Monique Kelley

Monique Kelley, associate professor of the practice – strategic communication, and faculty advisor for BU’s PRSSA, is a purpose-driven strategic communications professional with 20+ years of experience spanning across three sectors: corporate, agency and academia. She is a Founding Member of CHIEF (Boston), a community connecting and supporting women executive leaders and a two-time recipient of PRNEWS’ Top Women in PR Award (2019, 2023). In addition to Corporate Communication and Media Strategies & Management, Monique is also teaching the first-ever COM Career Readiness course, kicking off for the spring 2024 semester.

She found her own consultancy, Monique Kelley Consulting, LLC, providing internal and external communications support primarily to Fortune 500 global biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to that, Monique served on the Senior Leadership Team at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, overseeing internal and external communications for the U.S. Chief Operations Officer, Neuroscience Business Unit and Commercial Operations team. In her position as a professor and independent consultant, Monique infuses industry best practices and a customer-centric mindset from her time as both a client and a client experience leader (CXL) on the PR agency side with Weber Shandwick. During her agency career, Monique partnered with several global companies that provide treatments for serious medical conditions in various categories, including Eli Lilly and Company, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, Eisai, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Cubist Pharmaceuticals/Merck & Co., Charles River Laboratories and Bayer HealthCare.

Monique is the recipient of several awards for work that she contributed to, including a Gold Telly Award, PRSA Bronze Anvil Award and Silver Bulldog PR Award. She serves as a reoccurring judge for several industry awards, including for PRNEWS and the PR Club of New England. Monique also served as a speaker for several industry conferences, including BIO International, PRSA Health Academy’s Conference and the PR Advanced Regional Conference. She previously served for two years on PRSA Boston’s Board of Directors (2019, 2020). She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication from BU’s COM (2003) and was a member of the University’s NCAA Division I Women’s Track Team.

Personal statement: As an industry veteran, former BU PRSSA E-Board member and COM graduate, I connect first-hand to the experiences of our students. I have been in their shoes. I take a real-world approach to teaching and leverage my vast, diverse professional network to support the next generation of communications professionals.