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About Don Davis Jr.
Davis graduated in 1942 with a degree in journalism and in 1972 was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Penn State, the highest honor the University bestows upon its alumni. The award salutes the achievements of outstanding alumni whose “personal lives, professional achievements and community service exemplify the objectives of their Alma Mater.” Davis’s accomplishments include: endowing the College’s student chapter of the American Advertising Federation, the Donald W. Davis Mass Communications Fund, the Davis Symposium in Advertising Ethics and a trustee scholarship in the name of his sister, Maralyn Davis Mazza. He also provided funds to establish the Donald W. Davis Advertising Lab. “Establishment of the professorship in ethics is the result of the convergence of a number of factors,” said Davis, who cited his father’s legacy of emphasizing ethics and his own teaching experience. “There has been an increased interest and attention of society generally concerning ethical behavior, resulting from the excesses of the dot-com revolution, recent corporate scandals and excessive executive compensation,” Davis said. ”Ethical dilemmas exist every day for communicators, from the always present tensions between news and partisan opinion to the conflict between a communicator’s own sense of social responsibility and the motivation for commercial success.”
Ethics are Essential
Don Davis, Penn State alumnus and the retired chairman and CEO of Stanley Works, spent his life emphasizing “doing the right thing,” said Douglas Anderson, Dean of the College of Communications. That concept guided Davis during his years as CEO of Stanley Works, one of the largest international manufacturers of builders’ hardware and tools. Under his leadership, Stanley grew to a “Fortune 200” company. In addition, for 16 years, Davis has taught courses in ethics and leadership at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership
Build Your Life on the Right Foundation
DON DAVIS
PROGRAM
Journey into
&
IN ETHICAL LEADEERSHIP
THE
Website:
http://comm.psu.edu/about/centers/don-davis-program-inethical-leadership
Phone: (814) 863-5678
Professional, Academic
College of Communications Carnegie Building, University Park, PA 16802
Personal Integrity
Dream Big, Work hard, Think Ethically
The mission of the Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership is to promote professional, academic and personal integrity within the College of Communications at Penn State. The program’s special focus is to develop responsibility and integrity among undergraduates in the College as part of their preparation to be the principled leaders of tomorrow’s media institutions.
Mission Statement:
Meet Patrick Parsons, the Davis Professor in Ethics
Patrick Parsons is the inaugural holder of the Don Davis Professorship in Ethics in the College of Communications. Parsons, joined the Penn State faculty in 1985, served as head of the Department of Telecommunications from 2000-2003 and as interim associate dean for undergraduate education from 2003 until June 2005. He holds an undergraduate and a master’s degree in journalism from California State University at Northridge and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota. In addition to mass media ethics, he has taught cable and telecommunications, communication theory, communication law and policy, and broadcast journalism at Penn State. His professional experience includes work as a newswriter, general assignment reporter, tape editor and associate news director for radio stations in Southern California and as city desk editor and general assignment reporter for the City News Service in Los Angeles. He long has been active in academic organizations, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, where, at various times, he has been a member or officer of AEJMC’s mass communication and society division, radio-television division, media management and economics division, technology and policy division, and media ethics interest group. He a founding member of the Academic Research Session at the annual convention of the National Cable Television Association.
About Don Davis Sr.
About the Program
The Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership was founded in 2005 in order to establish an across-the-curriculum program in ethics for the College of Communications and to provide the resources necessary to support the College’s focus on social responsibility. Speci c weeks will be designated each semester during which all departments in the College will place particular emphasis on ethics and social responsibility. Contemporary case studies will be created each year that will be constructed around the way a media outlet, agency or company handled a thorny ethical issue. The Davis Professor in Ethics, in consultation with others, will be responsible for selecting and devising case studies for each of the four departments in the College. The concentrated and coordinated weeks emphasizing ethics will bring to campus major players from the companies, agencies or outlets that found themselves entangled in the challenging issues. The weeks also will involve systematically designed readings and simulations to prepare students for the critical thinking that must go into resolving complex situations.
For 40 of his 62 years, Donald W. Davis dedicated his life to advertising. Over the years, he presented his philosophy of advertising to thousands of professionals and students. Davis began his career as an advertising manager for a conglomerate of newspapers in Springfield, Mass., in 1919. Early on, he expressed concerns about cigarette and alcohol advertisements that could be considered harmful. Davis was able to persuade the Springfield newspapers’ publisher to refuse advertising dollars from the cigarette and alcohol manufacturers, setting a precedent in the newspaper and advertising industries. Among his many professional affiliations, Donald Davis served as vice president of the Advertising Federation of America (AFA) during the 1920s and as national president of Alpha Delta Sigma from 1947 to 1949. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Newspaper Advertising Executives Association from 1935 to 1936, and the Board of Directors of the AFA in 1948. Davis will be most remembered for his 37 years of teaching, predominantly at Penn State. In 1936, he was invited to establish a curriculum in advertising at Penn State, and under his leadership, enrollment in advertising courses grew to be the largest in the country.
