GAINESVILLE, FL – The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) is pleased to announce the 2014 winners of the Ketchum Excellence in Public Relations Research Award (KEPRRA) and the Grunig PRIME Research Fellowship.

Aaron Westbrook (KEPRRA)
Aaron Westbrook
KEPRRA winner Aaron Westbrook, a master’s student from DePaul University, will be interning at Ketchum’s New York City office for 10 weeks this summer. There, he will gain practical experience, learning what “research that matters to the practice” truly means. He will receive a $7,500 for his work.

“This experience will be invaluable as I seek to expand my comprehension of measurement as a PR practitioner,” Westbrook said.

Anna Kochigina, a master’s student at the University of Oklahoma, will work at PRIME Research’s Ann Arbor, MI, office for six weeks this summer. Receiving a $5,000 stipend and free walk-to-work lodging, she will learn more about public relations research, including data collection, data analysis, interpretation of research results, and consultation.

Anna Kochigina (Grunig PRIME)
Anna Kochigina

Looking forward to enriching her knowledge and demonstrating what she has already learned, Kochigina said she is grateful for the selection committee’s belief in her and the education she received from her university’s faculty.

Co-sponsored by IPR, these programs provide Westbrook and Kochigina the opportunity to write research papers intended for practitioners for publishing on the IPR website.

The Institute for Public Relations is an independent foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations and focused on providing applicable research to the communications practice.

Ketchum Global Research and Analytics (KGRA) is an award-winning, global team and the largest research group in the PR industry. KGRA is committed to using innovative quantitative and qualitative research in all phases of brand marketing, corporate reputation and employee engagement.

PRIME Research, founded in 1985 in Mainz, Germany, provides a broad array of research and consulting services, employing approximately 500 analysts and 100 consultants in eight locations around the world.

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Contact: Alyssa Hubbell, PR Associate, IPR, associate@instituteforpr.org, 352-392-0280

Heidy Modarelli handles Growth & Marketing for IPR. She has previously written for Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, The Next Web, and VentureBeat.
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