Looking Towards the Future

Looking Towards the Future

Monday March 29, 2010

By Lynley Kees

When given the assignment to interview a PR professional, I immediately thought of the Make-A-Wish foundation. In the past years my sorority, Chi Omega, has teamed up with theMake-A-Wish foundation. I have seen hands on what an impact this particular non- profit organization has not only on the family and friends who have benefited from Make-A-Wish, but also the impact it has on its employees. I came across Casey Thompson, who I know through a friend of my sisters who was involved with public relations. I am extremely thankful that I decided to interview her because she helped me immensely and only further accelerated my hopes of working in the field of PR and possibly one day working for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Right now, Casey works under the Make-A-Wish foundation, where her official title is Public Relations Manager. Casey’s job includes working to accomplish publicizing wishes, where she collects the information from the program services team. She writes press releases and media alerts and then will send them to the media. Casey also works on national programs which are managed be the foundations national office and executed locally. Her most recent national program that she was involved with was with Macy’s department store. Casey’s job was to help raise money to publicize Macy’s wish, so that she an also have them cover the fund raising efforts Macy’s is currently working on. Casey is also in charge of the foundations newsletter, editing, website management, and publicity record keeping. She said that editing would probably be most important because she typically sees all the material that leaves the office.

After Casey explained to me her current job, I was interested to know more about her education and previous work experience. She graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, with a minor in English. She had several internships starting from Publicist Dialog to Jet stream public relations. At Jet stream PR, she went from an intern to assistant account executive. She knew that agency life was not for her and after having an internship with the Dallas Centerfor the Performing Arts Foundation, which was a non-profit organization she knew that was where she belonged. That’s how Casey came across Make-A-Wish. She knew she wanted to be involved with a non-profit organization and when a professor told her about the job opening she applied right away and after interviewing she was hooked. She fell in love with the people at the office and noticed how everyone got along so well. Casey says that this feeling has remained the same since she has been working with the company.

Casey has helped me tremendously in sharing with me details of her current job and previous experience. Learning about her job made me open my eyes to the wide world of PR. I would say I have more of an understanding and open mind now about the field. Overall, I think this experience made me more excited to start my career in PR.

Image: Logo
Web Source: Make- A-Wish


Image from above:
Web Source: Foundation

John Losinger Account Executive at Public Strategies, Inc.

By Brian Russell

For my interview I chose John Losinger who works at Public Strategies, Inc. in Dallas, Texas. The title of Losinger’s position is account executive. He joked in telling me that the job title is a bit of a misnomer. “ I don’t really deal with finances , nor am I an “executive”.

Losinger has a different background than most would think to get to his position in public relations. John graduated from Southern Methodist University with a major in Political Science/ Public Policy. His next stop on his journey led him to Washington D.C. for a year to work in politics. After that he moved back to Texas, where he continued working in politics by helping with a Congressional primary campaign. After his time on the campaign trail Losinger went to grad school at (UT Austin) and graduated with a Master of Public Policy from their LBJ School. Three months later he started working at Public Strategies, Inc.

As I spoke to Losinger he was telling me the importance of being able to think on your feet and have adaptability in the workplace. “A lot of PR work involves dealing with fast-moving situations, many of which no one has encountered before,” said Losinger. He was also telling me about the importance of communication with your peers. This is something that I have found very important while working on campaigns, is that the entire group needs to have the same information and is on the same page so the information that is being distributed gets the message out in the same manner.

When I asked John what advice he has for future PR professionals? His answer was simple; get plenty of sleep now.