Education
Ph.D., Communication and Mass Communication, University of Maryland
M.A., Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina
B.A., Journalism and Sociology (double), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Background

Shannon A. Bowen is a Professor at the University of South Carolina where she founded the Global Strategic Communication Consortium (GSCC) to study ethics and futurism in the strategic communication discipline and practice. Dr. Bowen co-chairs the AI Ethics Advisory Board, an international group of experts organized through the GSCC to lead AI ethics policy, research, discussion, and training of organizations.  

She has won numerous awards and top paper accolades, been a principle investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation, the International Association of Business Communicators, Arthur W. Page Center, and served as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Arthur W. Page Society, and sits on the Board of Directors of the International Public Relations Research Conference. Until 2012, Bowen was tenured in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, but was happy to return home to South Carolina. Her research areas are applied ethics, artificial intelligence (AI), emergency and disaster management, internal communication, and issues management. She has numerous books and more than one hundred publications, many catalogued under OrcId: 0000-0001-7675-5002

Dr. Bowen’s dissertation on Kantian ethics won the Robert Heath Outstanding Dissertation Award. Her master's degree is from the University of South Carolina (so she is a double Gamecock), and her bachelor's degree is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Awards

National Communication Association PRIDE Outstanding Book Award of 2026 for the Handbook of Innovations in Strategic Communication: AI, Futures, and Directions (Elgar).

Recipient of the Inaugural College of Information and Communications Leadership in Scholarship Award - Spring 2020.

Bowen is a Page Legacy Scholar, National Science Foundation Principal Investigator, and a winner of the International Association of Business Communicators Research Foundation Grant. She is in the P.R. Measurement Hall of Fame and won the Jackson Jackson & Wagoner Behavioral Science Research Prize.

Research

Bowen's research focuses on ethical decision making within the highest levels of organizations. She teaches and researches ethics across corporations, pharmaceutical firms, governmental entities and the public relations industry. Bowen is one of three joint-editors for the journal Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics.

Teaching

Dr. Bowen is a Mortar Board Teaching Award winner. Bowen's work with Ph.D. students has led to publications and top paper awards for the student at IPRRC and PRSA. Several of her referred journal articles focus on pedagogy in public relations and she has served the Commission on Education Public Relations for many years.

Recent Publications

Bowen, S. A., Rawlins, B. L., & Martin, T. M. (2019). An overview of the public relations function (2nd ed). New York: Business Expert Press.

Bowen, S. A. (2027). Strategic communication ethics. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis.

Men, R. L., & Bowen, S. A. (2017). Excellence in internal communication management. New York: Business Expert Press.

Bowen, S. A. & Erzikova, E. V. (Eds.) (2025). Handbook of Innovations in Strategic Communication: AI, Futurism, and Directions. Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035326488

Service

Executive Director, Global Strategic Communication Consortium (GSCC).

Co-chair, AI Ethics Advisory Board.

Global Thought Leadership Circle, the Internal Communication Research Hub.

External Advisory Board member, Research & Development Unit, LabCom, University of Beira Interior, Portugal.

Public relations ethics columnist for PRWEEK (see PRProse to the right).

Journal editorial board, Journal of Mass Media Ethics.

Personal

Bowen’s father is also a Gamecock who graduated with a degree in chemistry.