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The Reed College of Media and College of Creative Arts will merge to form the new WVU College of Creative Arts and Media as of July 1, 2024. Get details.

Frank Marra

Professor and Practitioner in Rochester, New York

Frank Marra worked and studied for five years with Dr. Jim Grunig, the world’s leading scholar in public relations. He is a specialist in crisis management and developed the first theory of crisis public relations.

Marra has taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland, Ithaca College, Cornell University and the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. He was also a member of the faculty at the Curtin University Business School in Perth, Western Australia, and at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.

Marra has worked as a public relations practitioner, as well as at radio and television stations, including the top-rated talk radio station in Washington, D.C.

Marra is a former president of the Public Relations Society of America’s Finger Lakes Chapter and co-chaired PRSA’s MBA Project for two-years.

Marra earned his bachelor’s degree from Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario), master’s degree from the University of Florida and doctorate from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Marra's knowledge of public relations provided a unique insight within his courses. I had the opportunity to have him both for crisis communications and advanced public relations. In both courses, he utilized case studies and assignments that provided skills that could immediately be implemented in my current job. Being at the end of the program, I feel he helped expand current skills while providing new perspectives on the field of public relations and where it will be evolving in the future.

Professor Marra was the BEST! His feedback was extremely helpful and his positivity shined through, even in a virtual classroom.

His styles of teaching, feedback, and everything else were fantastic. I learned a lot, and really enjoyed having him as a professor. He did a great job of making the class memorable and exceedingly educational. I also appreciated that he provided students with personalized video responses for feedback on several assignments. He’s the only professor I’ve had who’s done this, and I thought it was great.