Nicky Garsten

Dr Nicky Garsten PhD, FRSA, SFHEA, MCIPR, MPRCA

Associate Professor in Non-Profit and Business Communications and Co-Leader of the Personal Professional Development Curriculum Redesign in the Business Faculty

Key details

Dr Nicky Garsten

Associate Professor in Non-Profit and Business Communications and Co-Leader of the Personal Professional Development Curriculum Redesign in the Business Faculty

Nicky has a background in strategic communications and has led teams at a top 10 global PR consultancy that won national awards with their clients.  She is a Fellow of the Public Relations Communications Association, is a Chartered PR Practitioner, and sits on a variety of national industry boards and committees. She has been an External Examiner on a variety of CIPR-accredited degree programmes, has judged international and national PR awards, and writes on reputation and leadership for Management Today.

Nicky’s research into public relations has been published in the high impact, international journal, Public Relations Review. She co-edited the Routledge book, Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector Communicating Causes with Professor Ian Bruce. Former Channel 4 Newscaster, Jon Snow, states this Routledge textbook is "a go-to book" and "much needed".

Nicky has taught communications at the University of Greenwich for over 15 years. In the 2023 NSS, the PR and Communications degree secured student satisfaction averaging over 90%, and more specifically, 98% satisfaction rate for teaching.

Nicky has contributed to change management within the Business Faculty, particularly in relation to student employability. Nicky co-led the Personal Professional Development Curriculum Redesign in the Business Faculty. Prior to this she co-created an employability scheme in the Business Faculty, called the Greenwich Employability Passport. This has been adopted across the University. Thousands of students have now participated in the scheme.

Marketing and advertising

Responsibilities within the university
  • MGM representative on Graduate Outcomes and Employability Working Group (2023 to present)
  • SEBE (Scholarship Excellence in Business Education) lead with Chartered Association of Business Schools for 50 staff members’ CMBE accreditations
  • Leadership of modules at PG and UG levels in public relations and brand communication, leadership development, and personal professional development. PG and UG research and consultancy project supervision.
  • Coach, mentor and GOLD fellowship assessor
  • Co-Chair, Greenwich Business School, Learning and Teaching Festival 2021
  • Co-Leader of the Personal Professional Development (PPD) Curriculum Redesign in Greenwich Business School, (2019-2021)
  • Programme Director, BA (Hon) Public Relations and Communications, 2011-2019; working with industry bodies, senior practitioners and alumni.
  • Greenwich Employability Passport Consultant, 2012-2015. Co-created and led the introduction of the Greenwich Employability Passport (GEP) to students and tutors in Greenwich Business School. Thousands of students have participated in the scheme which has now been extended to all schools in the University.

Awards
  • Senior Fellow, Higher Education Authority
  • Fellow, Royal Society of Arts

National prizes in the field of public relations from my professional life included:

  • The 'Saving Upsets Campaign' on food hygiene that I led at MS&L with the Health Education Authority. It won the PR Week Award for 'The Best Public Sector PR Campaign Award' 2000 and an 'Outstanding Practice Award' from the PRCA in 2000.
  • The 'Listen to Your Heart Campaign' with the British Heart Foundation won the Marketing Magazine/PRCA 1998 Gold Award for PR Effectiveness in the non-commercial sector.

Recognition
  • External Examiner, Cardiff University, MA in International PR and Global Communications Management
  • Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Editorial Podcast Board Member
  • Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Editorial Content Board member of Influence (magazine and blog)
  • Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), Steering Group Member of the Charity and Non-Profit Group
  • Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) Member, International University Advisory Group (2022-present)
  • Member of Review Panel, of the SJR-ranked Q1 journal, 'Public Relations Review: A Global Journal of Research and Comment' (2011 – 2023)
  • Stevie Awards Judge (2022), international business awards, on PR/corporate communications and publications

Research / Scholarly interests
  • Corporate communication and public relations
  • NGO communication
  • Student Well-being and Employability

Key funded projects

  • Small project grant from the University of Greenwich Centre for Business Network Analysis on an exploratory guided park walk as a student wellbeing initiative.
  • Small project grant from the University of Greenwich’s SEBE group to benchmark students’ use of Greenwich Park.

Media activity

Recent publications
  • Garsten, N., Cronin, B. and Howard, J., 2024. An exploration of PR Week UK’s framing of specialist PR identities (1985–2010). Public Relations Review, 50(4), p.102468.
  • Garsten, N. and Bruce, I., 2018.  Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector. Routledge.
  • Garsten, N. and Bruce, I. (2018) 'Introducing Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector'. In (eds) N. Garsten, and I. Bruce, Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Garsten, N.; Read, K.; and Yassim, M. (2018) 'Strategic Illustrations of NFP Success? An Exploration into the Evolution, Purposes and Ethics of Case Studies'. In (eds) N. Garsten, and I. Bruce, Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Smith, D.H.; Lang, S.; and Garsten, N. 'NGO Communications in a One-Party State: The Context and Characteristics of Non-profit Advocacy Communications in China'. In (eds) N. Garsten, and I. Bruce, Communicating Causes: Strategic Public Relations in the Non-Profit Sector. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Garsten, N., de Quincey, D., and Bruce, I. (2016), ‘The Importance and Art of Articulating Thanks: Lessons from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)’ in Hall, S. (ed.) #FuturePRoof: Second Edition. Chapter 39.

Presentations
  • Chair, Social Marketing and Artificial Intelligence Workshop, Academy of Marketing Conference 2024: Marketing: Fusing resilience and power for public value – igniting marketing’s social spirit. Cardiff Business School, University of Cardiff, 4 July
  • Garsten, N., 2024, ‘Fostering Curiosity: Partnering with Industry to Enhance Student Employability’, Greenwich Business School, Learning and Teaching Festival, 20 June.
  • Co-chair, 2023, PRCA Charity and Non-Profit Group webinar, ‘Preparing for Controversy’, 9 November
  • Chair, 2022, PRCA Charity and Non-Profit Group Webinar, ‘Securing, Analysing, Framing Research for Impactful Campaigning’, PRCA Charity and Non-profit Group. July 2022. Broadcast on PRCA TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9OTjICazcM.
  • Panel speaker, “Towards a More Inclusive and International History of Public Relations”, PRCA Americas Conference, 2nd June 2021
  • Chair, (2021) PRCA Charity and Non-Profit Group Webinar, on “Apolitical Campaigning”
  • Co-Chair, Mind the PR Gap, digital conference. 2021 and 2020. Hosted by PR Academy and the University of Greenwich.
  • Tsay, C. and Garsten, N. (2021) ‘PPD Curriculum Redesign: Working Together through User-Centric Collaboration’, SHIFT 2021, University of Greenwich 13th January.
  • Garsten, N (2019) ‘Elevator Pitches’, presentation at the Learning and Teaching Festival, Greenwich Business School. In this presentation the use of space was considered.