Kent Kaiser

Assistant Professor of Communication

Prior to coming to Northwestern in 2007, Kent gained over fifteen years of media relations and marketing experience, including eleven years in executive communications. He has served as a political communications consultant to numerous first-time candidates for public office, including two who won seats in the U.S. Congress. He has previously worked at the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, the U.S. Census Bureau, the University of Minnesota, and for several nonprofit public policy organizations. Kent has won multiple awards from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators and oversees the Northwestern College chapters of the International Association of Business Communicators, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the College Republicans. He has also been named a senior policy fellow with Center of the American Experiment, a Minneapolis think tank.

Kent enjoys canoeing, fishing, and hunting and is a regular field contributor to The Boundary Waters Journal. Kent serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots and regularly goes on short-term missions trips to minister to children in remote parts of northern Canada.

Specialty Areas

• Public relations writing, campaign tactics, and PR ethics
• Strategic marketing communication
• Strategic communication campaign planning and objective development
• Sports media and gender representation controversies
• Mass communication messages and public policy
• Strategic public policy communication
• Advertising layout and endorsement effects

Department and Teaching Responsibilities

Communication Theory, PR Principles and Concepts, PR Writing and Tactics, PR Cases and Campaigns, Political Communication, PR Events: Planning and Scripting

Academic Credentials

Ph.D., University of Minnesota;
M.L.S., University of Minnesota-Duluth;
M.A.T., Smith College;
B.A., Carleton College