Terence Flynn

Dr. Terry Flynn is one of Canada’s leading public relations/communications management researchers and an important bridge between the academy and the profession and the founding graduate director of the McMaster Master of Communications Management program.

Following a 20-year communications consulting career, Terry joined the faculty of McMaster University after completing his Ph.D. studies at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. During his professional career, he built an international practice specializing in crisis and risk communications and public/community engagement working with such organizations as: CN Railway; the Town of Walkerton Ontario; the U.S. Navy & Marine Corps Public Health Agency; Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada; Novartis; and the Vinyl Council of Canada.

Dr. Flynn’s scholarly work has been published in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Journal, Canadian Journal of Communication, Corporate Communications, and the Journal of Professional Communications. 

He is a member of several professional and academic organizations including: the CPRS– and was its elected President in 2009-2010; the Institute for Public Relations (Board of Trustees); the International Association of Business Communicators; the Arthur W. Page Society (past Board member); the Canadian Communications Association (current Treasurer) and the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. Flynn’s innovative teaching style was recognized in 2010 and 2011 when he was named “Professor of the Year” by the DeGroote School of Business. In 2015, Dr. Flynn was given the prestigious Philip A. Novikoff Award by the CPRS, for superior contributions to the advancement of the profession in Canada and throughout the world. In 2018 he was named “Mentor of the Year” by the Canadian Public Relations Society. In 2021 he won the Heather Pullen Award for Ethics in Public Relations. And most recently in 2023 he was the inaugural recipient of the Argyle/CPRS award as Canada’s premier Thought Leader in Public Relations and Communications Management.