Biography:

The first Widmeyer Professor in Public Relations, Dr. Diana Knott Martinelli returned home to WVU in fall 2005. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the P.I. Reed School of Journalism in 1985 and 1995, respectively.

After nearly 15 years of professional public relations and communications work in broadcasting, health care and national government programs, she was awarded a Park Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed her Ph.D. in mass communication in 2001.

In addition to teaching advanced public relations and graduate research courses at WVU, Martinelli has taught and developed public relations courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elon University and Ohio University. While at Ohio, she received the prestigious University Professor teaching award and advised the school’s national award-winning Public Relations Student Society of America chapter.

Martinelli is a member of the national journalism honorary Kappa Tau Alpha and has held national committee and/or officer positions in the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

She received a West Virginia PRSA Crystal Award in 1998 and has presented and published her research nationally and internationally. She regularly gives public relations and communication seminars to government, professional and academic audiences and has secured or been part of grant projects totaling more than $1.1 million.

As part of her Widmeyer Professorship, Martinelli also spends time at Widmeyer Communications – a leading, independent public relations firm – in Washington, D.C.