has the ability to combine sharp theory with solid empirical studies.

Winni is an energetic force. Her energy, enthusiasm and sharp intellect spread to everyone: students, research colleagues and practitioners.

When it comes to research, she has made great contributions, perhaps especially in the development of organizational crisis communication, together with her weapon bearer Finn Frandsen, but also in areas such as public communication, social media, and the institutionalization of strategic communication in private and public organizations. Together with Finn Frandsen, she is the originator of Rhetorical Arena Theory and the multivocal approach to crisis communication.

She is also co-editor, with Robert Heath, of the impressive International Encyclopaedia of Strategic Communication I-III.

She has served as visiting professor at highly ranked universities and business schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Italy and Senegal. She has also consulted with organizations in the private and public sector.

About Finn Frandsen

Finn Frandsen (born on January 14th 1956 in Holstebro, Danmark) graduated from Aarhus University, first in French and history of ideas and later in Romanesque philology (French and Italian).

He has been employed at Aarhus School of Business (today Aarhus University) since 1987. He is Professor of Corporate Communication at the Department of Management, Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University since 2004. His primary areas of research are organizational crisis, crisis management and crisis communication.

He has been involved in developing the theory of the Rhetorical Arena and the so-called Multivocal approach to crisis communication.

From 2001 to 2016 he was Director of the Centre for Corporate Communication (CCC) at the School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University (Denmark). He is a member of the Advisory Board for the European Communication Monitor as well as Corporate Communication International, Baruch College, CUNY, USA. He has also been a member of the board of the Danish Communications Association.

He is the Regional Editor for “Corporate Communications: An International Journal” and a member of the Editorial Board for – among others – the “Journal of Communication Studies” and “Public Relations Review”.

Finn Frandsen has also served as a Visiting Professor at highly ranked business schools and universities, in France, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Usa. In 2015, he was awarded the Order of Dannebrog, an honor reserved for Danish citizens who have particularly contributed to the arts, sciences or business life.

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