Renee Mitson is an assistant professor of public relations in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. Her research centers on leader and employee experiences, and how technology plays a role in today’s organizations. Specifically, she is interested in how leaders understand themselves and their identities and the influence of their communication in the workplace and externally. On the employee side, she explores how employees perceive leadership at work, their connections to their employer, and what that means for their overall well-being in the workplace. She also examines how technology augments and constricts these dynamics and changes workplace norms and routines, and what that means for workplace culture.
Dr. Mitson uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore these dynamics, favoring surveys and in-depth interviews. While leaning toward a functionalistic viewpoint, she often includes critical elements in her work, such as discussing historical perspectives on organizations, feminist theory, and institutional theories to help understand how organizations came to be the way they are, where their norms came from, and what that means for marginalized leaders and employees.
Dr. Mitson's research has been included in leading peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journal of Communication Management, Communication Research, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, among others. She has received top-paper awards and recognition from leading conferences hosted by the International Communication Association, National Communication Association, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the International Public Relations Research Conference.
Prior to returning to school to earn her PhD, Dr. Mitson worked in strategic communication roles, primarily public relations, in agencies, technology ventures, and private equity investment initiatives. In these roles she oversaw content development, inbound marketing strategy, executive thought leadership, ghost writing, media relations, and media training.
