Deborah A. Silverman, Ph.D.

Education
Ph.D., English, University at Buffalo
M.A., English, SUNY College at Fredonia
B.M., Music Education, SUNY College at Fredonia

Accreditation in Public Relations

About Dr. Deborah Silverman

Deborah A. Silverman, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA, joined the SUNY Buffalo State Communication faculty in 2005, receiving tenure in 2011. She is currently department chair and associate professor of communication and is coordinator of the online M.S. in Public Relations program, which she created. She was a public relations professional for more than 20 years, mainly in higher education and nonprofit organizations, and a print and broadcast journalist before becoming a college professor in 2002 at the University at Buffalo, where she was a visiting assistant professor until joining Buffalo State’s faculty.

Dr. Silverman has been active in the Public Relations Society of America, the world’s largest organization of public relations professionals, at the chapter, district and national levels. She served five years on PRSA’s national board, including two two-year terms as a director and one year as treasurer. She also is the faculty adviser to Buffalo State’s Public Relations Student Society of America.

She served as chair of PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards and as a member of the Commission on Public Relations Education.

Professor Silverman has published articles in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of communication and folklore as well as professional journals for public relations practitioners. She has given many presentations at academic and professional conferences. Her current scholarly research focuses on crisis communication, public relations ethics, online instruction in communication, and the role of service learning in the public relations classroom.

Awards and honors include her induction into the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows for significant contributions to the public relations profession, the SuPRStar Award from the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Outstanding Practitioner of the Year Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the PRSA Buffalo-Niagara chapter and  Buffalo State’s Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Service Learning Award.