Advisory Board

Roger Bolton

Roger Bolton is the president of the Page Society, the premier professional association for senior corporate communications executives. He has been named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior by Trust Across America. Previously, he served as senior vice president of communications at Aetna, a $35 billion provider of health care benefits, with responsibility for all internal and external communications, advertising, brand management and corporate public involvement. Before Aetna, Bolton was IBM’s director of corporate media relations and director of communications for the IBM server and software groups.

Prior to his business career, Bolton served as assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs under President George H.W. Bush, assistant U.S. trade representative for public affairs in the Executive Office of the President under President Reagan, and special assistant to President Reagan in the White House, with responsibility for the president’s relations with business and labor. He is a recipient of the U.S. Treasury Distinguished Service Award.

Sandra Clark 

Sandra Clark is the CEO of StoryCorps, a non-profit organization that records, preserves, and shares the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. Before this position, she was vice president at WHYY, Philadelphia’s public radio station. Prior to joining public media, she was a managing editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she rose through a number of editorial positions before joining the senior leadership team. In her spare time, she also serves as managing editor for the student blog, Because Arcadia, at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, an opportunity to mentor and grow young writers. During much of the 1990s, Clark worked for the Peace Corps in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, and for Africare in Mozambique running a variety of programs. 

Clark is the former board president of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Media Editors and currently serves on the boards of the Associated Press Media Editors (APME) and William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from Arcadia University.

Suki Dardarian

Dardarian is editor and senior vice president of Minneapolis' Star Tribune. She joined the newspaper in April of 2014 as senior managing editor and vice president overseeing news and digital. Prior to that, Dardarian spent 15 years in senior management at The Seattle Times, including roles as managing editor and director of audience development/innovation. After graduating from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degrees in communications and political science, Dardarian reported for The Everett Herald, The News Tribune and The Seattle Times. She is also a former president of the Associated Press Media Editors.

During her time as managing editor at The Times, it earned two Pulitzer Prizes, for breaking news and investigative reporting. Also, a project she edited for the News Tribune was a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting. In 2016, the Star Tribune was a Pulitzer finalist in local reporting for its examination of Minnesota’s treatment of people with disabilities. This year a Star Tribune project on the state’s failure to adequately handle cases of elder abuse was awarded the APME grand prize for Public Service.

Ellyn Fisher 

Ellyn Fisher is the senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Ad Council. She promotes the organization and its more than 40 public service communications programs, including Smokey Bear and “Love Hates No Labels,” the Ad Council’s iconic diversity and inclusion effort. During her 15 years of experience, Fisher has developed an expertise in media relations, influencer engagement, community management, content development and strategic partnerships.

Fisher has served on the American Cancer Society’s Communications and Marketing Advisory Board. Fisher is an alumna of Penn State and has served on the Advertising/PR Board of the Bellisario College of Communications and currently serves on Penn State’s Communications and Marketing Committee. She received Penn State’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2012.

Marie Hardin 

Marie Hardin has been the dean of Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications since July 2014. She joined Penn State's faculty in 2003, and previously served as associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education, capping levels of responsibility that grew regularly during her tenure at the University. 

Hardin’s research has focused on issues of diversity, ethics and professionalism in sports journalism. She is author of more than 80 journal articles and book chapters and is co-editor of a book on sports and digital media, published by Routledge. Hardin was also the director of the Arthur W. Page Center between 2010 and 2014. 

Aedhmar Hynes 

Aedhmar Hynes is the board director of IP Group Plc and Jackson Family Wines. She is also the former CEO of Text100, a global marketing communications agency that boasts a diverse list of clients, including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, American Express and AirBnB. She has become a recognized voice in global leadership within public relations. For decades, she has been described as a “natural disrupter” and an agent of change within the industry. Hynes graduated from The National University of Ireland—Galway and is currently a member of its foundation board. She is a member of Page Society board of trustees and its current chair.

Hynes received the Global Technology Award for Communications and was named one of the top 50 most powerful people by PRWeek the past three years. She received the Page Society Distinguished Service Award, the Plank Center Milestones in Mentoring Agency Award, and was named 2018 Global Professional of the Year.

William G. Margaritis 

Bill Margaritis is a business consultant and investor. He oversaw corporate branding, internal and external communications, government relations and corporate responsibility programs for Hilton Worldwide. Margaritis previously served as senior vice president for FedEx Corporation for 16 years, overseeing reputation management, investor relations, public relations, employee communications and CSR programs for FedEx Corp. and its subsidiaries globally. 

Prior to joining FedEx, Margaritis was vice president of Bechtel International, based in London and was responsible for managing public relations and marketing communications for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia. He also worked in Washington, D.C., and Athens, Greece, for separate divisions of the company. Margaritis also has broad experience in government affairs through positions with Occidental Petroleum, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and the Michigan State Senate. In 1984, Margaritis served as deputy director of the Reagan-Bush re-election campaign for the state of Michigan.

Tom Martin 

Tom Martin serves as executive-in-residence in the Department of Communication at the College of Charleston. In 2023, he founded the Martin Center for Mentorship in Communication, to help inspire and develop a future generation of leaders and mentors among today’s outstanding communication students, and to foster more robust relationships between those who educate and those who practice in the communications field. The Center’s work includes the Martin Scholars, an experiential learning program for graduating seniors that Martin launched in 2016.

