EX-OFFICIO PRESIDENT

Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication

Professor at the Department of Communication Research of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Media and Communication

First elected and immediate past president of the PACMRI

Professor Fernando dlC. Paragas is the Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication (UPCMC) and a Professor at its Department of Communication Research. Dr. Paragas is the Editor-in-Chief of the Scopus-listed Plaridel Journal, the Convenor of the Program on Higher Education Research and Policy Reform at the UP Center for Integrative Development Studies, and the President and Vice-Chair of the UP CMC Foundation, Inc. He is also the first elected and immediate past president of the Philippine Association for Communication and Media Research, Inc. 

He completed his PhD degree in Mass Communication at Ohio University as a scholar of the Fulbright program of the United States of America. Dr. Paragas earned his MA in Urban and Regional Planning, for which he received a Dean's Medallion, and BA in Communication Research, where he received the Best Undergraduate Thesis Award, at UP Diliman. 

Dr Paragas had taught at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2019, he received the Gawad Tsanselor sa Natatanging Guro sa UP Diliman and, in 2020, the Outstanding Senior Faculty Award of UPCMC. He has a cumulative total of over 100 academic publications, competitive conference papers, commissioned studies, and invited presentations. 

He has received various academic grants from UP as well as professional awards on public relations and business communications.