UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In 2004, the Larry Foster, Penn State class of 1948 in journalism, had an idea for a research center at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. He hoped it would become a “lighthouse” for studying and promoting high standards and ethical behavior in business and public communication. Two decades later, Foster’s lighthouse still shines.

The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication is celebrating 20 years of enhancing ethics and responsibility in all areas of public communication. The center’s mission is a testament to Foster’s vision. In a time when the internet was taking shape and social media was on the horizon, he saw a need to strengthen the foundation of trust and truth in public communication. He turned out to be right about that.

What started as six funded research projects addressing ethical challenges of public communication has blossomed into 270 center-funded projects covering a wide range of topics, including artificial intelligence, corporate social advocacy, digital ethics, sustainability and more. More than $1 million in research funding has supported the work of more than 350 scholars from around the world. Outcomes from these projects have been published in prestigious academic journals and presented at national and international conferences.

There’s more. The Page Center offers hugely popular online training modules that have attracted more than 30,000 students from hundreds of colleges. It plays host to an annual awards event that has honored and featured renowned communicators like Mary Barra, Sanjay Gupta, Gwen Ifill, and Tom Kean Sr. The Center supports graduate student work and multi-institutional collaborations. It also maintains an archive of Arthur W. Page’s speeches and writings, and a collection of oral histories from leading communicators.

“The Page Center is a well-known commodity and a real jewel for the college,” said Marie Hardin, dean of the Bellisario College. “It’s incredibly important to us, and I would also argue it’s incredibly important to mass communication education.”

It all started with a phone call.

“It was a classic call on the phone from Larry,” said Doug Anderson, who was dean of the Bellisario College when the Page Center was founded. “Larry said, ’Oh, by the way I've got an idea to bounce off you guys,’ and he knew exactly where he wanted this thing to go.”

On Sept. 15, 2004, Foster brought friends and fellow public relations legends Ed Block, former senior vice president of public relations at AT&T, and Jack Koten, senior vice president of corporate communications at Ameritech, to the University Park campus for the Page Center’s inaugural meeting. They met Anderson and founding center director John Nichols in the Carnegie Building conference room. That pairing of professional expertise and academic ingenuity still defines the center’s work today — and it was all part of Foster’s plan.

A natural fit

Nichols, professor emeritus at the Bellisario College, joined the faculty in 1977. He said the college’s emphasis on ethics and responsibility dates to its earliest days. It got a boost in the late 1950s when faculty members like Gene Goodwin, director of what was then Penn State’s School of Journalism, transformed journalism education at the University.

“Gene and other influential people had a vision that teaching journalism needed to be more socially responsible,” Nichols said. “It wasn’t just preparing journalists with vocational skills, but giving them ethical and social responsibility.”

So, he added, “Larry's idea was consistent with the deep roots of the college. He wanted to protect integrity in communications, and he knew his alma mater was going to be the means to that particular end.”

In 2004, Foster and his wife Ellen, Penn State class of 1949, arts & letters) provided the $300,000 gift that launched the Page Center. With corporate support, lobbied by Foster, from AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others, an endowment was created that set the center up for the long-term.

“The endowment grew quickly to $4 million, and keep in mind that those first few years were tough economic times,” Anderson said. “Larry was responsible for raising every penny. That level of fundraising was incredible given the time.”

Reflecting on the center’s progress over the years, Ellen Foster said, “It warms my heart that the center has found a lasting home at Penn State.”

She added, “It is personally gratifying that the legacy of Arthur W. Page and Robert Wood Johnson lives on due to the hard work and foresight of my late husband Larry Foster, Jack Koten and Ed Block. They had the foresight to follow a vision and establish the Arthur W. Page Center.”

Why Arthur W. Page?

Foster was a public relations legend. Block and Koten were, too. However, they thought so highly of Page that they named the center after him as “a means to preserve the Page legacy and promote his insightful approach to corporate communications and effective leadership.”

From 1927 to 1947, Page was the vice president for public relations at AT&T. As the first person to hold an executive-level public relations position at a major corporation, he is often credited for establishing the modern practice of corporate public relations.

“When it came to ethics and responsibility, Page was the guy,” Anderson said. “They wanted to pay tribute to him.”

Page was an educator, publisher and an adviser to several U.S. presidents. His name has become synonymous with public communication at the highest levels of the corporate world. He was not, however, a Penn State alumnus, nor was he a major benefactor of the University.

