Dr. Shannon A. Bowen is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina where her research focuses on ethical decision making within the highest levels of organizations. Dr. Bowen teaches and researches ethics across corporations, pharmaceutical firms, governmental entities, and the public relations industry. Bowen is one of three joint-editors for the journal Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics.

Dr. Bowen sits on the Board of Trustees of the Arthur W. Page Society, the Board of Directors of the non-profit International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC), serves several journal editorial boards including the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and is a Contributing Editor of Media Ethics magazine. She has published in numerous journals and won several awards, including top paper awards, an ethics grant from the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Research Prize.

Until 2012, Dr. Bowen was tenured in the S I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, but was happy to return home to South Carolina. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Maryland; her dissertation on Kantian ethics won the Robert Heath Outstanding Dissertation Award. Her MA in Journalism and Mass Communication is from the University of South Carolina, and her BA is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Bowen is passionate about ethics. She hopes that her work researching and teaching ethical decision making can create a better society, in which more responsible and transparent organizations interact honestly with informed, engaged consumers and citizens. Dr. Bowen noted, “In the world of studying public relations, lobbying, and corporate policy, ethics is never boring!”