City and State’s Higher Education Power 100 List Recognizes Westminster College President

Westminster College President Dr. Kathy Brittain Richardson has been selected as one of the 100 most powerful people in Pennsylvania’s higher education community. City and State Pennsylvania magazine’s 2022 Higher Education Power 100 list placed Richardson among the list that honors the most influential leaders in academia statewide, including leaders of several colleges, universities, and professional schools.

Richardson, the 15th president of Westminster College, took office on July 1, 2016. Prior to her appointment, she served as provost and professor of communication at Berry College, Mt. Berry, Ga. Richardson is an accomplished academic and impactful teacher, receiving many accolades including top faculty teaching, scholarship and leadership awards.

Richardson co-authored Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, which is now in its 11th edition, and Applied Public Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management, in its 3rd edition. Richardson served as editor of Journalism and Communication Monographs and was co-editor of the National Forensic Journal. She was a member of the editorial board of Mass Communication & Society and the Journal of Mass Media Ethics.

Richardson has published journal articles and book chapters in media ethics, product promotion, visual imagery, communication pedagogy and student-press regulation. In 2014, she was recognized as the Alumna Scholar of the Year by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Georgia.

Richardson is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and has served as head of the Mass Communication and Society Division. In 2012, she received the Professor of the Year award from the Small Programs Division of AEJMC.

She served as 2021-22 chair of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania. A member of the Board of Directors of the Lawrence County Regional Chamber of Commerce, she was a member of the executive committee of the Forward Lawrence initiative.

Richardson earned a Bachelor of Arts in communication and religion/philosophy, summa cum laude, from Shorter College, a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in mass communication from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She completed additional graduate coursework in communication at the University of Oklahoma.

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