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Posted: Thursday, March 18, 2010Award-Winning PR Practitioner to Speak on Diversity in Communication
Ofield Dukes, an award-winning public relations practitioner in Washington, D.C., whose clients have included General Motors, Motown Records, AT&T, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, will present “Communicating with Diverse Audiences” on Thursday, April 8, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center South 2. The presentation is free and open to Buffalo State students, faculty, and staff.
Dukes will discuss the implications of America’s increasing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity for businesses and nonprofit organizations, particularly for graduating college seniors and professional communicators. “The American marketplace is now more racially and culturally diverse than ever before,” he noted. “Therefore, companies are aggressively developing policies and practices of diversity as smart business strategies.”
Dukes, who is president of the public relations firm of Ofield Dukes & Associates, currently serves the national board of the Public Relations Society of America as a special counsel on diversity issues, a major focus for PRSA this year.
A 1958 journalism graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Dukes captured three National Newspaper Publishers Association awards for editorial, column, and feature writing for the Michigan Chronicle in 1964. He relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1964 to join the Johnson-Humphrey administration as deputy director of information for the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, chaired by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1966, he was appointed to the staff of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. He started his own public relations firm in 1969, with specialized expertise in African American, African, and political affairs. Motown Records and Lever Brothers were his first clients, followed by corporations such as AT&T and RJR Nabisco; nonprofit associations, including the American Lung Association and the National Education Association; entertainers such as Aretha Franklin and Prince; entertainment companies such as CBS Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Brothers Records; and federal agencies, including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Navy, and Treasury.
Dukes helped organize the first Congressional Black Caucus dinner and served on the boards of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change. He also has been a communication consultant for every Democratic presidential campaign since 1972. In 1993, he founded the Black Public Relations Society of Washington.
At Howard University, where he taught as an adjunct professor for 17 years, Dukes was instrumental in formulating the public relations curriculum. He also served as an adjunct professor in the School of Communications at the American University for eight years.
He has received numerous awards, including PRSA’s Gold Anvil Award (2001) and Silver Anvil Award (1975), and was named in 2005 by PRWeek, a major publication in the public relations industry, as one of the five most effective communicators of the year.
For more information, contact Deborah Silverman, 878-3606. This event is sponsored by the college’s Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the Communication Department, and the campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America.
