Grammy Award-Winning Melissa Etheridge Announced as Featured Speaker for PRSA’s ICON 2024

NEW YORK, August 21, 2024 - PRSA announced Grammy Award-winning rock artist Melissa Etheridge as a featured speaker at ICON 2024, taking place in Anaheim, Calif. October 15-17. Etheridge will participate in a conversation about her career journey and life’s advocacy work.  

Etheridge has remained one of America’s favorite female singers for more than two decades. She stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. Etheridge 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.” 

"Melissa Etheridge has an emotional depth to her music that has allowed us to channel her personal experiences for decades," said Joseph Abreu, APR, CPRC, 2024 PRSA Chair. "It's her powerful, raw expression of the human experience that resonates with communications professionals, and we look forward to learning from her tenacity and relentlessness to advocate for change.” 

In June 2020, Etheridge launched The Etheridge Foundation to support groundbreaking scientific research into effective new treatments for opioid use disorder. The Foundation works towards 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 in 2022, My Window — A Journey Through Life, and released Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken, a two-part docuseries (Paramount+) and accompanying live album in 2024.  

For more information on Etheridge, visit melissaetheridge.com. 

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from Melissa Etheridge, along with previously announced keynote speakers Gio Benitz and Crystal Washington to take advantage of unmatched networking and professional development. 

Media interested in attending the conference should contact Courtney Vance at courtney.vance@prsa.org  

About ICON 
ICON brings together public relations practitioners and communications students from around the world for professional development and networking opportunities. Activities include educational keynotes, panels, breakout sessions; social events; and multiple chances to gain practical and tactical skills, insights and ideas to take home. 

About PRSA 
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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