Martin was formerly vice president of Corporate Communications for FedEx, where he was responsible for the public relations and internal communications for the launch of the FedEx brand in 1994. After leaving FedEx, he served as senior vice president and chief communications officer for ITT Corporation. He served as a trustee for the Page Society for over a decade and was its chair in 2004-05. He received the Society’s Distinguished Service Award in 2011. He received the Legacy Award for mentoring from the Plank Center at the University of Alabama in 2022, and the Order of the Silver Crescent from the governor of South Carolina in 2023, in recognition of his many years of volunteer service at the College of Charleston.

John S. Nichols 

John Nichols, emeritus professor of communications, is the founding director of the Page Center. Nichols taught international communications at Penn State since he joined the faculty in 1977 and specialized in Cuban communication issues for nearly three decades. His current research focuses on international propaganda, the right to travel, and the role of media in conflict.

Nichols is the co-author or contributing author of three books that have received the Choice "Outstanding Academic Book" award and is the author of numerous other publications in international communications and foreign affairs. He is a past chair of the University Faculty Senate and, in 1999, won Penn State's "Most Innovative Teacher" award. His Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota.

Bill Nielsen 

Advisory Board Chair

Willard “Bill” Nielsen is a former corporate vice president of public affairs at Johnson & Johnson and a management communications consultant. He specializes in organizational vision and values, corporate communications, public relations, public affairs and corporate coaching, drawing on experience gained over 30 years in both industry and agency leadership positions.

Nielsen serves on the Boards of Trustees of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Josephson Institute of Ethics. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the TEDMED Conferences. He retired as corporate vice president of public affairs, at Johnson & Johnson in 2004, after 17 years with the company. He joined Johnson & Johnson in 1988, following 18 years as a public relations agency consultant with Carl Byoir & Associates and Hill and Knowlton. Nielsen served two terms as president of the Page Society and was inducted into that organization’s Hall of Fame in September 2003.  

John Onoda

John Onoda is a principal at iQ 360 Inc. He started his career as a journalist at the Omaha World-Herald before reporting for the Houston Chronicle. In 1981, he moved to corporate communications serving as a senior communications associate for Mitchell Energy.

Over the rest of his career, Onoda held leadership positions at some of the most recognizable companies in the world, including Levi Strauss & Co., General Motors, Visa USA and Charles Schwab & Co. He has also worked as a consultant and adviser at both FleishmanHillard and Gagen MacDonald. In 2018, the Page Center honored Onoda with a Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication.

Andy Polansky

Andy Polansky has more than three decades of client service, mentoring, P&L and M&A experience, which he developed while serving in leadership roles for some of the world's most admired global strategic communications and marketing services consultancies. Polansky is widely recognized as one of the leaders of the global public relations industry, having served as executive chairman of Weber Shandwick until June 2022 after serving as its CEO from 2012-2019. Earlier in his tenure he played a key role in managing the integration of the PR industry's largest merger and in developing innovative practice areas to generate new revenue streams. Polansky also served as chairman and chief executive officer of IPG DXTRA.

Aimee Rinehart 

Aimee Rinehart is the senior product manager AI strategy for The Associated Press. Before joining AP, she was the deputy director of First Draft’s New York bureau helping journalists and newsrooms to identify, verify and report on mis- and disinformation through the 2018 and 2020 U.S. election cycles.

Rinehart is in the 2024 cohort of the Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism CUNY as the Tow-Knight Fellow in AI Studies. She co-led the Knight Center for the Americas massive open online course on how newsrooms can use AI. She served on the steering committee for Partnership on AI’s AI Procurement and Use Guidebook for Newsrooms, and was a council member advising the direction of the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology at the University of Florida. Rinehart started working online in 1996 and was a digital originator at The New York Times and returned to print briefly as an editor at the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels.

Gary Sheffer 

Gary Sheffer is the Sandra A. Frazier professor of public relations at Boston University. Prior to this position, he was a senior corporate strategist at Weber Shandwick. Sheffer served as vice president of corporate communications and public affairs for General Electric for 13 years.

Sheffer was GE’s chief global reputation officer, developing protocols for crisis, risk assessment and tactical execution. Sheffer also served as chairman of the Page Society. He is on the board of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and is a founder/board member of the GE-Reagan Scholarship Program.

Charlene Wheeless

Charlene Wheeless is a senior advisor for Equity and Justice at APCO Worldwide. She also leads her own consulting business that assists corporations in identifying and addressing racial justice issues, as well as communications challenges. She is the former principal vice president of corporate affairs from the Bechtel Corporation. Prior to that role, she was vice president of communications at Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems and senior vice president of global communications at American Management Systems.

Wheeless is currently the chairperson of Page. She was named one of the 50 most influential public relations professionals for five straight years. In 2017, The Network Journal named Wheeless as one of “25 Influential Black Women in Business.”

Denise Bortree 

Page Center Director 

Denise Bortree is a professor in the department of advertising and public relations and associate dean at the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State and the director of the Arthur W. Page Center. She brings more than 10 years of industry experience to the position, including work as communications manager for two Fortune 500 companies. Bortree’s research focuses on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and nonprofit communication.

Bortree's research on volunteer communication led to her selection by the United Nations Volunteers to write for its State of the World’s Volunteerism study.  Her work at the Page Center has resulted in two co-edited books and a number of peer reviewed publications.