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Rice U. expert available to comment on release of accused priests’ names

by Jeff Falk

In recent months, dozens of Catholic bishops have decided to take action by releasing lists of the priests in their dioceses who were credibly accused of child abuse. Releasing the names is a small step in the right direction, in particular relating to healing relations with parishioners, according to a reputation management expert at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Anastasiya (Annie) Zavyalova, assistant professor of strategic management at Rice Business, is available to discuss Catholic dioceses’ crisis and reputation management with the media.

Zavyalova’s recent research includes an in-progress study of how parishioners reacted to the names of priests released by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005.

“Organizational consequences of scandals may be shaped by which units within the organization employed the transgressors, the geographic proximity of a focal unit to those associated units, and whether members engage with the organization through ceremonies or rituals,” said Zavyalova, whose general research focuses on negative events in organizations and the role of the media and organizational identification for stakeholder support following such incidents.

To schedule an interview with Zavyalova, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.


Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Zavyalova bio: http://business.rice.edu/person/anastasiya-zavyalova

Jones Graduate School of Business: http://business.rice.edu