Tutors
We think we have the best tutors! From doctors to directors and working practitioners, our tutors are a diverse bunch. You’ll be learning from some of the sharpest minds in the business. We aim to challenge but also have fun and get you thinking a bit differently.
Kevin Ruck
PhD, MBA, BA Hons, PGCE, FCIPR, CMgr, MCMI
I focus on applying the latest academic and industry research to effective strategic practice. In a fast moving communication space, it’s core principles and models that provide the best way forward and they underpin my approach to teaching. I particularly like talking to students about their challenges and supporting them through their assignment work.
What Kevin teaches
CIPR Specialist Diploma: Internal Communication
Kevin’s qualifications and publications
PhD (internal communication and employee engagement)
MBA
BSc (Hons) Psychology
PG Cert in Business and Management Research
PG Cert in Education and Training (post-compulsory)
Editor and co-author of Exploring Internal Communication, published by Routledge
Co-author of Leading the Listening Organisation, published by Routledge
Kevin is a Fellow of the CIPR and PRCA member.
Chris Tucker
BA Hons, CAM, MCIPR
There is always a new channel, concept or communication approach to discuss. I like to ensure my sessions are full of real life case study examples which collectively we can either praise or pull apart.
What Chris teaches
Chris’s qualifications
BA Hons
CAM Advanced & Higher Diplomas in Public Relations
Chris is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Chair of the CIPR’s Crisis Communications Network
Member of the CIPR ESG Panel
Ann Pilkington
MSc, Dip CAM, MCIPR
It’s a real privilege to meet and work with so many professional communicators. Studying provides a great opportunity to step back a bit from the “day job” and so I like learning to be reflective, challenging and interactive.
What Ann teaches
Ann is busy running the business but also helps out on a number of courses including:
Ann’s qualifications and publications
MSc in Public Relations (University of Stirling)
Communication, Advertising and Marketing (CAM) Diploma
APMP, The APM Project Management Qualification
City and Guilds Further Education Teachers’ Certificate
Author of Communicating Projects, published by Routledge
Ann is an Honorary Fellow of the CIPR and a member of the PRCA
Maud Davis
FCIPR
I feel very lucky because love what I do. I meet lots of bright people through PR Academy – many of them rising stars and I am always learning.
Maud’s qualifications
CIPD Certificate in Training Practice
Belbin Team Role Accreditation
BA Hons
Maud is Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Jonathan Cross
BSc Hons, NCTJ, Dip IPR, FCIPR, Found Chart CIPR
As a tutor on the Foundation Award, I enjoy helping students gain what might well be their first formal public relations-specific qualification and hearing all about their fresh perspectives on communications issues and approaches.
What Jonathan teaches
Jonathan leads the Foundation in PR
He is also an exam marker on the CIPR Diploma
Assessor for the CIPR on candidates seeking chartered practitioner status
Jonathan’s qualifications
BSc (Hons) Geography
National Council for the Training of Journalists Certificate (NCTJ)
Diploma IPR
Founding Chartered Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
CIPR Fellow
Stuart Thomson
PhD Chart. PR MA (Hons)
The value of public affairs is often underrated but engagement with government and officials can offer huge benefits to any organisation. I’ve always had a passion for spreading the word about public affairs both through training and in books.
What Stuart teaches
Stuart’s publications
The Company and the Activist: Going Beyond PR (Routledge, 2024)
Reputation in Business: Lessons For Leaders (Routledge 2022)
Public Affairs: A Global Perspective’ (Urbane Publications, 2016)
Public Affairs: News, Views and Hullaballoos (Urbane Publications, 2015)
Dictionary of Labour Quotations’ (Biteback, 2013 and Politico’s, 1999).
Public Affairs in Practice’ (CIPR/Kogan Page, 2006)
The Social Democratic Dilemma: Ideology, Governance and Globalization’ (Macmillan, 2000)
Martin Flegg
BSc Hons, Chart.PR, Dip.CIPR, FCIPR, CIIC
I’ve been an internal communications practitioner for over twenty years and have witnessed some big changes in what we do and advances in our understanding of theory and practice. I’ve never stopped learning and am passionate about helping other internal communicators to do the same. The satisfaction I get from seeing them develop and grow into true professionals is the reason why I’m still working in this business after all this time.
Martin leads the CIPR Specialist Certificate: Internal Communication and is a guest tutor on the CIPR Specialist Diploma: Internal Communication
He is also an assessor for PR Academy across a number of CIPR qualifications.
