Gainesville, Fla. – The Institute for Public Relations is thrilled to announce four new Trustees to the Board:
Virginia Devlin
Current Global
Chief Executive Officer
Virginia Devlin is Chief Executive Officer of Current Global, a midsized communications agency that is part of the Interpublic Group (IPG). Current is focused on influencing behavior where real life happens – in the moment. For clients, that means forging meaningful connections to powerful moments in people’s lives to create lasting outcomes.
Virginia has helmed Current for 17 years, and that stability has served as a springboard for continued growth. Professional growth for her team. Practice area growth to service clients across corporate, consumer, healthcare, and technology marketing. Geographic growth spanning North America, LATAM, EMEA, APAC and MENAT. Reputation growth as thought leaders in DEI transformation and accessible communications. And successive financial growth.
With Virginia as its driving force, in 2021, Current launched Accessible by Design, its industry-first commitment ensuring that all communication and content will meet the highest accessibility standards to be inclusive of people with sight, hearing, and cognitive disabilities. Fast Company named it a world changing idea, a first such accolade for a PR agency. She has continued to invest in the offer, seeing through the development of an educational website and hands-on training for marketing professionals looking to upskill teams to deliver disability inclusive and accessible communications.
A frequent speaker on accessible communications, she has helped educate the industry while promoting disability inclusion through fireside chats, panel discussions and webinars for the Female Quotient Equality Lounge at Cannes, Arthur Page Society, Disability:IN, Institute for Public Relations, PR Council, PR Leadership Forum, PRSA College of Fellows, PRWeek, and more.
Virginia has served on the board of PRSA Chicago and PR Council, helping launch the organization’s SHEQUALITY initiative. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, which fosters meaningful connections among Chicago leaders to encourage dialogue on important economic and social issues and to cultivate the next generation of civic leadership. Her recognition includes PRSA Chicago Professional of the Year (2022); PRWeek Most Purposeful Agency Professional finalist (2022); PRWeek Hall of Femme/Women of Distinction (2021); Women in Marketing Change Maker Award – Agency (2021); and Gold Stevie Award for Most Innovative Woman of the Year (2020). She has judged the PRWeek Global, U.S., and Purpose Awards, PRovoke SABRE Awards, and Clio Awards.
Katherine Ducker
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Vice President, Corporate and Financial Communications
Katherine Ducker serves as Vice President, Corporate & Financial Communications for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In this role, she leads efforts to protect and enhance HPE’s corporate reputation, shaping perceptions among key stakeholder audiences. Katherine’s team advances a consistent, compelling HPE narrative around the globe through financial, ESG, issues and crisis, international, and CEO communications. Katherine serves on the company’s ESG Steering Committee and AI Ethics Steering Committee, and she is the HPE lead on the board of the Hewlett Packard Company Archives.
Previously, Katherine served as Vice President, Global Product Communications, where she led development of strategic communications campaigns to build consideration of HPE’s products and services and support sales goals globally. She joined HPE in 2016 to lead International Communications.
Prior to joining HPE, Katherine was Senior Vice President at Access Brand Communications, an Omnicom agency, where she led the Los Angeles office. She brings experience in corporate branding, reputation management, and consumer marketing initiatives for clients across the financial services, technology, hospitality, food/beverage and non-profit sectors.
Katherine was a founding member of Omnicom agency Emanate (prior to its 2015 merger with Access Communications), where she played a key role in expanding the firm across four offices, generating double-digit growth for five consecutive years and earning the agency 2010 PRWeek “Agency of the Year” honors. Katherine joined Emanate from Ketchum, where she worked in the New York and London offices.
She is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society Page Up program for senior communications professionals. PRWeek included Katherine in its 2010 “40 Under 40” list.
Katherine graduated with honors and distinction from the University of North Carolina with bachelor’s degrees in Journalism & Mass Communication and Political Science.
Hilary Fussell Sisco, Ph.D.
Quinnipiac University
Professor and Founding Chair at the Strategic Communication Department
Hilary Fussell Sisco, Ph.D., APR, is a Professor of Strategic Communication at Quinnipiac University. Dr. Fussell Sisco was the founding Chair of the Strategic Communication Department at Quinnipiac.
She is Editor-in-Chief of Public Relations Journal, the only journal that focuses on the practical outcomes of public relations research. She is a member of the Diversity Action Alliance and serves on the National Awards Committee of PRSA and a member of the Page Society. She is also a member of the Awards and Research Committee for the Institute of Public Relations. Dr. Fussell Sisco served as the Associate Editor and then Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Public Relations Research, the premier scholarly journal in the field. In addition, she is currently Past-Chair of the Educators Academy of PRSA, as well as past-chair of both the Work-Life Gender Issues Committee and the National Research Committee of PRSA. Dr. Fussell Sisco is also a current member of the Steering Committee for the Commission on Public Relations Education as well as a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research Committee.
Dr. Fussell Sisco’s research focuses on public relations in the nonprofit sector, social media, and crisis communication. She has over 70 peer-reviewed publications in such journals as the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Journal and Corporate Communications: An International Journal. She has written on public relations education, technology and crisis communication for the Institute of Public Relations Research Letter and PRSA’s Tactics. She is also an Arthur W. Page Legacy Scholar.
Dr. Fussell Sisco has over 20 years of teaching experience, including appointments at Radford University and the University of South Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina, her master’s degree in Corporate Communication from Radford University, and her undergraduate degree in Public Communication from Virginia Tech.
Michael Patino
Patino Associates
Managing Partner and CEO
Michael started Patino Associates in 2008, practically on a dare. Armed with a decades worth of experience from building the Corporate Communications practice at Russell Reynolds and then Spencer Stuart, Michael set out to create a firm that would set the standard for recruiting leadership talent across any and all communications disciplines.
“Search was for me because I get great satisfaction out of finishing things – puzzles, to-do lists and, of course, searches. Our approach is to take our business personally. Even after we finish the search, we celebrate the media victories of our clients and candidates and share their pain when the press is merciless.“
Before launching Patino Associates, Michael was a consultant in the Corporate Communications Practice of Spencer Stuart, and before that developed the Corporate Communications Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates. Previously, Michael was an Account Manager with the Corporate Executive Board, a “best practices” consulting firm where he was responsible for over sixty relationships with Fortune 1000 firms. Before that, Michael worked as the Director of Special Projects in the Sports Division of E.J. Krause & Associates. Michael began his career in public relations at Entertainment Weekly, a Time Inc. publication.
Michael received his B.A. degree from Princeton University. Michael and his wife, Karyn, live in Vienna, VA with their three children, Eli, Lee, and Thomas.
About the Institute for Public Relations
Founded in 1956, the Institute for Public Relations is an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™. IPR creates, curates, and promotes research and initiatives that empower professionals with actionable insights and intelligence they can put to immediate use. IPR predicts and analyzes global factors transforming the profession, and amplifies and engages the professional globally through thought leadership and programming. All research is available free at www.instituteforpr.org and provides the basis for IPR’s professional conferences and events.
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