Dr. Kate Stewart

Kate Stewart, who joined the faculty at Jacksonville State University in Fall 2023, is not just an educator but also a mentor. Her primary goal is to educate and foster relationships with the next generation of strategic communicators, disruptors, and leaders. She aims to make a positive impact, enrich the lives of the younger generations, help them achieve their goals, and adequately equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed. Stewart aims to foster future generations of public relations and social media professionals by bringing forward-thinking and innovative assignments into the classroom to help connect her research, teaching, and industry experience into a cohesive story and more profound impact on students and mentees.

Stewart's dissertation focused on the relationship between influencers and their followers. Through this dissertation, she has built an amalgamated scale on perception of social media influencers, which will bolster Stewart's research focus to better inform online audiences, the influencer ecosystem, and academia and industry researchers about the effects and behaviors related to influencers from the public relations lens. Stewart's other leading research areas revolve around conducting mixed methods studies on social media effects, perception, popular culture, and mass media consumption and related behaviors. Stewart strives to stay active and involved in the public relations industry to ensure her students learn the most up-to-date public relations, emerging media, and personal branding strategies and tactics. She serves as a social media and influencer strategy subject-matter expert for Stukent and a consultant on these areas for various agencies, companies, and small businesses. Stewart strives to be a thought leader in social media, influencers, public relations, and branding to stay industry current and close the loop through her teaching and research efforts as technology and society evolve.

Stewart prides herself on making time for service to academic and professional organizations. She serves as the Assistant Editor of Digital Media and Social Media for the Journal of Public Relations Education and the 2024 Public Relations Society of America Educator's Academy Communications Chair. Stewart continues to be active with the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Public Relations Division by serving on the Teaching Committee and Professional Freedom and Responsibility Committee for the 23-24 and 24-25 academic years. She continues to be an active member of the Public Relations Society of America, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Association of Internet Researchers, the Southern States Communication Association, and the National Communication Association.