PRSA PDX History: 2000s and 2010s
2000s and 2010s
Chapter Presidents
2000 – Timm Locke, APR – Timm Locke was principal/PR Director at KnollGROUP when he served as chapter president. He went on to serve as founder and president of Pipeline PR+Marketing. He was the 2006 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award.
2001 – Deb Hedding, APR – Deb Hedding, APR, was director of public relations for Sanda Communications, an integrated marketing communications agency. She later served as public relations director for the American Red Cross Pacific Northwest Regional Blood Services. She was previously a vice president at Rockey Bowler Public Relations.
2002 – Macy Guppy, PhD, APR – Dr. Macy Guppy, APR, was a visiting assistant professor at Linfield College. The founder of GoodWorksPR, she has been a writer and editor for the Oregon Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority.
2003 – Olga Haley, APR – Olga Haley led the public relations department at Gerber Advertising before joining Cole & Weber in 1995. In 1996, she started her own shop, Power PR, and joined with Leopold Ketel & Partners. In 2002, she founded the public relations group at the CMD marketing agency. In 2006, she rejoined Leopold Ketel. Olga Haley was the 2004 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award. The Olga M. Haley Mentorship Award is named in her memory.
2004 – Katlin Smith, APR – Katlin Smith was founder of Katlin Smith Communications. She also founded UrbanWords Group. A past president of the Vancouver (Washington) Rotary Foundation, she was the 2012 recipient of the Ron Schmidt Community Involvement Award.
2005 – Patricia Atkins, APR – The former director of marketing and communications for Providence Seaside Hospital, Patti Atkins was promoted to regional public relations manager for Providence Health & Services and went on to work for Woloshin Communications. In 2014, she joined Chuck Williams, APR, and Mara Woloshin, APR, Fellow PRSA, as recipients of the inaugural Olga M. Haley Mentorship Award.
2006 – Dianne Danowski Smith, APR, Fellow PRSA – Dianne Danowski Smith served as Portland director of the Ulum Group PR-PA (now known as Vox PR-PA) before joining Publix Northwest PR|PA as vice president. She served as 2004 chair of PRSA’s North Pacific District. The 2009 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award, she was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 2012.
2007 – Madeline Turnock, APR – The founder of Portland-based KinetiComm, Madeline Turnock served as vice president at Rockey Hill & Knowlton before joining Concordia University Portland where she served as director of marketing & communications before being named advisor to the president.
2008 – Darcie Meihoff, APR – After working for Cole & Weber and Leopold Ketel & Partners, Darcie Meihoff joined CMD where she served as vice president/executive director for earned media. She was the 2013 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2013 Portland Business Journal Woman of Influence Orchid Award honoree.
2009 – Tom Unger, ABC, APR, CTM, Fellow PRSA – Tom Unger joined Wells Fargo in 1993. His leadership roles include serving as regional communications manager and vice president. He is also a past president of the Oregonian-Columbia Chapter of IABC. He was the 2011 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 2012. In 2015, he received the Olga M. Haley Mentorship Award.
2010 & 2011* – Dave Thompson, APR – After a distinguished career in broadcast journalism, Dave Thompson joined the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2002. His leadership roles include serving as public affairs program manager. He was the 2015 recipient of the William W. Marsh Lifetime Achievement Award.
*2011 – Sara Wurfel, APR – After being elected chapter president while working as director of communications for AARP Oregon, Sara Wurfel was named press secretary for the governor of Michigan in January 2011. Immediate Past President Dave Thompson, APR, fulfilled the duties of president for the rest of the year.
2012 – Jenna Cooper, APR – An award-winning journalist, Jenna Cooper’s public relations experience includes the media department at CMD, serving as public information officer for NW Natural, and serving as director of communications for Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital. In 2012, she founded JennaCooperPR.
2013 – Amber Lindsey, APR – After serving as public relations director for Koopman Ostbo and account director for Maxwell PR, Amber Lindsey established Amber Lindsey Public Relations. In 2015, she joined the Oregon Food Bank as marketing and communications manager.
2014 – Barbara Kerr, APR, Fellow PRSA – A former broadcast journalist, Barbara Kerr joined the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Ministries Corporation as Chief Communications Officer after serving as executive director of communications and marketing at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. She was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 2015.
