AdPR faculty and graduate students receive honors at AAA Conference

Congratulations to the faculty and graduate students from the Department of Advertising and Public Relations who received honors at the American Academy of Advertising Conference in Pittsburg March 6-9.

Jooyoung Kim, the Dan Magill Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Sports Communications and executive director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, received the Charles H. Sandage Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Charles H. Sandage Award for Teaching Excellence recognizes outstanding contribution to advertising teaching. The “Sandy”, as it is known, celebrates sustained and varied excellence in teaching, mentoring and related activities.

“Receiving the Charles H. Sandage Award for Teaching Excellence is an incredible honor that highlights my passion for teaching advertising at all levels—undergraduate, graduate and professional,” Kim said. “This recognition celebrates not only my personal commitment but also the strong support from our department and Grady College for innovation in advertising education. I’m excited to continue on this path, inspired by this recognition and the fantastic potential of our students.”

Kim also directs the Communication and Media (CAM) Fellows program, providing experienced communication and media professionals with opportunities to update their knowledge.

The Sandy is the most prestigious award recognizing and celebrating long-term and sustained contribution to advertising education. Karen King, professor emerita of Grady College, received the award in 2015. It is sponsored by the University of Illinois.

Several other faculty were honored at the AAA conference:

Mengqi (Maggie) Liao and Joshua Cloudy, both assistant professors, were awarded the AAA Fellowship grant for their research, “Ethnic Affinity Targeting in Political Advertising: Investigating the Role of Gen-AI, ethnicity matching, and perceived advertising authenticity.”

Marc Weinberger, a visiting scholar from the University of Massachusetts, was honored with the Ivan L. Preston Outstanding Contribution to Research on Advertising Award.

Hye Jin Yoon, associate professor, was inducted as AAA’s president-elect. She will serve as president next year, and past president in 2027-2028.

Several Ph.D. students were recognized for their accomplishments:

Ja Kyung Seo won the AAA Doctoral Dissertation Grant Competition for her paper, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots for Online Conversational Advertising: The Effects of Shared Identity and Emotional Expression Levels.”

Haoyue Xiang won the AAA Graduate Student Conference Travel Scholarship.

Author: Sarah E. Freeman, freemans@uga.edu