Richard T. Cole

Richard Thomas Cole (born 1948) was full professor (retired in January 2014) and past chairperson of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Michigan State University. He serves on the advisory board for Huntington National Bank Inc. in Southeast Michigan and the steering committee of the Center for Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The former press secretary and chief of staff to Michigan governor James J. Blanchard, and former majority executive secretary in the Michigan State Senate, Cole rejoined the MSU faculty in 2006 after an absence of 15 years. During his absence from MSU, he served as an officer on two major Michigan-based health care corporations—Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan (under CEO Richard Whitmer) as senior vice president in various capacities, and Detroit Medical Center (DMC) as executive vice president and chief administrative officer under then-CEO, now Detroit mayor, Mike Duggan.

A listing of Cole's most recent publications (books and journal articles) appears below.

Education Cole received his bachelor's degree (1969) in Psychology & Speech from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He holds a PhD. 1980 in Administration & Higher Education (Cognate: Communication) and a M.A. 1972 in Administration and Higher Education from Michigan State University. He is also a graduate of the Michigan Military Academy (Michigan National Guard Officer Candidate School), where he was commissioned as a United States Air Force Reserve officer. Earlier in his career, Cole was a registered legislative agent with Public Affairs Associates, Lansing and he was the co-founder and chairman of Publicom Inc., an East Lansing, Michigan-based company.

Public service Cole recently (c.2017) completed a term as a member of the board of directors of Citizen's Research Council of Michigan, a privately funded non-profit research organization. He is also a founding steering committee member of the Center for Michigan, a "bi-partisan economic development think and do tank" in Ann Arbor. He served as a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Knowledge-to-Action Consortium on Child Maltreatment Prevention, Atlanta, through the lifetime of this task force (2009–2012). From 1998 until 2002, Cole served as the chair of the board of governors for the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Between 2005 and 2008, he was the chair of the Metropolitan Detroit Division of the March of Dimes. In July, 1995, Crain's Detroit Business named Cole an "Executive Hero" for his contribution to a number of community organizations.

While at Michigan State University, Cole served on the University Academic Integrity Hearing Board 2012–2013 and on numerous other university and college committees.

Publications Cole is the co-author of three books on using social media for business and the non-profit sector: Google This: New Media Driver's License Resource Guide (with Derek Mehraban, 2013), The Social Current: Monitoring and Analyzing Conversations in Social Media (with Allie Siarto, 2013), and New Media Driver's License (r) -- Using Social Media for Business (2012, with Derek Mehraban).

He is a contributing author (of the chapter on health care communication) to the Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing, McGraw-Hill, 1997 (1st edition) and 2012 (2nd Edition). He was commissioned to write the entry "Abuse: Child and Spousal" for the Sage Encyclopedia of Health Communication, 2014. He also co-authored a chapter in the Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education, Information Science Reference Publishing, with Elizabeth Quilliam in 2008, and numerous other publications (many listed below).

He was a monthly contributor to Dome Magazine; his columns can be found in the Dome archives under "Rick Cole At-large" (ca. 2008–11).

Awards Cole was selected for Western Michigan University's (Kalamazoo) Distinguished Alumni Award, 1987. In 1998, he was awarded the Executive of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Detroit Association of Health Plan Underwriters. He was named Frank J. Stella Italian American of the Year by the Detroit-area Italian American Center, 2000.