2015 – Taraneh Fultz, APR – A recipient of the 2007 New Professional of the Year Award, Taraneh (Foster) Fultz led strategic communications efforts at Swagelok Northwest before joining Cambia Health Solutions as a field marketing analyst for business to business marketing.
News Archives/Dates of Significance
Dec. 4, 2000 – The first Spotlight Awards ceremony of the millennium was held at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts and Dolores Winningstad Theatre. [Source: PRSA Portland Metro Chapter archives.]
Dec. 13, 2000 – The chapter’s 2001 officers were elected during a “Meet the Media” breakfast at Meier & Frank’s Georgia Room Restaurant in downtown Portland.
October 2003 – PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter revised and updated their bylaws.
2003 – The chapter established a “Young Professional Award of Excellence.” The award name was later changed to “New Professional Award of Excellence” to reflect the fact that PR practitioners may enter the field at different points in their career.
May 9, 2007 – The annual Communicators Conference theme was “Shifting technological and social landscapes: creating stories that stick.”
May 2008 – PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter joined Twitter.
May 7-8, 2008 – A two-day Communicators Conference is held at the Holiday Inn [now the Crowne Plaza]. The theme: “From typewriter to iPhone: being heard by multiple generations.”
July 13, 2010 – PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter launched its Facebook page.
July 27, 2011 – PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter launched its YouTube site with a video about a speed interviewing event on a new YouTube channel.
May 9, 2012 – The 2012 Communicators Conference featured a theme of “Remaining Relevant.”
2012 – The chapter launched a new website, created in WordPress. The web address remained the same: www.prsa-portland.org
2012 – PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter launched its Flickr site. The first album featured photos from the 2011 Spotlight Awards.
May 8, 2013 – The theme of the 2013 Communicators Conference was “Integrate to innovate.” The event is held at the former Governor Hotel.
May 7, 2014 – The theme of the 2014 Communicators Conference was: “Storytelling. Storymaking. Storydoing.” The event is held at the newly-named Sentinel Hotel.
June 9, 2014 – The Olga M. Haley Mentorship Award was established by the chapter. The new Award of Distinction was approved by the chapter Board of Directors during their June meeting. The inaugural award was presented to Patti Atkins, APR; Chuck Williams, APR; and Mara Woloshin, APR, Fellow PRSA, for their longtime leadership of the chapter’s Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) program.
Aug. 11, 2014 – In July 2014, President Barbara Kerr, APR, and President-elect Taraneh Fultz, APR, met with representatives of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and the U-O George S. Turnbull Portland Center. The discussions with Mike Fancher, Interim Executive Director, Center for Journalism Innovation and Civic Engagement, and Donna Z. Davis, Ph.D., Director, Strategic Communication Master’s Program, led to a strategic partnership between the two entities in which signature chapter events would be held at the Turnbull Center, providing a “home” for chapter in the years to come. By consensus at their August meeting, the chapter Board of Directors approved moving forward with the agreement.
Oct. 16, 2014 – The chapter observes the 50th anniversary of the APR by capturing a group photo of past and present APRs during the annual Spotlight Awards at Portland’s Leftbank Annex. The chapter also purchased a full-page ad in the Oct. 10, 2014, issue of the Portland Business Journal, featuring the names of all chapter APRs. [Source: PRSA PDX archives.]
Oct. 13, 2014 – In May 2014, the Board of Directors approved the creation of a strategic planning committee to lead a visioning process for the chapter. The committee’s work was undertaken to support the governance role of the chapter Board of Directors and to provide recommendations on short- and long-term goals and objectives for the chapter between 2015 and 2020. The committee was chaired by Barbara Kerr, APR, 2014 chapter president. The report was approved by the Board on October 13, 2014. [Source: PRSA PDX archives.]
Nov. 2014 – President-elect Taraneh Fultz, APR, led the first revision of the PRSA Portland Metro Chapter bylaws since 2003. The revision was approved by the membership on September 24, 2014, and by the Society’s Board of Directors at its November 2014 meeting. The revision, which included 17 amendments from the October 2003 bylaws, became effective January 1, 2015. The bylaws revision included authorization of online voting for chapter officers.
May 8, 2015 – After years at the Governor [now Sentinel] Hotel, the annual Communicators Conference moved to The Nines Hotel. Keynote speakers included Frank X. Shaw, corporate vice president of communications at Microsoft; Andre de Waal, Academic Director of the HPO Center, an organization which conducts research into high performance organizations; and Shonali Burke, social media leader and president and CEO of Shonali Burke Consulting, Inc.
