Christen Buckley, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor - Department of Public Relations

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Prior to joining CJC, Christen Buckley was studying for her Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. Her dissertation is titled “A Return to The Corporate Conscience: Ethical Responses to Corporate Social Advocacy Backlash.”

Her research areas of interest include advocacy, digital communication, the ethics of technology, and public interest communication.

Prior to studying for her Ph.D. degree, Buckley had more than five years of experience as a digital media strategist with a strong background in campaign development, research and analytics, and branding for digital channels. From 2013-2017, she was an account manager at Sankey Communications in New York, where she managed and implemented multi-million dollar integrated online marketing campaigns for local and national nonprofits, developed multi-channel strategies to acquire new constituents and cultivate current constituents, and constructed analytical reports, and provided in-depth analyses of fundraising benchmarks.

Since 2018, she has authored or co-authored eight peer-reviewed articles that have been published in academic journals, including Public Relations Review, Sustainability, the Journal of Product & Brand Management, and the International Journal of Strategic Communication. Buckley has authored or co-authored 19 peer-reviewed conference papers or posters and was cited in a 2021 Forbes article on the fourth industrial revolution.

She was named a 2022 Kopenhaver Center Fellow, awarded by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, and, with colleagues, received the 2021 Literati Award for Outstanding Paper in the Journal of Product & Brand Management.

At Penn State, Buckley has taught Search Engine Marketing, Mass Media & Society, Strategic Communication in a Global Environment, and Research Methods in Advertising and Public Relations.

Areas of Expertise

Communication Technology, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crisis Communication, Social Advocacy and Social Change, Strategic Communication

Education

Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
M.A. in Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University
B.A. with High Distinction in International Politics, Pennsylvania State University
B.A. in Theater with a minor in French and Francophone Studies, Pennsylvania State University

News

• Christen Buckley Named a UF International Center 2024 Global Fellow (November 6, 2023)
• Christen Buckley Joins UFCJC as a Public Relations Assistant Professor in Fall 2023 (January 9, 2023)
• All News About Christen Buckley

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Harrison, V., Bober, J., Buckley, C., & Vallos, V., (2023). “Save Our Spikes”: Social Media Advocacy and Fan Reaction to the End of Minor League Baseball (MiLB). Communication & Sport. https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795231151916

Harrison, V., Vafeaidis, M., Diddi, P., Buckley, C., & Dardis, F., (2022). Understanding how corporate social responsibility partnership factors influence nonprofit supportive intentions. Public Relations Review. 48(5), 102184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102184

DiRusso, C., Buckley, C., Diddi, P., Dardis, F. E., Vafeiadis, M., & Eng, N. (2022). Designing effective corporate social advocacy campaigns using valence, arousal, and issue salience. Public Relations Review, 48(3), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102207

Eng N., Buckley C., Peng RX. (2022). Tracking the Path of the Green Consumer: Surveying the Decision-Making Process from Self-Transcendent Values to Supportive CSR Intentions*. Sustainability, 14(3), 1106. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031106

Freeman, J., Buckley, C., Triptow, C., & Chai, Y., (2021). For the love of lists: identifying the effects of listicle type and length. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 1-23, https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2021.2001581

Vafeiadis, M., Harrison, V. S., Diddi, P., Dardis, F., & Buckley, C. (2021). Strategic Nonprofit Communication: Effects of Cross-Sector Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Alliances on Nonprofits and the Mediating Role of Social-Objectives Achievement and Consumer Brand Identification. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 15(4), 275-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2021.1945610

Harrison, V., Buckley, C., & Xiao, A. (2020). The roles of donation experience and advocacy: extending the organization–donor relationship model. Journal of Communication Management, 25(1), 85-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-06-2020-0057

Vafeiadis, M., Bortree, D. S., Buckley, C., Diddi, P., & Xiao, A. (2019). Refuting fake news on social media: nonprofits, crisis response strategies and issue involvement. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 29(2), 209- 222. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-12-2018-2146

Kankane, S., DiRusso, C., & Buckley, C. (2018). Can we nudge users toward better password management? An initial study. Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conferences on Human Factors in Computing Systems, https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188689

Book Chapter

Buckley, C. Haejung, K. K., Navick, N., & Schwoon, B.* (2022). CSR Conversation: What is the future of CSR communication research?. In A. O’Connor (Editor). The Routledge Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication (pp. 357-366). New York, NY. Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184911-34

* Authors are listed alphabetically, and all contributed equally.

Courses