Center is only University-based agency to gain this distinction
The Center for Public Interest Communications, based in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, has been named by PRNEWS to the 2027 Agency Elite Top 120 cohort.
Every year, the editors of PRNEWS identify the firms and organizations rewriting what great strategic communications looks like. The Agency Elite Top 120 recognizes public relations and communications firms of every size and specialization—from bold independents to global powerhouses—that are setting the pace for the entire industry.
“Out of nearly 59,000 agencies nationwide, the Center for Public Interest Communications earned a place in the top 120,” said College of Journalism and Communications Dean Hub Brown. “That’s a direct reflection of the strength of the programming we’ve built at the UF College of Journalism and Communications, and I couldn’t be prouder of what this team has accomplished.”
The Center for Public Interest Communications helps purpose-driven organizations move beyond good intentions with evidence-based, outcome-oriented communication strategies that produce lasting and meaningful change. Their work sits at the intersection of behavioral science, systems thinking and strategic communication, and they build practical strategies through original research, translation of peer-reviewed findings from cognitive and social science, and we contribute new knowledge back to those fields. The result: real-world solutions fueled by proprietary, replicable frameworks, including the Six Spheres of InfluenceSM and the Science of Story BuildingSM, that any organization can apply.
The Center’s team of half a dozen strategists and scholars has global reach. Partners have included the United Nations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Council on Foundations, Commonwealth Fund, Gates Foundation, ADT, and others tackling the world’s most pressing problems. Like the other agencies on the list, the Center’s work is fee-for-service. The Center is self-sustaining and independent of state or university funding.
“I’m proud of what a small team can do when the science is sound and the partnerships are real,” said Ann Searight Christiano, Center director and clinical professor in public relations. “This recognition isn’t just about the Center. It’s a sign that public interest communications is maturing as a field, and that the research we generate is actually changing how practitioners do the work.”
The Center is unique among the Top 120 honorees: it’s the only firm based at a university. The Center’s status as a scrappy, public-facing strategic consultancy working on the world’s hardest problems with direct access to the research infrastructure of a top-tier “Research 1” institution places it at a unique advantage and advances UF’s land-grant mission: to understand and provide solutions to the greatest challenges facing communities, states, the nation, and the world. Its methodology puts rigorous science within arm’s reach of every client engagement, compressing the distance between peer-reviewed evidence and real-world strategy.
Since its inception in 2018, the Center worked from its base in UF’s College of Journalism and Communications to build upon a community of practice in public interest communications. The team has developed nearly a dozen frameworks derived from insights from behavioral, cognitive and social science that strategic communicators can apply to their work. In addition to service agreements with partners for strategic communication projects, the Center offers professional development, custom training and conducts field-building events such as the frank gathering and other events. Searight Christiano and UF Karel Chair Angela Bradbery also published the first textbook in the strategy and application of public interest communications in 2025.