2015 – The chapter launches a new website with a new web address: www.prsapdx.org.
Memories
Tom Unger, APR, ABC, Fellow PRSA shared his memories of serving as chapter president as the first decade of the new millennium was coming to an end. Despite the backdrop of the “Great Recession,” it was a vibrant time for the chapter.
I served as the chapter president in 2009. That year our vice president of professional development, Taraneh Fultz, negotiated a package deal with the Governor Hotel and we wound up holding almost all of our events there that year. They included our chapter meetings, our Communicators Conference, our Spotlight Awards and our annual meeting/board elections.
At the beginning of my term, I challenged the board members that each time they were faced with a decision about the chapter, they should ask themselves, “What’s in it for the members?” And if they found that question was hard for them to answer, then I asked them to reconsider their course of action.
Tom Unger shares his memories of the board’s activities in 2009.
Dave Thompson, APR, became only the second professional to serve as chapter president during two calendar years. He was elected in 2010 then served in 2011 after chapter president Sara Wurfel, APR, relocated to Michigan. (The first instance was the chapter’s first president, Robert O. Lee, who served during 1959 and 1960.)
Every board makes a mark worth remembering. Every year, every chapter officer and director accomplishes something noteworthy. And every chapter president sets annual goals, designs agendas monthly, motivates board members weekly, greets chapter members daily, worries if it’s all enough continually…and breathes deeply only at the passing of the torch to the next president at the annual member meeting late in the year.
Such is the way of life on a volunteer board of a professional support organization. It’s a tough, sometimes lonely, always daunting job.
And it’s one of the most fulfilling endeavors I’ve ever had. As chapter president I learned more about leadership—and myself—than in any job I’ve had in 35 years in communications. Talk about an amazing professional development opportunity!
Barbara Kerr, APR, Fellow PRSA, memorialized what 50-plus years of chapter board members learned when she summed up the best advice our chapter members will ever receive: “Don’t just join; join in.”
Thank you, Barbara. You captured the meaning of member engagement and satisfaction in five words! – Dave Thompson, APR
Dave Thompson shares his memories of the board’s activities in 2010 and 2011.
Barbara Kerr, APR, Fellow PRSA, introduced a chapter annual report during her term as president in 2014. Highlights from the year are featured in that report.
The title of our 2014 annual report was “Legacy.” It demonstrated how we preserved our past, honored the present and embraced our future. By capturing and sharing our chapter’s history throughout my board service, I have been privileged to learn about the dedicated professionals who have volunteered their time, talent and passion to advance our chapter and our profession for nearly six decades.
PRSA’s Portland Metro Chapter offers outstanding professional development and networking. But, more than that, it can become your community.
That was my experience, which I shared at our 2013 annual meeting, held at the University of Oregon’s Turnbull Center, as our members prepared to vote for the 2014 leadership team.
“I joined PRSA later in my career. In 2008.
When I went to the Spotlight Awards that year, I knew one person. Luckily, it was the president-elect, Tom Unger, who kindly welcomed me. But I remember being overwhelmed by the Spotlight Award binders and the number of people whose name tags said APR.
A couple of months later, I saw a newsletter item about APR classes. I reached out and Mara Woloshin welcomed me with gusto and encouraged me to attend.
The next summer, I saw a newsletter item about a panel discussion on how to successfully enter the Spotlight Awards. I signed up and Tom Unger and Dianne Danowski Smith welcomed me and showed me what to do.
When I walked into the 2009 Spotlight Awards – one year later – I knew so many people. Three of the binders on those tables were mine and they were successful. And, that night, I got my APR pin from President Tom Unger.
I can never repay what PRSA has given to me, but it’s my honor to try.
Remember: the real value of your membership is what you bring to it.
So… Come to events. Volunteer. Enter the Spotlight Awards. Run for the Board. Earn your APR. Aspire for the College of Fellows. Don’t just join. In 2014, join in. I’m Barbara Kerr, APR…and I approved this message.”
Resources
2000 Spotlight Awards news release
APR 50 Portland Business Journal ad
Communicators-Conference-2008-Program
PCC Program 2007
PRSA PDX Vision 2020 Summary and Recommendations
PRSA Portland 2012 Board NR