DrFlora Hung-Baesecke

Dr. Flora Hung-Baesecke is an internationally recognized scholar. She is a Senior Lecturer and the Teaching and Learning Lead for the Strategic Communication Discipline at the School of Communication at UTS.

Her research interests include stakeholder engagement, corporate social responsibility (CSR), organizational purpose, sustainability, strategic communication, social media, relationship management, crisis communication, and employee communication. According to Google Scholar, as of 2024, she is:

• The 32nd most-cited scholar in strategic communication,
• The 90th most-cited scholar in public relations,
• The 7th most-cited scholar in relationship management,
• The 16th most-cited scholar in stakeholder engagement.

She serves on the editorial boards of several Q1 journals: Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, International Journal of Strategic Communication, and Communication Research Reports. She has won multiple faculty top paper awards at international conferences, including the Public Relations Division of ICA and the International Public Relations Research Conference. Flora is the 2015–2018 and 2023 Arthur W. Page Legacy Scholar. She regularly presents her research at international conferences and publishes in various Q1 journals, such as Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Social Science Computer Review, International Journal of Communication, American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Communication Management, Asian Journal of Communication, and Communication Research Reports.

Outside of the university, Flora is a member of the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society in the USA (membership by invitation only) and serves in various association and conference roles. Currently, she chairs the ICA Research Awards Committee and the ICA Public Relations Division's Robert Heath Most Impactful and Innovative Research Award. She has also served as Chair of the ICA Applied/Public Policy Research Award Committee (2022-2024), a member of the ICA Award Committee (2022-2024), and a member of the ICA Board (2019-2021). Additionally, she is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Public Relations Research Conference (since 2015) and was the Chair of the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) from 2019 to 2021.

In addition to her teaching and research, Flora has gained consultancy and professional experience by working in a public relations firm in Taiwan and through agency/corporate research collaborations. These include working with BASF on employee engagement in corporate CSR activities, taking on a commissioned research project with the Hong Kong Police Force, collaborating with Edelman Public Relations Headquarters on several Edelman Trust Barometer studies, and working with the Research and Measurement Department at Ketchum Public Relations Headquarters.

Before relocating to the Australia/New Zealand region, she taught at Hong Kong Baptist University, where she served as the Option Coordinator for the Public Relations and Advertising Option, Associate Director of the Center for Media and Communication Research, and Vice Chair of the Graduate Student Committee at the School of Communication.