diff --git a/app/models/profile.rb b/app/models/profile.rb
index fe5a610..03666f1 100644
--- a/app/models/profile.rb
+++ b/app/models/profile.rb
@@ -113,6 +113,14 @@ class Profile < ActiveRecord::Base
     nil
   end
 
+  # returns the contact email for this profile. By default returns the the
+  # e-mail of the owner user.
+  #
+  # Subclasses may -- and should -- override this method.
+  def contact_email
+    self.user ? self.user.email : nil
+  end
+
   # gets recent documents in this profile.
   #
   # +limit+ is the maximum number of documents to be returned. It defaults to
diff --git a/test/unit/profile_test.rb b/test/unit/profile_test.rb
index a35d85e..cd020f7 100644
--- a/test/unit/profile_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/profile_test.rb
@@ -145,7 +145,10 @@ class ProfileTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   end
 
   should 'provide a contact_email method which returns a ... contact email address' do
-    flunk 'not implemented yet'
+    p = Profile.create!(:name => 'Profile for testing ', :identifier => 'profilefortesting')
+    assert_nil p.contact_email
+    p.user = User.new(:email => 'testprofile@example.com')
+    assert_equal 'testprofile@example.com', p.contact_email
   end
 
   private
--
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