TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Dr. Joe Phelps, professor of advertising and public relations at The University of Alabama, is the 2003 president-elect of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA).

Phelps’ election marks the first time a University of Alabama faculty member has been elected to serve in this position.

The AAA is an organization of advertising scholars with about 700 members worldwide. The goals of the Academy are to foster research relevant to the field and provide a forum for idea exchange among its academic and professional members.

“The Academy is the premier scholarly organization in advertising,” Phelps says. “Members share innovative research and teaching techniques with one another. They can talk face-to-face at our annual conference or they can let others know of their great ideas through our publications. It all helps us stay abreast of what’s happening in advertising education and research.”

Phelps also serves as head of the advertising division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is the first University of Alabama faculty member to be elected to lead that division.

“It is an incredible honor to have been elected by the members to lead both of the top scholarly organizations in my field,” Phelps says.

His term as advertising division head expires in August 2002, and he will attend his first AAA executive committee meeting as incoming president-elect in September.

Winning the election means a three-year commitment to serving on the Executive Committee. Phelps will spend a year as president-elect, a year as president and a year as past president.

“Joe’s success comes from hard work, intelligence and the outstanding professional and academic training he has received at UA and at the University of Wisconsin,” says Dr. Ed Mullins, University of Alabama professor and chair of the department of journalism. “His specialty is advertising, but he has a good sense of the journalism part of our College and that is one reason the folks in journalism have such respect for him.

“There are few universities in the country that have had a faculty member to head both the AAA and the advertising division of AEJMC,” Mullins said. “The University of Alabama is one of that select few because of Joe.”

The AAA began in 1958 as a way to serve advertising educators in business and journalism schools. Their goals continue to be: to coordinate efforts to advance advertising education; to emphasize the value of professional education for advertising; to study, evaluate and improve advertising education; to stimulate research concerning advertising education; to develop a closer liaison between academic disciplines and to encourage closer cooperation among advertising teachers.

Phelps has received several other awards including being named the Reese Phifer Professor of Advertising and Public Relations in 1998 and The Robert B. Clarke Outstanding Direct Marketing Educator Award in 1999.

Phelps received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he joined the UA faculty in 1990.