UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Rachel Pell, vice president for strategic communications at Penn State, joined the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication’s advisory board as an ex-officio member in January. Pell brings decades of experience leading intentional and impactful communication efforts across industry and in higher education.
The advisory board comprises 18 representatives from across academia, industry, government and nonprofit groups who guide the center, which is dedicated to the study and advancement of ethics and responsibility in corporate and other public communication. The board focuses on strategic planning, promoting awareness of ethics in public communication, and facilitating alignment with industry research needs. Pell will serve as a liaison between the Page Center’s research initiatives and Penn State’s strategic communications operations.
Denise Bortree, Page Center director and interim dean of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, said Pell’s perspective on leadership and trust will augment the board in important ways.
“Rachel is a natural fit for the advisory board,” Bortree said. “Her agency experience, years in University leadership and deeply held values make her an exceptional addition to the advisory board. We are happy to have her part of the center.”
A Penn State Smeal College of Business graduate, Pell spent the first 16 years of her career in positions of increasing responsibility at two global communications agencies in New York City, where she focused primarily on health care and pharmaceutical communications. Pell began her career in 2000 at Weber Shandwick. In 2004 she transitioned to global public relations and communications firm Ketchum, where she rose to senior vice president/group manager. Pell returned to Penn State as associate vice president in the Office of Strategic Communications in 2016. She was appointed permanent vice president in 2023, after assuming the role in an interim capacity in 2022.
She said trust and accountability have been the backbone of her advancement as a leader throughout her career.
“From my perspective, anyone who wants to be a leader needs to center ethical principles that remain consistent and present,” Pell said. “In my experience, ethical leadership provides the foundation upon which individuals — and the team as a whole — flourish. I also firmly believe that diversity in its many forms – from our backgrounds, to the way we think, to the life experience we bring to the table – is critical to a team’s success, and to their effectiveness in reaching the rest of the world with important messages and information.”
She said her proudest achievements lie in her team’s wins and in seeing her people achieve career success.
“I have high standards because I know my team, and I know what they’re capable of,” Pell said. “I know what they have the potential to do, and as a leader I see it as my role to help them unlock that potential, to grow and to advance. I also am a player-coach and I think it’s critical that any leader be willing to roll up their sleeves; I don’t expect anyone to do work that I wouldn’t do myself.”
In the current higher education environment, Pell said communications success translates to meaningful influence across the country.
“The learning, research and discovery that takes place at Penn State and other great public research universities has a profoundly positive impact on all of us, stretching from local communities and across the nation,” Pell said. “At a time when the value of higher education is in question across the country, clear, purposeful and compelling communications have never played a more important role in demonstrating that impact to our fellow Pennsylvanians and to the country more broadly.”
Key to this work, Pell said, is clearly understanding and upholding ethical standards. Being accountable, mission-driven, and living and breathing an organization’s ethical principles factors into creating an environment where communicators can thrive.
“The Page Center advisory board embodies such work — each member represents the highest caliber of ethical leadership,” Pell said. “I’m humbled to join this group of exceptional leaders and learn from them, and excited to work together.”
About the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication
Since its 2004 founding, the Page Center has become an international leader in research on ethics and integrity in public communication. Over the past 21 years, the center has funded nearly 350 scholars and awarded more than $1 million in research funding. The center’s advisory board consists of 18 members that represent decades of leadership in education, business, journalism, nonprofit and public relations.