OC/PRSA Captures 5th Straight National Diversity Award

PRSA's Orange County Chapter Captures 5th Straight National Diversity Award
Education programs increase diversity in public relations field.

Costa Mesa, CA (Oct. 21, 2011) -- The Orange County Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has received the PRSA 2011 Chapter Diversity Award for outstanding efforts in advancing diversity initiatives -- a priority of the national organization. The award was presented at the PRSA 2011 International Conference "Imagine, Create, Inspire" held in Orlando, Florida from Oct. 15-18. During its seven years of existence, the chapter has won the award six times.

“The Orange County PRSA chapter is committed to improving the public relations field by promoting the importance of diversity as a critical factor in helping any type of business succeed,” said Brad Lotterman, Orange County/PRSA chapter president. “We have consistently won this award by putting on outstanding programs that engage and educate a diverse group of public relations professionals across Orange County.

The Chapter was honored for year-long initiatives to increase recruitment of diverse members, provide training and development opportunities, and encourage diverse members to consider leadership roles in the Chapter. The Chapter has actively participated in many local diversity programs, such as the Orange County Black Chamber Education Fund, including presenting a $250 scholarship to the organization for a student majoring in communications.
 
Additional education efforts included co-hosting a social media webinar, coordinating a workshop, “Networking With HR Execs: What Diverse Candidates Need to Know in the Digital Age,” and organizing its 7th Annual Diversity Conference, “Census 2010 Changes the Landscape: PR & Marketing Strategies for a New America.” The event provided opportunities for recent college graduates and volunteers to gain event planning and networking experience. It also highlighted best practices used during the Census 2010 campaign to reach Arab Americans, mature adults, and Latino populations. 

“We are proud to honor the accomplishments of our PRSA Chapters in advancing and supporting diversity within their communities and the public relations profession,” said Anne Dean, PRSA Diversity Committee chair and senior director of communications at Argosy University. “Their efforts demonstrate a commitment and dedication to ensuring that our work as practitioners reflects and engages the diverse populations we serve and support.”

Rosanna Fiske, CEO/Chair, PRSA addressed ethics and touted the importance of diversity and inclusion in the conference’s opening session attended by more than 3,000 communications professionals. “We are blessed to have a variety of innovative, charismatic and brilliant professionals of all demographics in public relations. However, our industry faces significant diversity issues, not only in terms of racial and ethnic diversity, but in gender and age diversity, too,” Fiske told the attendees.

“If we are to meet the business community’s most pressing communications and marketing needs, then the demographic makeup of our profession must reflect that of society. Increasing diversity within the profession will be key to public relations’ success in the years to come, as businesses continue to seek a more global perspective to their communications and marketing initiatives. It is a fact we cannot escape, and one that PRSA will continue to address in a proactive and productive manner.”

In addition, the value of diversity in PR was addressed by keynote speaker Soledad O'Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent. O’Brien shared stories about challenges her family faced that would help define her career in journalism, particularly as shared in her CNN documentary series titled, “In America.”

“The bigger message is about envisioning the life that you could lead and that you felt you deserved to lead, minimizing external voices and having a certain kind of bravery about the choices that you make,” O’Brien shared in her conference presentation on “Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes and In Our Lives.” “These are diverse stories that have value, and we’re judged on ratings, revenue and reputation.”

O’Brien also described the success gained by her CNN series, equating it to brand alignment and telling real stories that answer the question, “What does it mean to be Black, gay or Latino in America? At a time when branding and messaging is more critical than ever, we’ve been able to cut through the noise to create content that is relevant, well done and also has become well known,” she said.

PRSA promotes educational outreach programs for its members and the public relations industry by using diversity as a smart business strategy to achieve and maintain a competitive edge in today’s diverse marketplace. The Chapter Diversity Award, sponsored by the PRSA Diversity Committee, is given to PRSA Chapters that embody and demonstrate key values in diversity, as well as succeeded in the following areas:

•    Initiated and maintained a successful diversity program within the last year.
•    Recruited or mentored members with interests and expertise in diversity.
•    Demonstrated a significant contribution toward diversity.
•    Showcased diversity as one of the top three strategic goals for the Chapter.

The Orange County/PRSA Chapter received a $250 award to be put toward the Chapters’ diversity efforts. To learn more about the Chapter, log on to ocprsa.org. For more conference recaps, log on to www.prsa.org. For the PRSA press release, go to:
http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=2321

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Contact:  Angela Burrell, APR, Chair, OC/PRSA Diversity Committee
(714) 813-5109/aburrell@cox.net