College of Communication > About > College News > 2014 News Archive > PRAD Program Honors PR Greats at Plank Center Event

PRAD Program Honors PR Greats at Plank Center Event

Pictured (L-R) Harold Burson, Salma Ghanem, Al Golin, and Ron Culp.
Pictured (L-R) Harold Burson, Salma Ghanem, Al Golin, and Ron Culp.
The College of Communication’s Public Relations and Advertising (PRAD) program recently took part in the Plank Center Milestones in Mentoring Awards ceremony here in Chicago. The college’s dean, Salma Ghanem, and PRAD Professional Director Ron Culp, a founding board member and current chair of the Plank Center, attended the event, along with other faculty members and DePaul students.

The Plank Center was established by the late Betsy Plank, a long-time Chicago PR leader and founder of PRSSA, first president of PRSA and the Publicity Club of Chicago. The Center conducts research, promotes mentoring and builds relationships between academia and public relations professionals.

The "Milestones for Mentoring" gala honors outstanding mentors from corporations, agencies and academe. Public relations icons Harold Burson and Al Golin were among the first Plank Center mentoring honorees. Over 300 PR leaders attend the annual dinner at the Union League Club of Chicago, which is where the Center was born some 10 years ago. This year, more than 20 DePaul PRAD graduate students and several PRAD faculty were guests of the Center for the inspiring evening. Earlier in the day, the honorees met with students from six area universities at a DePaul PRSSA-hosted panel discussion on mentoring.

For more information, please visit DePaul University and the College of Communication’s Public Relations and Advertising program and our PRSSA chapter.​