Associate Professor

Public Relations

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Peter Malachy Ryan (APR) has been with the Department of Public Relations at Mount Royal University (MRU) since July 2016. In Fall 2026, Peter will be teaching PUBR 2845: Financial Public Relations and PUBR 3860: Government Public Relations. In Winter 2027, he will be teaching PUBR 3841: Media Relations, and the capstone for the Public Relations program, PUBR 4851: Issues & Ethics in PR.

Peter is accredited in public relations (APR) through the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), and is presently in his second term as the Past President of CPRS Calgary (July 2025 to July 2027). He became the CPRS National Chief Examiner in April 2026, which is the highest knowledge position in support of the accreditation process. The role is a three-year term.

He is also a director with the Center for Risk Communication (CRC), in the Canadian branch, that supports local, regional, national and international organizations in need of issues management, risk and crisis communication support. He is a frequent media commentator based on his professional and research interests, which include Canadian political communication, government public relations, digital research methods, and social media issues management. His co-authored research with Patrice Dutil earned the J.E. Hodgetts' award from the Institute of Public Administration (IPAC) for article of the year in 2013, and an innovative collaborative online project with CBC News' Susan Ormiston Online and Greg Elmer's Infoscape Research Lab earned the "Best Cross Platform Project" Gemini Award for their coverage of the 2008 Canadian federal election (note: the Gemini Awards are now known as the "Canada Screen Awards", since 2013).

You can follow Peter on X (formerly Twitter) @prnetworks.