The official tenure of Rich Bagin, APR, with the National School Public Relations Association comes to a close at the end of February 2021. Bagin spent the last four months serving as executive director emeritus after serving as NSPRA’s executive director from 1992–2020. His retirement marks the close of three decades with NSPRA on the front lines of school communications leadership.  

"NSPRA has a solid foundation on which we will continue to build, thanks to Rich's leadership," said NSPRA Executive Director Barbara Hunter, APR, who assumed the role in November. "Over the last 30 years, thousands of members, including me, have benefited from NSPRA's resources and support. We wish Rich and his wife Carolyn all our very best on their next adventure!"

Bagin took the helm at NSPRA amid a financial crisis in the early 1990s and went on to lead the association to new and prosperous heights. (Learn more in A Short History of NSPRA.) Those heights included record-setting attendance figures for the NSPRA National Seminar, most recently with the more than 1,100 attendees at the 2019 event. He was instrumental in initiating the NSPRA Communication Audit process and has conducted numerous audits over the years. He also has represented NSPRA on the boards of multiple national education leadership associations and served as a workshop leader for major education associations and school districts throughout the United States and Canada.

Bagin is the author of numerous articles, blogs and print and digital publications. A few of those works include NSPRA’s Communication Guidebook for Teachers; Evaluating Your School Public Relations Investment, Planning Your School Public Relations Investment; and Making Parent Communication Effective and Easy. He also co-authored Making/Marketing Your School the School of Choice and authored Principals in the Public… Engaging Community Support, jointly published by MetLife, the National Elementary School Principals Association (NAESP) and NSPRA.

In 2002, Bagin received NSPRA’s prestigious Presidents Award, the highest award given to a professional in school public relations, for a lifetime of achievement in school public relations.

Watch the video below for fond reflections and memories of his service, offered by past members of the NSPRA Executive Board.