Crisis Communication Coalition

About CCC:

The University of Georgia Crisis Communication Coalition is a program of the C. Richard Yarbrough Professorship in Crisis Communication Leadership.

The goals of the Coalition are:

  • To provide a location for research, commentary and practical guidance concerning crisis communication leadership
  • To serve as a resource for journalists seeking comment and analysis of newsworthy crisis events
  • To educate both graduate and undergraduate public relations students on the origins and evolutions of crisis communication research and practice

The CCC consists of faculty members in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication who study crisis communication and related issues. Additionally, professionals who specialize in this field are invited to affiliate with the Coalition and contribute to the discussion via curated blog posts.

Bryan Reber and Yan Jin meet with members of the Crisis Communication Think Tank planning committee.

This website is intended to serve as a resource for academics, professionals and journalists. Interested parties can turn to Dr. Bryan Reber and other members of the Coalition to serve as expert sources on issues related to crisis communication. Academics and professionals will find the bibliography a valuable reference for best practices, as well as both seminal and recent crisis communication research.

This page is ever evolving and your input into how to make it more useful for you is welcomed. Included are former op-ed pieces as well as crisis communication tips and relevant research.

To become an affiliate of the Crisis Communication Coalition, please contact Bryan Reber (reber@uga.edu). For updates and additional content, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Dr. Bryan H. Reber

Dr. Bryan H. Reber currently serves as the C. Richard Yarbrough Professor in Crisis Communication Leadership and as Department Head of Advertising and Public Relations at the Grady College. Dr. Reber’s research focuses on crisis communication, public relations theory, practice and pedagogy. His primary teaching interests are crisis communication, public relations administration, public relations communication and public relations campaigns. Reber has also taught persuasion, campaign research and public opinion management on the graduate level.

Dr. Reber has been published in Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly and Journal of Communication Management among others. In addition, Dr. Reber has presented his research at numerous national and international academic conferences.

Prior to joining the Grady College, Dr. Reber worked in public relations at Bethel College, Kansas. He taught at the University of Alabama immediately before joining the Grady faculty.

Richard "Dick" Yarbrough

Richard “Dick” Yarbrough has enjoyed a distinguished career in public relations. Following his retirement from BellSouth Corporation in 1993, he joined the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as managing director. Yarbrough is the author of the 2002 memoir, “And They Call Them Games,” which provides an insider’s view of the 1996 Games. For more than two decades, he has written a syndicated newspaper column reaching 600,000 households and more than 1.3 million readers each week.

His honors are many: University of Georgia Distinguished Alumnus, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication Fellow, one of PRWeek’s 100 most influential PR practitioners of the 20th century, one of Georgia’s 100 most powerful and influential people, and a member of the Public Relations Society of America Georgia Chapter Hall of Fame. He also is past president of the University of Georgia National Alumni Association.

Yarbrough makes his home in Atlanta. His continued generosity enables the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to fund numerous student internships each semester.