Ethics & the College of Communications
The College of Communications has 3 has endowed lecture series: The Donald W. Davis Symposium in Advertising Ethics, the N. N. Oweida Lecture in Journalism Ethics, & the Ben Bronstein Lecture in Ethics and Public Relations
Davis graduated in 1942 with a degree in journalism and in 1972 was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Penn State, the highest honor the University bestows upon its alumni. The award salutes the achievements of outstanding alumni whose “personal lives, professional achievements and community service exemplify the objectives of their Alma Mater.” Davis’s accomplishments include: endowing the College’s student chapter of the American Advertising Federation, the Donald W. Davis Mass Communications Fund, the Davis Symposium in Advertising Ethics and a trustee scholarship in the name of his sister, Maralyn Davis Mazza. He also provided funds to establish the Donald W. Davis Advertising Lab. “Establishment of the professorship in ethics is the result of the convergence of a number of factors,” said Davis, who cited his father’s legacy of emphasizing ethics and his own teaching experience. “There has been an increased interest and attention of society generally concerning ethical behavior, resulting from the excesses of the dot-com revolution, recent corporate scandals and excessive executive compensation,” Davis said. ”Ethical dilemmas exist every day for communicators, from the always present tensions between news and partisan opinion to the conflict between a communicator’s own sense of social responsibility and the motivation for commercial success.”
Ethics are Essential
Don Davis, Penn State alumnus and the retired chairman and CEO of Stanley Works, spent his life emphasizing “doing the right thing,” said Douglas Anderson, Dean of the College of Communications. That concept guided Davis during his years as CEO of Stanley Works, one of the largest international manufacturers of builders’ hardware and tools. Under his leadership, Stanley grew to a “Fortune 200” company. In addition, for 16 years, Davis has taught courses in ethics and leadership at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
for updated posts on events and more! @
Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership
Build Your Life on the Right Foundation
DON DAVIS
PROGRAM
Journey into
&
IN ETHICAL LEADEERSHIP
THE
Website:
http://comm.psu.edu/about/centers/don-davis-program-inethical-leadership
Phone: (814) 863-5678
Professional, Academic
College of Communications Carnegie Building, University Park, PA 16802
Personal Integrity
Dream Big, Work hard, Think Ethically
The mission of the Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership is to promote professional, academic and personal integrity within the College of Communications at Penn State. The program’s special focus is to develop responsibility and integrity among undergraduates in the College as part of their preparation to be the principled leaders of tomorrow’s media institutions.
Mission Statement:
Meet Patrick Parsons, the Davis Professor in Ethics
Patrick Parsons is the inaugural holder of the Don Davis Professorship in Ethics in the College of Communications. Parsons, joined the Penn State faculty in 1985, served as head of the Department of Telecommunications from 2000-2003 and as interim associate dean for undergraduate education from 2003 until June 2005. He holds an undergraduate and a master’s degree in journalism from California State University at Northridge and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota. In addition to mass media ethics, he has taught cable and telecommunications, communication theory, communication law and policy, and broadcast journalism at Penn State. His professional experience includes work as a newswriter, general assignment reporter, tape editor and associate news director for radio stations in Southern California and as city desk editor and general assignment reporter for the City News Service in Los Angeles. He long has been active in academic organizations, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, where, at various times, he has been a member or officer of AEJMC’s mass communication and society division, radio-television division, media management and economics division, technology and policy division, and media ethics interest group. He a founding member of the Academic Research Session at the annual convention of the National Cable Television Association.
About Don Davis Sr.
About the Program
The Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership was founded in 2005 in order to establish an across-the-curriculum program in ethics for the College of Communications and to provide the resources necessary to support the College’s focus on social responsibility. Speci c weeks will be designated each semester during which all departments in the College will place particular emphasis on ethics and social responsibility. Contemporary case studies will be created each year that will be constructed around the way a media outlet, agency or company handled a thorny ethical issue. The Davis Professor in Ethics, in consultation with others, will be responsible for selecting and devising case studies for each of the four departments in the College. The concentrated and coordinated weeks emphasizing ethics will bring to campus major players from the companies, agencies or outlets that found themselves entangled in the challenging issues. The weeks also will involve systematically designed readings and simulations to prepare students for the critical thinking that must go into resolving complex situations.
For 40 of his 62 years, Donald W. Davis dedicated his life to advertising. Over the years, he presented his philosophy of advertising to thousands of professionals and students. Davis began his career as an advertising manager for a conglomerate of newspapers in Springfield, Mass., in 1919. Early on, he expressed concerns about cigarette and alcohol advertisements that could be considered harmful. Davis was able to persuade the Springfield newspapers’ publisher to refuse advertising dollars from the cigarette and alcohol manufacturers, setting a precedent in the newspaper and advertising industries. Among his many professional affiliations, Donald Davis served as vice president of the Advertising Federation of America (AFA) during the 1920s and as national president of Alpha Delta Sigma from 1947 to 1949. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Newspaper Advertising Executives Association from 1935 to 1936, and the Board of Directors of the AFA in 1948. Davis will be most remembered for his 37 years of teaching, predominantly at Penn State. In 1936, he was invited to establish a curriculum in advertising at Penn State, and under his leadership, enrollment in advertising courses grew to be the largest in the country.
Ethics & the College of Communications
The College of Communications has 3 has endowed lecture series: The Donald W. Davis Symposium in Advertising Ethics, the N. N. Oweida Lecture in Journalism Ethics, & the Ben Bronstein Lecture in Ethics and Public Relations
