Terry Rentner, Ph.D.

Profile:

Dr. Rentner teaches public relations courses at the undergraduate level, including courses in sports public relations, crisis public relations management, and public relations campaigns. At the graduate level, she teaches courses in advertising, public relations, crisis, and health communication. She received the BGSU Master Teacher Award in 2019 and served for 20 years as advisor to the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). She is co-founder of the Richard Maxwell project, created to foster student participation in sport media and communication activities and events. She has been instrumental is launching the NFL Sports Media Boot Camp in 2013, a three day workshop for current and former NFL players. Beginning in 2018, BGSU became host to the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp, the premier player engagement program. The 2021 Broadcast Boot Camp brought to campus a record 52 current and former NFL players.

Dr. Rentner is a crisis, health communication, and sport communication scholar and developer of social norms programming at the university. Her work as a principal or co-investigator in college student health has led to over 20 state and federal grants totaling approximately $1.5 million. Her earlier research focused on alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drug misuse, while her secondary research explored issues in public relations pedagogy. She has received state and national awards for her health communication campaigns, including one from the U.S. Department of Education that named the university’s peer-focused alcohol program as one of eight top programs in the country. More recently, her scholarship explores crisis, health, and social issues in sport.

She has presented over 50 conference papers and published refereed journal articles in Journal of American College Health; Journal of  Health Management; Sport Management Education Journal; Journal of Public Health Research; Atlantic Journal of Communication; Journal of Media and Communication studies; Journal of Health Communication: International Perspective; Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research; International Journal of Communication and Health; Teaching Public Relations Monographs; Journal of Mass Media Ethics; Public Relations Review; and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Her blind peer reviewed and peer reviewed book chapters can be found in Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action, Oxford University Press; Indigenous Experiences of Pregnancy and Birth, Demeter Press; Talking Tobacco: Interpersonal, Organizational, and Mediated messages, Peter Lang Publishing: Ethical Issues in International Communication, Palgrave MacMillan; and, Public relations: From Theory to Practice, Pearson Education, Inc., and Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action, Oxford University Press.

She is most proud of her 2023 co-edited book titled: Social Issues in Sport Communication: You Make the Call, Routledge, and her 2019 co-edited book titled: Case Studies in Sport Communication: You Make the Call, Routledge.

She has also served as chair of the Journalism and Public Relations program and director of the School of Media and Communication at BGSU.

She received the BGSU Chairs and Directors Leadership Award and the BGSU Lifetime Achievement Award.

Education:

Ph.D. Social Psychology, Bowling Green State University
M.A. Mass Communication, Bowling Green State University
BSJ Broadcast Journalism, Bowling Green State University

Courses Taught:

Undergraduate

Introduction to Journalistic Writing
Sports Public Relations
Crisis Public Relations Management
Public Relations Campaigns
Introduction to Strategic Public Relations
Strategic Public Relations Writing and Social Media Strategies
Public Relations Theory and Application
Journalism Law and Ethics
Introduction to Strategic Public Relations
Introduction to Strategic Public Relations for Non-Majors
Specialized Public Relations projects
Specialized Journalism Issues
Field Experience

Graduate

Advertising Research and Practice
Public Relations Research and Practice
Strategic Crisis Communication Management
Health Communication
Health Communication Campaigns
Communication Pedagogy: Preparing Future Faculty

Select Representative Works:

Rentner, T.L. & Burns, D. (Eds). (Feb. 2023). Social Issues in Sport Communication: You Make the Call. Routledge, New York, NY. 

Rentner, T.L. & Alsulaiman, S.A. (2022). “Not me!” Optimistic bias and college students’ perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and self-efficacy in following COVID-19 preventive guidelines. Journal of American College Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2079950

Rentner, T. L., & Alsulaiman, S.A. (2022, December). Saudis perceived severity of Middle East respiratory coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and preventative measures. Journal of Health Management, 24(4).

Kluch, Y., & Rentner, T. L. (2022). “As Falcons, We Are One Team!” Launching a Grassroots Institutional Change Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion Through Sport at an NCAA Division I Institution, Sport Management Education Journal, 16(1), 95-104. https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/smej/16/1/article-p95.xml

Alsulaiman, S. A & Rentner, T.L. (2021). Information seeking behaviors and media credibility among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Atlantic Journal of Communication. 

Alsulaiman, S.A., & Rentner, T.L. (2021). The use of the health belief model to assess U.S. college students’ perceptions of COVID-19 and adherence to preventive measures. Journal of Public Health Research. 

Alsulaiman, S. A., & Rentner, T. L. (2021). Women, start your engines: US and UK media portrayal of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia women driving ban. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 13(1), 1-11. 

Rentner, T.L. & Burns, D. (Eds). (2019). Case Studies in Sport Communication: You Make the Call. Routledge, New York, NY.

Rentner, T.L. & Campbell, L. C. (2019). The NFL concussion crisis: More than just a bad headache. In Brunner, B.R., & Hickerson, C. A. (Eds.). Cases in Public Relations: Translating Ethics into Action. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Rentner K.R. & Rentner, T.L. (2019). Does the NFL still own Sundays? The rebranding of the NFL following the domestic abuse crisis. In Rentner, T.L. and Burns, D. (Eds.). Case Studies in Sport Communication: You Make the Call. (pp. 109-117). Routledge.

Rentner, T.L. & Burns, D. (2018). Challenging a Boy’s Club: Reputation management and the case of pay inequity in professional women’s sport. In Rentner, T.L. and Burns, D. (Eds.). Case Studies in Sport Communication: You Make the Call. (pp. 139-148). Routledge. (Blind, peer-reviewed)

Alsulaiman, S. A., & Rentner, T. L. (2018). The health belief model and preventive measures: A Study of the ministry of health campaign on coronavirus in Saudi Arabia. Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, 1(1), 27-56. https://doi.org/10.30658/jicrcr.1.1.3

Alsulaiman, S. A. & Rentner, T.L. (2017). The (mis)management of public health campaigns: A critical study of the coronavirus crisis in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Communication and Health, 11, 66-75.