An instructor and co-director of the Undergraduate Advising Program in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Tracy R. Sims, APR, has B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from Mississippi State University. Sims teaches APR 332 Public Relations Writing and APR 415 Online Magazine Writing and Editing. Each semester her APR 415 students produce an issue of Platform Magazine, an online resource for PR students, educators and practitioners.
Sims has also taught APR 322 Advertising Copywriting, APR 424 Advertising Campaigns and APR 433 Public Relations Campaigns. Before joining the APR faculty full time in August 2004, Sims was an adjunct instructor for the department for two years and taught composition and American literature survey courses for eight years at both The University of Alabama and Mississippi State University. She received the 2013 Knox Hagood Faculty Award and the 2008 Kappa Tau Alpha Commitment to Teaching Award.
Sims is the faculty adviser for the UA chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. The 2012 president of PRCA of West Alabama and a current board member, she is the 2014-2015 president of the American Advertising Federation–Tuscaloosa. She received the PRCA of West Alabama Educator of the Year Award in 2009 and the AAF-Tuscaloosa Ad Person of the Year Award in 2010.
A former interim editor and editorial consultant for the Alabama Alumni Magazine, Sims now serves as proofreader for the magazine, which has garnered numerous awards, most recently a Platinum Marcom Creative Award for the Summer 2013 issue, APEX Grand Award for the Fall 2012 issue and a Platinum Hermes Creative Award for the Fall 2012 issue.
As a former editor/writer and an editorial director of University Relations’ Marketing Communications office at The University of Alabama, Sims was the managing editor of the UA undergraduate catalog, an editor of the UA graduate catalog, and an editor/writer of numerous UA student-recruitment and alumni/donor publications. Her work as editor/writer of the University’s 2003 annual report, For All Generations to Come, garnered a Certificate of Merit from the Public Relations Council of Alabama, and she jointly received Citations of Excellence from the Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation for the Admissions Viewbook and K–12 Mailer (2001); a Grand Award from CASE District III for New Student Orientation materials (2000); and a Special Merit from CASE District III for College of Engineering recruitment materials (2001).
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