Derina Holtzhausen, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication, has been recognized for her book, "The Routledge Handbook of Strategic Communication," soon to be translated to Chinese and offered in paperback due to demand.

"I co-edited this book with my colleague from Leipzig University, Germany, Ansgar Zerfass," said Holtzhausen. "The book represents work by 65 scholars from all continents. It offers a truly international perspective on strategic communications and is the first in the discipline.

"The translation into Chinese is evidence of the book's world-wide reach. It delves into areas such as conceptual foundations of strategic communication, institutional and organizational dimensions, implementing strategic communication and domains of practice," said Holtzhausen. "It was the second step in a planned project with Routledge that started with the "International Journal of Strategic Communication," which I co-founded with a colleague from Colorado State University in 2007. The final step of the project is the publication of an introductory text, "Principles of Strategic Communication," which is in the editing stage and which Routledge will issue in August 2020. I am co-authoring this book with three colleagues from Oklahoma State University.

"Strategic Communication" is Holtzhausen's second book to be translated to a foreign language. Her book, "Public Relations As Activism. Postmodern Approaches to Theory and Practice," was translated and issued in Spanish in 2015. Her work on postmodern public relations offers a critique of power and the role of public relations in sustaining injustice. The journal and both books have provided a valuable resource for scholars and students in strategic communication and public relations and have been used in advanced courses on public relations theory, PR management, organizational communication and other related areas.

Her scholarship in postmodern public relations, among others, focuses on public relations practitioners as organizational activists to bring about change. Her academic work has been hugely influenced by her role as a public relations practitioner in South Africa during the transition from Apartheid to a democratically elected government where she was part of two change management teams to help organizations and their employees accept and implement change.

Her work is cited on an international basis by scholars in as many as 15 to 20 countries each week. Just this past month scholars in Germany and Kenya interviewed her on this line of her research. In 2002 she received the Pathfinder Award from the Institute for Public Relations for her postmodern scholarship. In 2012 she received the PRIDE Book Award from the National Communication Association for outstanding contribution to public relations theory for her book on public relations as activism. She has presented her work in many countries.

Holtzhausen has served as the dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Lamar University since 2015. She previously served as the director of the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University and as the graduate director at the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. Prior to her academic career, she served as head of corporate communication for the South Africa Tourism Board and an executive consultant for ABSA Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa. Holtzhausen was selected as one of Oklahoma's Top 20 Women Professors for 2013 by Online Oklahoma Schools, and was named a Fellow of the Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute in 2012.