BSc (Hons) Biology and Chemistry
CIPR Internal Communications Diploma – Dip.CIPR
CIPR Internal Communications Certificate
Chartered Institute of Public Relations – Chartered Practitioner and Fellow
Certified member of the Institute of Internal Communications
Thomas Stoeckle
BA, FHEA
Learning and teaching have never not been important. Today, it’s critical we realise that we’re learning (and teaching) all our lives. Communication makes us who we are – as human beings, as citizens, as practitioners. So it’s just as well that we aim to understand it a little better every day. That’s why I’m here.
What Thomas teaches
The AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation
B.A. in media studies from the University of Muenster in Germany
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Certified business translator & interpreter, English/German
Chamber of Industry & Commerce, Dortmund (GER), and London Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Kate Cartwright
MCIPR
Digital communication can seem daunting but it can be a force for good. One of the key themes we explore in the Digital Communications Diploma is how technology can impact society.
From in-home medical screening to closing the digital divide in deprived areas and with poor connectivity, there’s a message to be delivered.
That’s where online communications experts strategise and build campaigns based on insight. Taking students on this journey is a real privilege, as is seeing them build fresh perspectives and grow in confidence.
What Kate teaches
Kate is course leader for the CIPR Specialist Diploma: Digital Communication, alongside Stuart Bruce.
Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations
CIPR PR Diploma
BA (hons) Marketing
Laura Richards
FCIPR
Studying public relations has provided me with a huge advantage in my career, allowing me to learn new skills and think differently about how we – as professional communicators – can guide the organisations we work for. I love that I now get to support other professionals through their studies.
Qualifications
MA in Media and Public Relations (Newcastle University)
PG Cert in Strategic Leadership for Public Services (Northumbria University)
BA (Hons) Media Production (Northumbria University)
Squared Online Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing Leadership (Google)
Political Studies Association – Best Postgraduate Research Award
Publications
Can Girls Play Sport? Gender Performativity in Online Responses to Sport England’s This Girl Can Campaign in: The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism, Sport and Physical Education (2018)
Public Relations Practitioners of the Future in: Platinum (CIPR, 2018)
Platform Services in: Exploring the Public Relations Agency Business (FuturePRoof, PRCA and ICCO, 2016)
FuturePRoof Six: #PRstack: AI tools for marketing, media and public relations (contributor)
Other
Laura is an Associate Lecturer at Newcastle University, where she teaches on the CIPR approved MA in Media and Public Relations.
Paul Hender
BSc Hons, MPRCA
After more than three decades of helping communications professionals make better use of data to both prove and improve their effectiveness, it is a real pleasure to share this experience with students who are building their skills through the PR Academy.
What Paul teaches
Paul is course leader for the AMEC Diploma in Strategic Communication Planning and Measurement.
Paul’s qualifications and memberships
BSc (Hons) Physics, University of Exeter
Guest lecturer for the University of Greenwich and University of Westminster
AMEC Board Member (2013-2018)
AMEC Working Group for the Integrated Evaluation Framework
AMEC Lead for the Measurement Maturity Mapper
Member of The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA)
Stuart Bruce
Chart.PR FCIPR CMPRCA FAMEC
The two reasons I love teaching are because I get such a buzz from seeing what people can achieve with what they’ve learnt, and because it keeps me constantly learning and innovating to ensure the work I do with clients and teach students is always improving and looking to the future.
What Stuart teaches
Stuart is our subject matter expert on the CIPR Specialist Diploma: Digital Communication. He contributes to course content and runs the live workshop sessions.
Stuart’s qualifications, publications and memberships
Share This, contributor (Wiley 2012)
Share This, contributor (Wiley 2013)
World Communication Review, editor (2015)
Excellence in Online Communications, co-author with Professor Ralph Tench (Quadriga University of Applied Sciences 2015)
Fellow and Chartered member of the CIPR
PR Council member of the PRCA
Global Executive Committee member of the World Communication Forum in Davos
CIPR board director (2017-19)
CAM Diploma in Public Relations
Richard Bailey, assessor
Hon FCIPR
Never stop learning! Practitioners know this, and it’s true of teachers too.
I find there’s a continuum between thoughtful practitioners, ambitious educators and research academics.
They are three sides of the one industry, not separate tribes speaking a different language, with different belief systems.
More about Richard
Richard is a public relations educator and editor. A former technology sector public relations consultant, he also has in-house corporate comms experience in science and technology firms.
He started a blog about public relations in 2001 – one of just three in the world at the time – and edited PR student magazine Behind the Spin from 2008 to 2017. He has been a public relations lecturer since 2003 and now works part-time at Leeds Beckett University
