Jerry Swerling  (swerling@usc.edu) is director of USC’s graduate and undergraduate public relations programs, as well as the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center. He has more than 30 years of combined experience as a communications strategist and educator. He is principal of Swerling & Associates, a consultancy specializing in public relations management and organizational consulting, whose clients have included General Motors, Cisco Systems, Home Depot, the American Cancer Society, Toyota Motors, Silicon Graphics and Dairy Management, Inc. He was named Public Relations Professional of the Year 2000 by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. He previously headed the California operations of one of the nation’s leading PR firms.

 

Thomas J. Goff is the Senior Editorial Associate for the GAP V Study .  He is an executive vice president and deputy general manager for Edelman in Los Angeles and leads the corporate reputation and crisis management practices there.  In this capacity, he has advised senior management teams at numerous global corporations including Microsoft, Starbucks, MySpace, Sony Corporation and Warner Bros.  Previously, he has served as senior vice president in corporate communications at Global Crossing, director of media and public relations at Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and in several communications positions over a ten-year span at the Lockheed Corporation.   He holds a bachelor’s degree in government with honors from California State University at Sacramento and a degree of Juris Doctor from the University of California at Davis.  He also served more than a decade as an officer in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve.

 

Jessica Gould (B.A., UC Santa Cruz) is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication. Her research focuses on organizational communication, and more specifically on the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in organizational settings. Additionally, she conducts research on the topic of online communities.

 

Maj. Jim Gregory (M.A. Candidate of Strategic Public Relations, B.S., James Madison University) is an active duty Army officer who is attending USC full time thanks to the Army’s Advanced Civil Schooling program.  Prior to his arrival at USC, he served as the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) Public Affairs Officer.  During his sixteen years of military service, he has also served within the 1st Cavalry Division, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), and the Army’s World Class Athlete Program.   He is the current GAP study project manager. 

 

Andy McHargue is the technical lead for the USC Annenberg website, and provides consulting services to administrative units, faculty, programs and projects within the school.  In his role with the SCPRC, he has assisted with data collection and reporting for the GAP studies on the Web and the Public Relations Management Database.

Janel Schuh (M.A., UNC-Chapel Hill, B.S., James Madison University) is a doctoral student in the Annenberg School for Communication where she is focused on the entertainment industry in general, with a specific interest in celebrities.  Prior to coming to USC, Ms. Schuh worked for six years as a research professional, both for the federal government at the U.S. Department of Commerce and in the nonprofit sector for the American Society of Association Executives.  Before that, she spent five years working in film production on projects including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Halloween H20.