Who We Are

 

Dick Jones Principal

Dick Jones has more than 25 years of experience in higher education public relations. Before founding the firm in 1987 in Dalton, PA, he was public relations director at the University of Scranton and assistant news bureau manager at Penn State University. He also served as president of the College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania (CUPRAP). And has won five communications awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He wrote the chapter on media relations for CASE's third edition of the Handbook of Institutional Advancement in 2000. He is co-author of a book, How To Get Noticed by the National Media: Your Complete Guide To High-Impact Publicity (Trellis Publishing, 2001). Jones also has worked for daily and weekly newspapers and in radio. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Penn State and a master's degree in television and radio from Syracuse University.

Laura Snyder Account Executive

Laura began working with Dick Jones Communications as a student intern in 1999 while completing her degree at Penn State. She is a contributing editor covering love and relationships for the web portals Netscape and CompuServe (where her advice is regularly featured on the John Tesh national radio show). She has reporting experience from the Morrisons Cove (Pa) Herald and has also been published in Cosmopolitan, The Associated Press, Scripps-Howard News Service and the online She Knows Network.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Penn State University.

Scott Willyerd Account Executive

Scott Willyerd joined Dick Jones Communications in July 2008.  He has a background in both radio and television journalism.  Most recently Scott was a producer at WHP-TV in Harrisburg overseeing all editorial content for the newscasts produced.  Prior to joining WHP, Scott was a news anchor/producer for WTVN in Columbus, Ohio where he wrote and anchored newscasts, produced news programs and booked guests for several programs.  He’s also held positions as general manager, director of training & development and sports director at a radio station in Westerville, Ohio. A self-professed news junkie, Scott is also a fan of professional baseball and college football.  He holds a BA in communications from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio and the MS in journalism from Columbia University in New York.  At Columbia, he earned awards for local reporting and television production.  His wife Katelyn is completing a Ph.D. in plant pathology at Penn State.  The two reside in State College, PA.

Linda Zellers Office Manager

She worked for the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University for 27 years before serving as administrative assistant and treasurer for Faith United Methodist Church in Bellefonte, PA for another seven years. She came to Dick Jones Communications in July 2007.