Rose Kirk to visit campus as part of Journalism Alumni Speakers Series

Sept. 25, 2008 -- Rose Kirk, vice president of national enterprise sales and distribution for Verizon Wireless and a 1984 graduate of Arkansas State University, is the second scheduled speaker in the Journalism Alumni Speakers series and will be on campus Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Kirk will discuss principles of advertising at 10 a.m., followed by principles of public relations at noon. At 2 p.m., she will address the practicum class in public relations with representatives of the American Advertising Federation and ASU’s Public Relations Student Society of America. All meetings will be in room 233 in the Communications Building.

While at ASU, Kirk worked for the Social Security Administration and was a reporter and news editor for ASU’s student newspaper, The Herald. A Pine Bluff native, she began her career as a news reporter for the Pine Bluff Commercial and also worked for the Florence (Ala.) Times Daily before beginning her telecommunications career in 1986 with SBC Communications (now AT&T) as an executive speech writer.          

She quickly moved up the ladder, becoming director of marketing communications for the Yellow Pages division in charge of advertising and branding. She became director of marketing communications for the video ventures group of GTE in 1998, overseeing all marketing communications for the organization.

Since joining Verizon, Kirk has led product line management and strategic planning and marketing implementation teams within the company. Prior to her current position, she was vice president for corporate employee communications—responsible for creation and coordination of employee communications strategies across all of Verizon’s major lines of business.

A recipient of numerous awards, Kirk holds three Verizon Excellence Awards for outstanding contribution to corporate revenue growth goals and an Addy Award for a Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages’ branding campaign. She is chair of the board of directors for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Kirk is completing a master’s degree in international affairs from Washington University in St. Louis.

She is the second of four scheduled speakers for the inaugural series sponsored by the Department of Journalism for 2008-09. The series features outstanding alumni who will return to campus to speak and interact with students and faculty in classes and other settings.

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