Dave Gilbert, president of the multi-national communications firm, Golin/Harris International, discussed”Building TrustDoes it Fly?”on Tuesday (March 12), kicking off Journalism Week 2001 that runs through March 21.


For the past three years, Golin/Harris has worked toward building an image of trust, Gilbert said.”We have set out to answer who are we? What do we want to be known as? What makes Golin/Harris different from other big agencies? Why would people want to work for Golin/Harris instead of another agency? The key word that kept coming up was’trust.’”


Golin/Harris is an agency that can be trusted Gilbert noted.”When people look at agencies, we want them to say or think Golin/Harris is the `trustagency. Trust is in our heritage and we want to leverage that.”


Gilbert said”trust”is rapidly slipping away in today’s cynical society.”A lot has happened to reduce the trust level that most people have todayO.J. Simpson, Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinski, Saddam, Columbine, recounts, on and on, you name it,”he added.”I want to engage students and the public in a dialogue that can ultimately change societymy goal is to throw trust up against the wall to see if it will stick.”


Gilbert began his communications career in the 1960s, as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He joined Golin/Harris in 1993 as the general manager of the agency’s Chicago office; in 1997 he was named president of Golin/Harris. As president, Gilbert is directly responsible for the company’s Eastern and Central regions of the U.S., as well as the European and Latin American regions globally. Prior to joining Golin/Harris, Gilbert was press secretary for Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson and served as CEO of Lesnik Public Relations and president of the Sioux Falls Skyforce, a Continental Basketball Association.


Gilbert also is a member of the Board of Directors, Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Economic Club of Chicago, the Executives Club of Chicago, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Public Relations Society of America.


Additional presentations during Journalism Week include:

* Thursday, March 15, 5 p.m., Room 458, Business and EconomicsBuilding,”When Women Mean Business: Corporate and Media Entrepreneurs Tell Their Stories”


Four panelists will share their life experiences as in a discussion,”When Women Mean Business: Corporate and Media Entrepreneurs Tell Their Stories.”The panel is a unique collaboration between the College of Business and Economics and the P.I.ReedSchool of Journalism. The panelists, all of whom started their own media and consulting firms, include Linda Arnold, CEO of The Arnold Agency in Charleston; Leslie Braksick, CEO and president of CLG Consulting; Mary Jane Gallagher, senior vice president for Golin/Harris International in Washington, D.C.; and Lorenelle White, publisher of The State Journal in Charleston.


“Ambition, persistence, fire in the belly commitment and passionthat’s what it takes to be successful,”said Arnold, who founded her own full-service advertising, public relations and government relations firm two decades ago.”Being successful is all about attitude; I think entrepreneurs make their own opportunities and someone with good ideas and determination can make it anywhere.”Arnold Agency clients have included AT&T and Subway.


Gallagher also founded her own firm in the D.C. area before joining Golin/Harris. She began her career as the first female press secretary to former West Virginia Gov. John D. Rockefeller IV. She also has worked as a counselor for FedEx, Nike, GTE and universities such as OhioState, Yale and Columbia.


Braksick, founder of the Continuous Learning Group (CLG), will share her experience as a nationally known consultant, executive coach and published author. As president of CLG , she develops strategy, manages operations and guides corporate growth. CLG ’s clients include AT&T, Bayer Corporation, Bechtel Corporation, Bell Atlantic, United Airlines and UPS .


White, owner and publisher of The State Journal, was named”1998 Media Advocate of the Year”by the U.S. Small Business Administration. She oversees sales, circulation and production for West Virginia’s weekly business newspaper.

* Wednesday, March 21, 7:30 p.m., Mountainlair Ballroom,”The Big Story: The Extraordinary Path to Winning the Pulitzer


Also part of the WVU Festival of Ideas series, the panel features four renowned journalists who won their professions highest honor.


David Halberstam is a reporter/writer who was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for his outstanding reporting on Vietnam at age 30. His trilogy of books on power in America”The Best and the Brightest (1972),”The Powers That Be”(1979) and”The Reckoning”(1986)have helped define the later part of the century and won him critical acclaim. Halberstam’s best seller,”The Fifties,”was the basis for an eight-part series on The History Channel. His latest book,”The Children,”chronicles the lives of eight young civil rights activists he met in 1960, as a reporter for The (Nashville) Tennessean.


Thomas French won a 1998 Pulitzer for a distinguished example of feature writing. French of The St. Petersburg Times was recognized for his detailed and compassionate narrative portrait of a mother and two daughters slain on a Florida vacation, and the three-year investigation into their murders.


Liz Balmaseda of The Miami Herald won the Pulitzer in 1993 for her commentary from Haiti about deteriorating political and social conditions and her columns about Cuban-Americans in Miami.


Terry Wimmer, a graduate from WVU ’s School of Journalism, has worked as a reporter, editor, project leader and college professor. In 1996 Wimmer joined the Orange County Register , in California, where he led the Pulitzer-prize-winning team that exposed fertility clinic fraud.


During weekdays between March 12 -21, numerous media and communications professionalsmost of whom are successful School of Journalism alumswill also speak at Martin Hall. All activities are open to the public and free of charge.


Daytime speakers include: Toni Locy, an investigative reporter for _ USA Today_ ; Mike Fulton, Lane Bailey and Mary Jane Gallagher, top executives at Golin/Harris International in Washington, D.C.; Mark Casey, news director at KPNX -TV in Phoenix, Ariz.; Linda Arnold, president of The Arnold Agency in Charleston; Lorenelle White, publisher of The State Journal ; Louise Seals, managing editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch , Elizabeth Pellegrin, vice-president at Charles Ryan Associates in Charleston; Sam Hindman, publisher of The Charleston Daily Mail ; and Kim Gemondo, publisher of The Shinnston News&Harrison County Journal .


For a schedule of events, call Brenda Sisler or Mary Furbee at 304-293-3505.