An alumnus of Howard University’s Annenberg Honor’s Program, Rochelle L. Ford (then Tillery-Larkin) began her own free-lance consulting practice in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Through R.Tillery Communications, she managed several public relations campaigns, events and programs for such organizations as AARP, Urban Partnerships, National Council of Negro Women and Arthur Schultz & Associates. While consulting, Dr. Ford completed her master’s degree in public relations and a graduate certificate in Gerontology from the University of Maryland.
In 1995, Dr. Ford started her career in academia, teaching public relations at the University of Tennessee at Martin. While an instructor at UTM, she advised the undergraduate chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and the PRSSA chapter as they hosted the 1997 National Conference, won the 1997 Teehan Chapter Development Award and won several individual scholarships and awards. For two years, she served on the national board of PRSSA as a faculty advisor.
In 1998, Dr. Ford returned to Washington DC where she began teaching at her alma mater Howard University, coordinating its advertising and public relations sequence and advising its PRSSA chapter which co-hosted the 2007 National PRSSA Conference. In 1999, she completed her doctorate at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. A tenured full professor, her research interests include diversity in public relations and advertising, early childhood education, and teaching and learning. In 1999, she won a top paper award from PRSA for her work on the pigeonholing of African Americans in PR and in 2000, she won the top paper award for her work on segmenting senior citizen publics. In 2002, she received the International Award for Innovative Teaching, Learning and Technology.
In 2007, Dr. Ford was appointed Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs of the School of Communications at Howard University. She oversaw the School’s budget, accreditations, curriculum, faculty appointments and promotions, and all grants, creative projects and research activities.
Dr. Ford has managed more than $2.14 million in grants in the last six years, and has the most grants for a faculty member in the School of Communications including the Center for Excellence in Advertising at Howard University underwritten by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Jumpstart at Howard University program which has engaged more than 300 Howard University students to work with preschool age children to prepare the kids for school success through improving literacy.
Dr. Ford currently serves as the program director and a board member for the PRSA Foundation and as a member of the American Advertising Federation's Mosaic Center Executive Committee and Think Tank. She is currently the co-leader of the Provost Initiative to Establish the University-wide Center for Academic Excellence.
A nationally sought after speaker, Dr. Ford has given special presentations on multicultural communications and diversity to AAF, the Public Relations Society of America, Edelman Public Relations, Virginia Commonwealth University and Association for School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She has coordinated a series of teleconferences and podcasts on diversity and inclusion and has written a monthly column “Diversity Dimensions” for Public Relations Tactics, an award winning trade newspaper. Dr. Ford also has published refereed book chapters and articles on teaching and diversity. In 2006, the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter honored her with the Diversity Champion Award. In 2008, she received the PRSA’s national D. Parke Gibson Multiculturalism Award for pioneering work in diversity in public relations. In 2011, The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations gave her its Milestones in Mentoring Award and the National Black Public Relations Society presented her with its Founders Award.
In addition to teaching, she continues public relations consulting working with such organizations as the commonwealth of Bermuda’s Department of Communications and Information, the Management School of London and for such agencies as Colabours Communication in VA and Cordy & Company in Colorado. Dr. Ford has served as an editorial board member of The Journal of Public Relations Research, as the national chair for the Multicultural Communications Section of PRSA, on the PRSA National Strategic Planning Committee, on the national PRSA Membership Committee, on the PRSA Educators Academy Board and as a Friend of PRSSA. In Oct. 2000, Dr. Ford was named to PR Weeks’ Top 30 PR Professionals Under 30 and to PRSSA’s National Hall of Fame. In 2001, she became an accredited public relations professional (APR) through the Universal Accreditation Board. In 2012, she earned a graduate certificate in management and leadership in education from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
Outside of communications, she leads the Single and Parenting Ministry at Grace Baptist Church, serves as the campus sponsor of Alpha Chapter, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., mentors two undergraduate students through Howard University’s Women as Change Agents, and serves as the assistant coach for her son’s soccer team. Previously, she has served as a member of the board of directors for the Scholarship Academy and Jumpstart HBCU Initiative, as a team mom for the KLM Boys & Girls Club, a coach for the White Oak Cheerleading Squad (leading them to regional competition) and as a Sunday School teacher at Woodstream Baptist Church. She has three children, Raven (8), Michael (18) and Malik (12). This July, she and her two youngest children served as missionaries in western Kenya. Dr. Ford became a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. through Alpha Chapter in 1991.
I have earned 12 external grants/contracts (one has been renewed multiple times) totaling $2,140,900 within the last 6 years.
I wrote an essay for the 2013 book, Bet on Black Dads: African-American Women Celebrate Fatherhood in the Age of Barack Obama.
I also co-authored “Corporate Social Responsibility: Ensuring Supplier Diversity in the Advertising Industry,” a refereed journal article with two assistant professors being published in Business Studies Journal (BSJ).
