Kay Weaver

Kay Weaver is Chair of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Media Design. She came to CU Boulder in 2021 after 25 years at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. At Waikato she held a range of positions, from starting as a junior faculty member in the School of Arts, to being promoted to a full professor in the Waikato Management School, and finally moving to a pro-vice chancellorship and founding dean position leading the School of Graduate Research.

Kay has published extensively in the field of public relations, gender studies and on the topic of media and violence. She is co-author of Cameras in the Commons (1990), Women Viewing Violence (1992), and Violence and the Media (2003), and is co-editor of Critical Readings: Violence and the Media (2006), Public Relations in Global Contexts (2011), and The Routledge Companion to Public Relations (2023).

Born in England, Kay gained her bachelors and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Kay is passionate about international connections and supporting CU Boulder to increase its international rankings and position on the world stage as a R1 university of choice for international students and scholars.

Fun fact about Kay: her first job after leaving high school was as a police constable in the West Midlands Police Force in the UK. It was a life shaping job that led to her pursuing a career as an academic where she asks – “How can we best communicate that?”