Page Center celebrating fourth annual awards dinner at new NYC venue

Register on the Event Page: awards.thepagecenter.org

The Arthur W. Center Awards will once again honor icons of integrity who have demonstrated a commitment to ethical communications over long careers. The fourth annual awards dinner will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2020 at the Intercontinental Hotel Barclay in New York City.

The honorees, who will be announced next month, will receive a Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication, which recognizes work by professionals in the journalism, public relations and business sectors. The dinner showcases the importance of integrity in these fields.

The Arthur W. Page Center is a research center that advances integrity in corporate and public communications, and it was founded by the award’s namesake, public relations legend Larry Foster. With the support from the more than 20 companies in attendance, the dinner raises funds for the innovative communications research conducted by Page Center scholars.

“Our awards dinner is where the academic and professional worlds merge,” Page Center director Denise Bortree said. “It is an honor to pay tribute to great men and women who serve as beacons of integrity in a time when ethics is being challenged from all angles.”

Honorees—who represent a range of areas from multinational corporations to public television—share their stories and advice with the dinner guests. In addition to their remarks, researchers and practitioners network and Center representatives share current and upcoming research initiatives.

“We want to motivate communicators to discuss and think about the importance of truth in communications,” said Bill Nielsen, Center advisory board chair. “Who else better to do that than people whose life-long careers were devoted to integrity? It’s an important night for our industry, and it’s an inspiring night for all who attend.”

Visit the awards page for more information about past events and honorees.

Past honorees are Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic; Jack Rowe, former CEO of Aetna; Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times; Alan Murray, president and CEO of Fortune; Gwen Ifill, former anchor of PBS Newshour (posthumous); Ann Barkelew, former general manager of FleishmanHillard; Marilyn Laurie; former executive vice president of public relations at AT&T (posthumous); John Onoda, consultant at Gagen MacDonald; and Dick Martin, former executive vice president of public relations at AT&T.

The award’s namesake, Larry Foster, was a renowned communicator during his time as both a journalist and public relations practitioner. He founded the Page Center in 2004 with fellow public relations legends Jack Koten and Ed Block. The Page Center is a research center in the Bellisario College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University, Foster’s alma mater.

The awards dinner is a fundraiser that supports innovative research by Page Center scholars. Scholars represent universities all over the world. The Center’s research projects aim to build the scholarly and public understanding of ethics in communications. To date, the Center has funded more than 250 scholars and awarded more than $870,000 in research funding. Areas of focus include corporate social responsibility, digital ethics, sustainability communication, advocacy, fake news and more. Other Center initiatives focus on educational opportunities like an annual speaker series, oral history archiving and online educational modules.