The 2005 winners of the Pathfinder Award for outstanding contributions to scholarly research and public relations professional knowledge are: Dr. Doug Newsom and Dr. Judy VanSlyke Turk.

Dr. VanSlyke Turk, director at the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr. Newsom, professor in the College of Communication at Texas Christian University, are co-authors of This Is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, one of the world's most widely used public relations textbooks. Now in its eighth edition, the work has been published in English, Russian, Chinese and Romanian. It was the first public relations textbook to extensively discuss nonprofit and international public relations.

In March 2002, VanSlyke Turk founded the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, holding the dean position for more than two years. She was named Outstanding Public Relations Educator in 1992 by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), is past chair of PRSA's College of Fellows, a member of the steering committee of the Commission on Public Relations Education and the advisory board of the International Public Relations Research Conference.

In 1982, Newsom was the first woman to receive PRSA's Educator of the Year Award, and she served as chair of the PRSA College of Fellows. She is co-author of three textbooks, co-editor of a woman's studies book and the author of 12 book chapters. Twice a Fulbright lecturer in India and Singapore, Newsom has also conducted workshops in South Africa, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Vanuatu and India. She is also a member of the advisory board of the International Public Relations Research Conference.