PRSA Announces Nominees for 2023 Board of Directors

Candidates to Stand for Election at Leadership Assembly in November

NEW YORK, July 26, 2022 – PRSA, the nation’s leading professional organization serving the communications community, today announced the officer and director nominees for its 2023 Board of Directors. Membership delegates will vote on the nominees and any petitioning candidates at the annual PRSA Leadership Assembly on Saturday, November 12. If elected, the nominees will begin their term on January 1, 2023. Officers serve one-year terms and Directors serve two-year terms.

“This year’s dedicated group of nominees are proven leaders not only in PRSA, but also in the profession and their various communities,” said Garland Stansell, APR, 2022 Nominating Committee Chair. “They have volunteered to contribute their talents,  skills and experience to help our organization continue to evolve, and I thank them for their commitment to PRSA and the communication profession.”

The nominees for 2023 officer positions are: Chair-elect, Joseph Abreu, APR, Chief Communications Officer, Clerk of the Court & Comptroller, Lee County (Fla.); Treasurer, Sam Sims, APR, Fellow PRSA, President, Sims Grp; Secretary, Heide Harrell, APR, Vice President, Communications Director of the Private Wealth Management Group, Stephens Inc.

The PRSA Nominating Committee also announced their selections for the open director positions for the 2023 Board. In accordance with the PRSA bylaws (Article VIII, Section 4.c.), the committee has converted the Tri-State Director position to an at-large position for this term as there were no candidates by the initial application deadline. The selections of the committee are:

·      Mid-Atlantic District: Cayce Myers, Esq., APR, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor, Virginia Tech

·      Northeast District: Joshua Poupore, APR, Senior Vice President, Corning Place Communications

·      Western District: Teresa Valerio Parrot, APR, Principal, TVP Communication

·      Director At-Large (converted Tri-State District Director): Andrea Gils Monzón, Marketing Director, JacobsEye Marketing

·      Director At-Large: Thomas Bennett, Senior Vice President, FleishmanHillard

·      East Central District: The Nominating Committee has not put forth a nominee from the East Central District. Qualified candidates may apply by petition. *

Rounding out the Executive Committee for 2023 will be Michelle Egan, APR, Fellow PRSA, Chief Communications Officer, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., who was confirmed as the 2023 PRSA Chair at the PRSA Leadership Assembly in 2021, and Dr. Felicia Blow, APR, Associate Vice President for Development, Hampton University, who will serve as Immediate Past Chair.

*Candidates by Petition
Article VIII, Section 5 of the PRSA Bylaws provides: Nominations may also be made by petition by at least 10 Leadership Assembly delegates and filed with the Secretary of the Society at PRSA Headquarters at least 30 days prior to the annual meeting of the Leadership Assembly. Immediately upon receipt of any such nominations, the Secretary shall send a notice of such nominations to all members.

All applications by petition must be submitted no later than Thursday, October 13, for consideration. For more information on how to petition for a board position, please email nomcomm@prsa.org.

Officer Biographies

Abreu currently serves as PRSA Treasurer and was Secretary in 2021. He is a recipient of the PRSA Sunshine District’s Trailblazer Award and the PRSA Palm Beach Chapter’s Hall of Fame Award. Abreu has earned more than 40 national, state and local awards for his work in PR.

Sims has nearly 25 years of public relations and marketing experience and founded the Sims Grp in 2018. He currently serves as co-chair of PRSA’s Technology Committee and is also a member of the Governance Committee. He was inducted into the College of Fellows in 2021.

Harrell, currently serving her second two-year term on the PRSA Board of Directors, is a past president of the PRSA Arkansas Chapter, past chair of the Southwest District and was a member of the 2018 PRSA Nominating Committee. She is also an Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 honoree.

About PRSA
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) empowers its members to succeed at every stage of their careers through a wide breadth of professional development, networking and leadership opportunities. Guided by its Code of Ethics, PRSA is collectively represented by 110 Chapters and 14 Professional Interest Sections, as well as on nearly 375 college and university campuses in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia and Peru through its student organization, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). PRSA’s signature events include the Anvil Awards and ICON, the premier annual gathering for communications professionals and students. For more information, visit www.prsa.org.

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Media Contact:
Rod Granger
(212) 460-0307
rod.granger@prsa.org