WVSU to Dedicate New Public Relations Research Laboratory April 22

4/16/2015

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Contact: Kimberly Osborne
(304) 766-3363
kosborne@wvstateu.edu
 
   
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State University (WVSU) will dedicate a new Public Relations Research Laboratory for student and community marketing research on Wednesday, April 22.

The laboratory will be named in honor of Diane Slaughter, executive director of the West Virginia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and longtime supporter of the WVSU public relations program.

The dedication ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the new research lab, which is located on the second floor of Cole Complex on the school’s Institute campus. 

WVSU’s C.R. Byrd Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America is dedicating the laboratory to Slaughter for her efforts in working with State students not only as their professional advisor for nearly 20 years, but also for her service as an adjunct professor. In addition, Slaughter has mentored numerous interns who are now employed with for-profit and non-profit corporations and agencies throughout the United States.  

The new Diane Slaughter Public Relations Research Laboratory is designed as a multi-purpose space that will be used as a traditional classroom with multi-media technology including a computer lab area, a client/team meeting space and a two-way viewing area with audio-visual accommodations for conducting focus groups and marketing research.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony will be: Sara Payne Scarbro, deputy state director and communications advisor for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and a former intern to Slaughter; Cathryn Gibbs Harris, former communications director of W.Va. American Water Co. and Slaughter’s longtime colleague; Dr. Scott Woodard, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at WVSU; and Patricia Schumann, vice president for University Advancement at WVSU.

The dedication ceremony will take place during a day-long meeting on the WVSU campus of the West Virginia PRSA chapter that begins at 9:30 a.m. in the James C. Wilson University Union. Chartered in 1979, the state chapter of PRSA represents public relations professionals in West Virginia. For more information, visit www.prsawv.org.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.