Professor Emerita at BI, Peggy Simcic Brønn, was recently awarded the Distinguished Public Relations Scholar Award by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA). She says it’s a great honour to receive this award:
“It is an enormous honour to be recognized for my body of work, particularly since I have now been retired for four years to see that I still make an impact is very gratifying. And the timing could not have been better as I struggle through chemotherapy. It really rejuvenated me to know my peers had been thinking about me.”
Peggy believes her most significant contribution to the field of public relations within the social science discipline lies in linking the work of professional communicators to strategic thinking and providing them with proactive tools to help their organizations be successful and survive.
“Probably one of the biggest things I have done as part of my career in Norway is getting reputation on the agenda of the private and public sectors with rigorous measurement and analysis.”
Sut I Wong, Head of Department of Communication and Culture at BI adds:
“Peggy has contributed to BI in a lot of different ways. Firstly, she has been an invaluable member of the department. Among other things she has also been the founder of the Centre for Corporate Communications at BI and built an extensive network among experts in Communication throughout the course of her career, sharing her knowledge and work to the wider public.”
Peggy was inspired to enter the field of communication due to it being a field filled with creativity:
“I was majoring in math to be a school teacher back in the 1960s-70s when that was expected of women. After experimenting with being a hippy and all things associated with that, I landed on working in a field that is dependent on being social, extroverted and creative. Plus, it’s just a whole lot of fun!”
The award was first mentioned here: https://euprera.org/2023/10/04/2023-distinguished-public-relations-scholar-award/