Bonnie Riechert

Biography

Dr. Bonnie Riechert, APR, Fellow PRSA, joined the faculty in 2006 and helps students form connections between the classroom and career opportunities. She helps connect students with professional mentors and with internship and employment opportunities. She teaches courses in public relations, strategic communication and Belmont’s BELL Core.

She serves as faculty adviser to the nationally recognized Belmont University Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. She is a recipient of the national PRSSA Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award. Under her guidance, the Belmont PRSSA Chapter and its members have received national awards each year since 2006. Chapter awards include recognition for Chapter Development, Community Service, Outstanding Regional Conference, Ethics Advocacy, University Service, and Outstanding PRSA/PRSSA Relationship.

Dr. Riechert is active in professional associations including Public Relations Society of America, in which she served as a district officer and as president of the PRSA Nashville Chapter. She is a recipient of the PRSA Nashville chapter’s Hercules and Olympus Awards for outstanding leadership and contributions. Dr. Riechert was Accredited in Public Relations in 2001 and inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 2007.

Her background includes working as a journalist, where she was recognized for excellence in news writing. She also worked in higher education public relations, serving in communications positions at the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee. She began teaching at the University of Tennessee, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations, communication, first year studies and marketing, and she helped team-teach a psychology/university studies course on spirituality and health. She received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the UT College of Communications and was a finalist for the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association’s Outstanding Teacher Award.

Dr. Riechert’s research interests include career readiness and professionalism, ethics and strategic organizational communication, relationship marketing, consumer behavior, spirituality and health, message framing, cognitive style and learning preferences, team building, mentorship and leadership. She has authored book chapters and articles in scholarly journals and trade publications. She has received awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the International Association of Business Communicators, the Society for Technical Communication, the Association for Communication Excellence and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Dr. Riechert is married to Arthur Manuel Riechert Jr.