Barbara McDonald, hired earlier this month by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) as marketing director, a newly created position, faces the pressing task
of increasing the organization's (poor) visibility and overseeing the strategic business plan for the group's 20,000 members.
McDonald's two key priorities are professional development as it relates to working with C-suite executives and how the PR function can help build better brands. One route
she plans to take to get PR out in front of CEOs is to educate leadership-oriented institutes on the changing nature of public relations and corporate counseling.
"Efforts to look at advocacy for the profession include looking at further identification of the brand and relevant programming that's industry specific," says McDonald, who
prior to joining PRSA was director of marketing and communications at the Eugene, Ore.-based International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). She will apply her
background in the publishing-technology nexus to supplement her best-practices regime.
"The opportunity to be so close to my customer set is where I get my juice," McDonald adds. She'll be able to strut her stuff at the upcoming PRSA 2005 International
Conference in Miami, Fla. Oct. 22-25.