PRSA Announces 2025 Board of Directors Nominations

Heide Harrell, APR, Selected as Chair-Elect Nominee

NEW YORK, July 2, 2024 – PRSA, the nation’s leading professional organization serving the communications community, announced today the nominees for the 2025 Board of Directors who will be presented for election at the Leadership Assembly in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 14. Delegates representing the membership will confirm Officer and Director candidates to serve a term beginning on Jan. 1, 2025.

Officers serve a term of one year and Directors serve a two-year term.

“This year’s nominees have all served as dedicated PRSA volunteers and distinguished themselves as advocates for PRSA and the profession,” said Dr. Felicia Blow, APR, Chair of the 2024 Nominating Committee. “Our membership has greatly benefited from their leadership and expertise, and we are confident in their ability to successfully oversee the strategic direction of the organization into the future.”

Nominations for Officers of the 2025 Board of Directors include

Chair-elect: Heide Harrell, M.A., APR, Director of Communications, Central Arkansas Water, Little Rock, Arkansas

Treasurer: Kevin M. Waetke, APR, Fellow PRSA, Associate Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Sammons Financial Group, West Des Moines, Iowa

Secretary: Teresa Valerio Parrot, Ed.D., APR, Principal, TVP Communications, Longmont, Colorado

The PRSA Nominating Committee also made their selections for the open Director positions for the 2025 Board. In accordance with the PRSA Bylaws (Article VIII, Section 4.c.), the Committee has converted the Northeast and Tri-State District Director positions to at-large positions for this term as there were no candidates by the initial application deadline. The selections of the Committee include:

East Central District Director: John Palmer, APR, Director, Media and Public Relations, Ohio Hospital Association, Columbus, Ohio

Mid-Atlantic District Director: Cayce Myers, Ph.D., LL.M., J.D., APR, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Virginia Tech School of Communications, Blacksburg, Virginia

Director-At-Large (converted Northeast District Director): Chuck Wallington, Ph.D., EVP and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Cone Health, Greensboro, North Carolina

Director-At-Large (converted Tri-State District Director): Andrea Gils Monzón, Founder, Shiftmakers Consulting, Lexington, Kentucky

Director-At-Large: Sam Sims, APR, Fellow PRSA, President, Sims Grp, Yukon, Oklahoma

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

The PRSA Board of Directors includes 17 voting members. Ray Day, APR, will serve as Chair and Joseph Abreu, APR, will serve as Immediate Past Chair in 2025.

Heide Harrell, APR, is director of communications for Central Arkansas Water, a metropolitan water system that serves almost 500,000 Arkansans in eight counties. She has more than 20 years of communications and marketing experience, and her many PRSA roles include serving as a member of the Board from 2020-2022 and as Secretary in 2023. Harrell serves as Senior Counsel to the 2024 Board. She has also contributed to committees and task forces that support PRSSA students and PRSA’s annual conference and has also been Chair and Director of the Southwest District and President of the Arkansas Chapter.

*Candidates by Petition
Article VIII, Section 5 of the PRSA Bylaws provides: Nominations may also be made by petition for all positions 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 Saturday, Sept. 14 for consideration.

About PRSA

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the leading professional organization serving the communications community through a network of more than 400 professional and student chapters in the U.S., Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Puerto Rico. Guided by its Code of Ethics, PRSA empowers its members to succeed at every stage of their careers through a wide breadth of premium professional development programs, exclusive networking events and leadership opportunities. 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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