Block, Foster and Koten were heavily involved in the Arthur W. Page Society, an association for senior communication leaders founded in 1983, which sometimes partners with the Center but functions separately. Both entities apply the Page Principles in what they do. Penned by Koten, the principles are seven values based on Page's writings, speeches and interviews that represent the beliefs he held over his long career.

“The foundation of the center was built on the Page Principles,” Hardin said. The initial version of the principles is printed on the wall of the Page Center’s office in the Carnegie Building. They are the driving force of many of its education, research and outreach initiatives.

The legacy of Robert Wood Johnson is also an important piece of the Page Center. The Johnson & Johnson credo is posted on the Page Center conference room wall. Like Page, Johnson was a strong and visible advocate of responsible corporate behavior. Recipients of Page Center grants are known as Page/Johnson Legacy Scholars.

“Larry was obsessed with the Page Principles and the Johnson credo,” Nichols said. “In fact, one of the earliest projects we did with our Legacy Scholars was on codes of ethics and credos.”

Passing the torch

Foster died in 2013, but he masterfully laid the groundwork to keep the Page Center thriving.

“The Page Center would not be what it is today without a visionary founder like Larry putting the resources in place,” Hardin said. “He also knew when it was time to step away … but nobody was going to fill Larry’s shoes.”

Luckily, the Page Center had an established advisory board to help with the transition. The board today consists of 18 active and retired leaders in academia, advertising, corporate communication, education, journalism and public relations.

“What I love about the board is that we still have people who knew and worked with Larry, and we also have new, fresh voices,” Hardin said. “There is a mutual appreciation of the value each person brings to that board. There's still an institutional memory that I think is very important. I think strong institutional memory can't be overvalued.”

Despite differing backgrounds and work experience, each board member shares a commitment to integrity that crosses all disciplines and industries. It’s led by board chair Bill Nielsen. Like Foster, Nielsen served as the head of communications at Johnson & Johnson. Since 2015, he has been a leading advocate for the center.

“In many ways, Bill Nielsen has been the keeper of Larry’s lighthouse since joining the Page Center,” said Denise Bortree, center director. “So many of us help carry the torch that Larry passed down, but we wouldn’t be able to hold the torch nearly as high without Bill’s leadership, mentorship and support.”

New directions

When Hardin was named dean of the Bellisario College in 2014, she needed to find a new director for the Page Center; another torch had to be passed. According to Hardin, the first step was finding “someone with great ideas, fresh eyes, passion and dedication” to lead.

“That person was Denise Bortree from day one,” she said.

At the time, Bortree was an associate professor who was familiar with the Page Center as a scholar. Today, she is the associate dean of academic affairs at the Bellisario College and celebrating her 10th year as director of the center.

“I am so appreciative of what Denise has done,” Nichols said. “It’s personally satisfying to me to see something that I had a hand in launching do so well thanks to people like Denise.”

Bortree, who had been funded several times before becoming director, has worked hard to broaden the center’s impact. This included expanding the breadth of research and also strengthening the connection to the Bellisario College. Today, six faculty members from the college serve a senior research fellow role at the center.

“By expanding the senior research fellows, we got Bellisario College faculty more engaged,” she said. “Other ideas were adding alumni to the advisory board and, of course, bringing [associate professor of adverting/public relations] Holly Overton on as the center’s research director.”

Fellows receive annual support to research ethics and present their work. Some also lead research calls, which is the center’s primary activity. Each year, the center solicits proposals for research ideas.

What started as “open calls,” which the center still occasionally offers, has become calls that are focused on specific topics. Scholars submit their ideas, and a few are chosen for funding. This year, the center is funding 17 studies in three topics: professional ethics training, academic-professional collaborations and theory in public communication. Past topics include digital analytics, prosocial communication and sustainability. The center's 2025 research call, announced on Aug. 7, is on the ethics of generative AI in public communication. 

“At its core, the Page Center is innovative and timely research by scholars,” Bortree said. “It’s how we make an impact and it’s what we mean when we say, ‘enhance ethics and responsibility’ in our mission.”

Results are shared in several ways, including the Page Center blog, newsletter, presentations, social media and an annual Insights Report that is a collection of takeaways from the past year’s research.

As it enters its third decade, the Page Center is an international leader in public communication. Because of Foster, it has the groundwork and reputation for lasting impact on ethics awareness, education, training and practice.

In 2004, Foster called the Page Center “one of the most important developments in PR education.” Today, his "lighthouse" continues to shine brightly and guide today's communicators through ever more turbulent seas. Thanks to Foster’s advocacy and vision, the Page Center has the foundation to shine for many more years to come.