Originally published February 2013. Rewritten August 2026. EPR Editorial Team.
The most-used public relations textbook in the world was written in San Diego. Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations, the book every PR degree program in the United States assigns, translated into ten languages, was authored across six editions by Dr. Glen M. Broom, who taught at San Diego State University for nearly three decades. The Glen M. Broom Center for Professional Development in Public Relations, founded at SDSU in 2012, carries that legacy forward through internships, research support, and an annual practitioner colloquium.
The textbook
Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations was first published in 1952 by Scott Cutlip and Allen Center. Dr. Glen Broom joined as co-author and eventually anchored the last six editions. It became the defining PR textbook of the modern era, translated into Spanish, Japanese, Bulgarian, Latvian, and six other languages, and it sits on the desk of nearly every US-trained PR practitioner. The four-step PR process it codified, research, planning, implementation, evaluation, anchors nearly every RFP response and agency methodology in use today.
Broom joined the SDSU faculty in 1979. He retired as full-time faculty in 2007 after educating more than 3,000 PR students, continued as professor emeritus, and remained active on campus until his death in August 2019 at age 78. His wife Betty, a retired SDSU nursing faculty member, helped fund the endowment that seeded the center now bearing his name.
The Broom Center
The Glen M. Broom Center for Professional Development in Public Relations was founded in 2012 inside SDSU's School of Journalism & Media Studies. The center runs programs for PR students, PR professors, and working practitioners: internships, professional development, research support, and the annual Broom Colloquium bringing senior practitioners onto campus.
Founding donors included Scott Allison and Scott Pansky, co-founders of Allison + Partners, along with Gordon Broom (HeplerBroom LLC), Diane Gage Lofgren (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan), MaryLee Sachs (Changing MO), Larry Thomas (retired, The Irvine Company), and Bill Trumpfheller (Nuffer, Smith, Tucker). The initial $1.5 million campaign, announced in February 2013, succeeded, and the center has operated continuously since.
Director Dr. Kaye Sweetser, APR+M and PRSA Fellow, has led the center through its post-founding decade. Under her direction the Broom Center has expanded its national profile, including the November 2024 launch of the Glen Broom Mentorship Award in partnership with the PRSA Foundation, an annual grant recognizing a US PR educator who has demonstrated excellence in mentorship and student career impact.
The San Diego PR ecosystem
SDSU and the Broom Center anchor a working San Diego PR ecosystem: Havas Formula (founded 1992 by Michael Olguin, now inside Havas), Nuffer, Smith, Tucker (founded 1974, a founding donor to the Broom Center), Allison + Partners, Vitro, BLVR, (W)right On Communications, TEAM LEWIS's San Diego office, Crowe PR, Red Door, and Digital Operative. The full working directory of the market is catalogued at EPR's Best PR Firms in San Diego 2026 and San Diego Marketing & PR Firms 2026 Directory.
Scott Pansky has said publicly that Broom introduced him to Scott Allison, launching the partnership that anchored more than three decades of Allison + Partners. Professor as career architect is what the Broom Center was built to institutionalize at scale, rather than leave to individual mentorship.
Why this matters for the profession
PR education in the United States is a distributed system. Programs at Syracuse's Newhouse, USC Annenberg, University of Florida, University of Georgia's Grady College, and Boston University's COM produce steady graduate flow into the agency and in-house world. What SDSU produced is narrower and more foundational: the working definition of PR that generations of practitioners across every one of those other programs learned in their own introduction courses, specifically the distinction between publicity and public relations, and the framing of PR as a management function rather than a media-placement service.
The center today
The Glen M. Broom Center for Professional Development in Public Relations operates from SDSU's School of Journalism & Media Studies at 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego. Current programming includes the Broom Colloquium series, faculty and graduate student research support, and the annual PRSA Foundation Glen Broom Mentorship Award. The center accepts donations to the Glen M. Broom Center Endowment through SDSU's College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.
The Glen M. Broom Center for Professional Development in Public Relations, founded at San Diego State University in 2012 inside the School of Journalism & Media Studies. Named for the late Dr. Glen M. Broom, co-author of the last six editions of Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations, and directed by Dr. Kaye Sweetser.
Who was Glen Broom?
Dr. Glen M. Broom taught PR at San Diego State University from 1979 through his 2007 retirement, continued as professor emeritus, and died in August 2019 at age 78. He co-authored the last six editions of Cutlip & Center's Effective Public Relations. PRSA named him Outstanding Educator in 1991.
What is the Glen Broom Mentorship Award?
An annual grant launched in November 2024 by the PRSA Foundation and the Broom Center, recognizing a current US PR educator who has demonstrated excellence in mentorship and student career impact. Scott Pansky worked with the PRSA Foundation to develop the award in honor of his former mentor.
What San Diego PR agencies trace to Broom's teaching?
Allison + Partners was co-founded by two Broom students, Scott Allison and Scott Pansky. Beyond that single example, multiple senior practitioners across San Diego firms, including Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, trained under Broom and remain active donors to the center. Related: San Diego PR Education: San Diego State and the Broom Center · PR Schools: The Everything-PR Guide · The Best PR Firms in San Diego, 2026 · San Diego Marketing & PR Firms: The 2026 Directory · San Diego Travel & Tourism PR in 2026 · Havas Formula PR Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis, built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
