Grammy Award-Winning Melissa Etheridge Announced as ICON Speaker

PRSA has added Grammy Award-winning rock artist Melissa Etheridge as a featured speaker at ICON 2024 in Anaheim, Calif., Oct. 15-17. 

Known for her confessional lyrics and raspy, smoky vocals, Etheridge has remained one of America’s favorite female singers for more than two decades. 

Etheridge stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. She received “Songwriter of the Year” honors at the ASCAP Pop Awards in 1996 and celebrated a career milestone with a victory in the “Best Song” category at the Academy Awards for “I Need to Wake Up,” written for the notable documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In June 2020, Etheridge launched The Etheridge Foundation to support groundbreaking scientific research into effective new treatments for opioid use disorder. The Foundation works toward advancing treatment approaches that address the root causes of opioid abuse and make available better, more effective solutions for people to truly heal their opioid use disorder. 

Etheridge, a breast cancer survivor, debuted her one-woman show, “My Window — A Journey Through Life,” in 2022 and released “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” a two-part docuseries (Paramount+) and accompanying live album in 2024.

PRSSA Partners With EveryLibrary for 2025 Bateman Competition

Each year, the Bateman Case Study Competition challenges students to develop and implement a PR campaign on behalf of an actual client. The competition allows students to increase their knowledge, work as a team, and receive real-world experience in the PR profession. 

The 2025 Bateman Case Study Competition is partnering with EveryLibrary and the EveryLibrary Institute. This year’s competition focuses on positioning EveryLibrary as the leading national organization for library activists, donors and users. 

Through their campaigns, students will identify, cultivate and empower new supporters of libraries who will express and operationalize support through an EveryLibrary campaign, channel, or platform.

Students will implement their campaigns early next year. In May 2025, a panel of judges will select the winning campaign.

First established as the National Case Study in 1973 and later renamed to honor the late J. Carroll Bateman, APR, the competition now attracts more than 75 teams yearly.

A Commitment to Ethical Communications

PRSA provides educational opportunities to explore ethics in public relations year-round. PRSA recognizes Ethics Month each September to bring increased attention to the communications profession’s core foundation. 

On Sept. 17 (3-4 p.m. ET), PRSA presents a webinar titled “Overcoming Common but Difficult Ethical Challenges in PR and Comms.” Join Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA, host of the Ethical Voices podcast, and the author of “Ethical Voices: Practicing Public Relations with Integrity,” as he conducts rapid-fire, insightful interviews with senior executives who will share the most significant ethical challenge they faced in their career.

In addition, visit the PRsay blog and PRSA’s social media platforms for updates throughout September.

PRSA Receives ASAE Power of Associations Silver Award

The American Society of Association Executives honored PRSA with a 2024 Power of Association Silver Award for “Promise & Pitfalls: The Ethical Use of AI for Public Relations Practitioners.”

The award recognizes PRSA for its work in advancing industry standards. “Promise & Pitfalls” is an extensive framework that follows PRSA’s Code of Ethics and provides best practices for preventing and managing potential ethical challenges that may arise from the improper use of AI tools. PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS) authored the report following extensive research, expert input and peer review.