Bachelor of Public Relations

Dr. Lydia Boyko joined Humber College in 2011 after more than 20 years of business experience in the private sector, with a focus on government and investor relations in the financial services sector, and several years as a partial-load professor at the post-secondary level, in addition to news media work in her "first career." She is an accredited life member of the Canadian Public Relations Society and a fellow of the Life Management Institute specializing in life and health insurance, and a member of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute and the International Association of Business Communicators. Lydia completed a journalism first-class honours undergraduate degree at Carleton University, a post-graduate certificate in business communication at McGill University, and Master of Education and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral thesis, Academic Department Management, won the 2010 George L. Geis Dissertation Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. Lydia serves as chair of the Humber Research Ethics Board.

Kenneth Chou is a graduate of the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University. He’s had the privilege of working with a diverse range of clients spanning industries from the performing arts, literature, and film and television. His work has been published in Macleans, the Globe and Mail, and on the BBC. While working with The Glenn Gould Foundation, Ken had the honour of photographing the renowned soprano Jessye Norman, and the iconic composer Philip Glass. Besides being an educator and photographer, he is also the co-founder of Better than Fine Inc, a production company specializing in digital content creation, and media strategy.

Mark Hunter LaVigne, MA, APR, FCPRS, has 30 years’ experience as a media relations specialist and has taught most recently in the PR degree programs at Humber and Centennial Colleges in his 16-year career as a part-time professor.

For the past 21 years, he has operated his own media relations and media training firm, Hunter LaVigne Communications Inc. For seven years prior to that, he worked for PR agencies in downtown Toronto including Ogilvy and Mather and Hill and Knowlton. Prior to his career in public relations, he worked as a radio journalist for five years in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto with CKO, CJEZ, BN, and CBC Radio.

He has done client work for a number of companies including Aon, Kodak Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, McCormick Canada, Netflix, SANYO Canada, Schneider Foods, Sega, and volunteer board work with the Canadian Public Relations Society, Aurora Sports Hall of Fame, and Yellow Brick House women’s shelter.

He has a master of arts in ournalism from the University of Western Ontario and an honours bachelor of arts in mass communications and English from York University.

He is an award-winning, accredited member (APR) of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), and a member of the CPRS College of Fellows (FCPRS). He is a past president of CPRS Toronto and past vice-president of CPRS National.

He wrote the media relations chapter in Fundamentals of Public Relations and Marketing Communications (University of Alberta Press 2015) and is co-author of the new edition of In the News (3rd ed. University of Alberta Press 2019) and author of Proactive Media Relations in Canada (3rd ed. Centennial College Press 2019), with the French version published in 2020. An internal communications textbook was published in the summer of 2021.

Mark has also published a children’s book, The Adventures of Matilda the Tooth Fairy, and a number of songs with his former band, The Coyotes, “Out of the Woods." He continues to songwrite and perform on guitar, ukulele, vocals and harmonica.

The first book in his memoir series, “The Broken Ukulele, Advice for Twenty Somethings in a Broken World,” was published in April 2020 by Rock’s Mills Press, with the sequel, The Broken Turtle, due in June 2021.

He maintains his certification with the Canadian Ski Instructor’s Alliance, and is an avid canoe tripper and backpacker, mainly in Algonquin Park and environs, north of Toronto.

Anne Marie Males is an experienced public relations practitioner and professor who is currently the program coordinator of the Bachelor of Public Relations Program. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Journalism) from Ryerson University, a Bachelor of Administrative Studies from York University and a Master of Communication Management from McMaster University. She has also earned a certificate in Culinary Arts from George Brown College.
Anne Marie’s teaching career began after a 20+ year career in public relations, communications and administration. She was the Vice President of Patient Relations at The Scarborough Hospital and the Chief of Public Affairs and Community Relations for the Rouge Valley Health System. Her time in healthcare allowed her to develop crisis management expertise, having dealt with both SARS and a serious Legionnaires outbreak.
She was also the manger of communications for the Scarborough Board of Education, and later joined the Toronto District school board. She has worked in both advertising and public relations, and has worked as a consultant with a diverse list of clients including many of Canada’s leading real estate developers.
Anne Marie is also an accomplished freelance writer whose credits include Readers Digest, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and Homes Magazine. For eight years, she was The Sunday Sun’s restaurant reviewer, and, after many years, she is still working on her second novel. In 2020, Oxford University Press released “Public Relations in the Digital Age” an introductory Canadian public relations textbook co-authored with Tom Kelleher.

Daniel Schneider is a professor in the Bachelor of Public Relations program. He brings over 15 years’ experience working in PR specializing in media relations and brand development.

For eight years, Daniel was an associate publicist at Pennant Media Group doing entertainment and lifestyle PR promoting artists, actors, musicians, filmmakers and production companies. In 2011, he founded Brand Management Agency with the tagline: “Every brand has a story to tell. We help you to discover it.”

In March 2021, Daniel presented a virtual TEDxHumberCollege talk, called “Pivoting better during a time of crisis,” discussing how companies need to predict the future and pivot quickly to develop competitive solutions that drive change into the future.

With background in the visual arts, Daniel entered the field of communication to raise awareness for artistic talent in Canada. He completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Guelph where he researched social influence in the art world.

A full-time professor in Faculty of Media & Creative Arts, the courses Andrea teaches include social media, strategic communication planning, and communication theory, and she is a thesis supervisor. In addition to her teaching, she is an active member of the Canadian Public Relations Society; has presented at a variety of academic and industry conferences; delivered a TEDx talk; and started a podcast, PR Delivered.

She earned her PhD and undergrad degrees at the University of Toronto. Prior to teaching, she spent 14 years in advertising, government public affairs and public relations working for The Region of Peel, YTV, MTV and StarChoice Television.