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Can you believe award season is here again? Neither can we! 

Despite it sneaking up on us too, we are excited for the 3rd Annual PRSA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Awards Program (The Foggies)! The Foggies provide an opportunity for us all to reflect on and celebrate our successes over the past year (and it has been another one for the books, hasn’t it?!). 

We recognize the Bay Area’s best public relations programs and the brightest professionals who bring them to life. As you prepare your submissions, we wanted to share some helpful hints and answers to …

In another edition of our Meet the Board series, we are excited to introduce Catherine Brozena, APR. Catherine is serving as our Director of Accreditation in Public Relations this year. She also hosted a virtual APR open house earlier this year. Miss the event? Reach out to Catherine to find out more about your APR. In the meantime, meet Catherine here!

Tell us about yourself and your current role

I am a communications consultant with my own independent PR and communications practice that serves organizations and initiatives in the social change space. So I work almost exclusively with non-profits …

Tell us about yourself and your current role

I am a Singapore transplant in the Bay Area since 2017. My PR and marketing career spans APAC, the U.S. and Europe. Before coming to the U.S., I spent three years as Director of Corporate Affairs at Levi Strauss & Co. for Asia, Middle East, and Africa. Earlier, I was with P&G Asia for 12 years, spearheading marketing communications for SK-II and a legion of other global beauty brands. 

My current role is with Singapore Global Network, based in San Francisco, leading content marketing strategy, marketing programs and execution, and communications …

Tell us about yourself and your current role.

I work for the City of San Jose as Deputy Director of Mineta San Jose International Airport, overseeing the Airport's Communications and Marketing teams. Thank the beginning and end of "Love, Actually" -- airports are full of incredible stories, and my teams are responsible for sharing them with the world.

How did you get into PR?

I entered college wanting to become a television producer, and since I've always been most interested in nonfiction stories, I first majored in journalism. I quickly learned that journalism is truly a labor of love, and …

As part of PRSA's mission to advance the PR profession and the professional, we bring you our next Meet the Media Q+A profile. In this Q+A, we speak with Christine Hall, contributing tech writer for Crunchbase News.

Tell us the story about how you got into journalism?

I've always been interested in English and writing. I enjoyed reading books and still do. Originally I wanted to be a teacher until I got to middle school and saw how the other children acted in class and thought, "okay, there's no way I'd be able to do this." So I …

Tell us about yourself and your current role

While I started my career working in-house for a national non-profit, I have spent the last 6 years in B2B tech PR agencies. Currently I am an Account Supervisor at PAN Communications where I’ve worked my way through the ranks and even made a cross-country move in 2019 from their Boston headquarters, here to SF. In my current position I get to lead the day-to-day strategy for a variety of tech clients from start-ups to public enterprises, which spans media relations, social media, content development and even podcast production.

How did you …

Tell us about yourself and your current role

For the last two years, I have been based in Mountain View working on (and helping build!) a Global Public Affairs team at a growing Medtech company that is a pioneer in surgical technology. My specific areas of focus have included managing PR activities in our Asia-Pacific markets as well as developing strategies to navigate public policy issues that affect the business globally. My career focus has always included strong ties to Asia, and I have been fortunate to have a chance to work on the ground in most of the countries …

Tell us about yourself and your current role.

I'm a public affairs officer at NASA's Ames Research Center, coordinating a variety of projects in the science portfolio and one of the leads in media relations. I really enjoy the process of taking complex, technical topics and finding a way to make them accessible to wide public audiences through easily-accessible language and good storytelling. NASA has so many amazing and inspirational stories to share, and in the context of so much negative news, I feel like I have a meaningful role to play in showing that government can dream big and …

March is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, the PRSA-SF chapter recognizes a local woman whose efforts have made a positive impact in the community. We are proud to announce Catherine Hernandez, senior vice president and chief communications officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, as the 2021 PRSA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter PR Woman of the Year award recipient. We asked Catherine a few questions to learn more about her career and her advice for PR professionals looking to grow their careers.

Tell us the story about how you got into public relations? …

The recent attacks on three Asian-owned massage parlors in Atlanta senselessly ended the lives of eight people, including six women of Asian descent. We are deeply saddened and alarmed by these attacks and recognize their connection to the broader pattern of racially motivated harm and abuse perpetrated against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the United States. 

The PRSA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter stands in solidarity with our AAPI colleagues and friends. As communicators and as humans, we endeavor through our individual and collective actions to do our part to bring about a more just and inclusive world …