Marcia W. DiStaso, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Public Relations
College of Communications
Pennsylvania State University
@mdistaso

Marcia DiStaso, along with being a communications professor, is also a social media consultant, Immediate Past-Chair of the PRSA Financial Communications Section, Chair-Elect of the PRSA Educators Academy, and a Senior Research Fellow of the Arthur W. Page Center. Her research focuses on exploring and informing the practice of social media, measurement and financial communication. She is a research editor for the Institute for Public Relations Social Media Research Center, serves on the Editorial Review Board of Public Relations Journal, and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Public Relations Research Conference.

Marcia won a 2013 Silver Anvil, a Hermes Creative Award, and was a finalist for a Golden World Award for her campaign with her students to improve trust in State College banks. She is a past recipient of the Ketchum Excellence in Public Relations Research Award and was recently recognized as both a Promising Professor and an Emerging Scholar by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Prior to entering academia she worked in the global investment industry. She also has worked in agency, corporate, nonprofit, and university public relations. Her Ph.D. degree is from the University of Miami.