College of Communication > Faculty & Staff > Faculty A-Z > Joseph Tateoka

Joseph Tateoka

Joseph Tateoka is a Senior Vice President, Learning & Development at Edelman, a global communications firm, and is based out of the Chicago market. He has been an adjunct professor for DePaul University's College of Communication since January 2016. He served on the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Communication from 2019-2022.

He started his decade-long tenure with Edelman as a client lead on the B2B Corporate Technology team and in 2019 he made a shift to the Talent team, first in talent acquisition, then as a talent business partner before joining the Global Learning & Development team in April 2021. Tateoka spent more than 12 years as a strategic client counselor at Edelman, Burson-Marsteller and Ruder Finn, developing and executing communication programs for B2B technology clients including: Amazon Web Services, Arity (Allstate), Braintree, CA Technologies, HP 3D Printers, HP Enterprise, and PayPal.

Tateoka is active in the Chicago PR community and served two terms as a Board of Director, co-chairing the membership and Young Professional Network committees for the Chicago Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Chapter. Tateoka has been a member of PRSSA/PRSA since 2005. He is passionate about creating bridges for aspiring PR pros between academia and the profession. To support those efforts, he serves on the Accrediting Committee for the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism & Mass Communications (ACEJMC) as well as an Advisory Board Member for The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations out of the University of Alabama.

Tateoka is an advocate for the Little People of America (LPA) and joined the organization when his eldest son was diagnosed with dwarfism in 2015. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors as the Central Regional Representative supporting and representing members across 13 states from Louisiana to North Dakota and Texas to Wisconsin.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations from Brigham Young University. He resides in the Chicagoland area with his wife, Alison, and their three children.