Becky Brittain is one of CNN’s White House Producers, where she covers the daily movements and events of the White House and the entire administration. She was named to the position in August 2005. She is based at the White House as well as in CNN’s Washington, DC bureau.  She is now covering her second administration as a White House producer.  She has traveled on Air Force One with Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.  Brittain has been with the network since 1998.  She was an associate producer for the show “Inside Politics” and worked on “Crossfire” and “Larry King Live.”  She is an Emmy and Peabody Award winner.

The Public Relations Society of America certified the Virginia Tech public relations curriculum in April.

The PRSA board of directors approved a recommendation from the PRSA Educational Affairs Committee to grant the Department of Communication Certification in Education for Public Relations. The designation will be officially presented in Philadelphia in October during the 2013 PRSA International Conference.

Certification, which must be renewed every seven years, indicates that public relations instruction at Virginia Tech meets standards set by the Commission on Public Relations Education.

The Department of Communication applied for certification in April 2012 after a one-year curriculum review. Two evaluators, Robert Grupp, APR, and Robert Prichard, APR, Fellow PRSA, visited the Blacksburg campus Sept. 4-6. read more...

A junior public relations major from Mechanicsville, Va., is the first Virginia Tech student to win a national office in the Public Relations Student Society of America.

Christopher M. Bonelli was elected vice president for chapter development during the April 4-7 PRSSA National Assembly in Albuquerque, N.M.

Bonelli, 2012-13 vice president of the Virginia Tech PRSSA chapter, begins his one-year term on the PRSSA National Committee June 1. He is to be responsible programming and leadership training at the 2013 PRSSA National Conference and 2014 National Assembly, fundraising programs for chapters, and community service initiatives.

Bonelli joined the Virginia Tech PRSSA chapter as a freshman. He represented the Virginia Tech Chapter at the 2012 National Assembly in Charlotte, N.C., and the 2012 National Conference in San Francisco. He was active in Ut Prosim PR, the chapter’s student-run agency, during the 2011-12 academic year. He is now communication manager for Virginia Tech’s Hybrid Vehicle Team in the EcoCAR 2 Advanced Vehicle Competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy.

At the NCA Conference in November, the Department of Communication was named the 2012 Program of Excellence by the Basic Course Division.  The purpose of the award is to recognize the distinctive excellence of basic course programs and to identify programs that can serve as best practice models for other programs across the country.   As a representative of the department, Dr. Marlene Preston received the award in Orlando, Florida.     

At Virginia Tech, the basic communication program includes Communication Skills I and II, a freshman sequence for COMM and other majors; Public Speaking, a course primarily for non-COMM majors; and CommLab, a resource center in Newman Library for students in any major.  The Department of Communication, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and the Office of the Provost have offered their support to maintain the high quality of these programs.  read more...

The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech will house the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology with an array of labs and studios devoted to creative technologies and innovative curriculum design. Within this area of the center also will be located the multimedia studio, production control room, newsroom, and associated classroom in support of the Department of Communication.

  Consisting of the latest digital production capabilities, the multimedia center will enable high definition production programming, news production, and digital journalism across many platforms.  Virginia Tech’s Department of Communication will occupy the space in an academic capacity with curriculum including multimedia journalism and television production.  The location of the multimedia center in the Center for the Arts, however, will offer opportunities for integrated research and performances that will be distributed within the building walls, across campus, and throughout the community and state. 

For more information on the Center for the Arts please visit http://www.vt.edu/spotlight/innovation/2011-05-30-arts-center/fly-through.html