As the U.S. PR industry approaches Diversity and Inclusion Month in October (which is also Global Diversity Awareness Month), Fletcher PR takes a look at D&I from the international perspective. Rax Lakhani, CMPRCA, chairs the Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA) Diversity Network and shares his insights based in London, as a PR practitioner with nearly two decades of experience across a wide spectrum of organizations. Rax has worked for brands such as Smirnoff, Marmite, Jet2.com, Kodak, Hallmark Cards, Royal Mail and Park Plaza Hotel Group, as well as in-house within U.K. Government as Head of Digital Communications at the Ministry of Justice. His conversation with Fletcher PR brings energy and clarity to the #PRdiversity conversation -- particularly to the common challenges faced across continents and nations, and that the struggles faced by brands in the U.S. are not a unique phenomenon.

Ms. InterPReted

Rax Lakhani: PR, Diversity & the International Perspective

It's Women's Equality Day (Aug. 26, 2020)! One-hundred years ago, women earned the right to vote in the U.S., by taking charge, stating their case, taking to the streets over decades, and pushing for the accountability of the vote. As ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- giving women the right to vote -- celebrates 100 years and included a significant role for East Tennessee (with one determined mother of a young Tennessee legislator), Kelly and Mary Beth mark the significance of Fletcher Marketing PR's East Tennessee roots, its focus on lending voice to the power of women, and just how much women still confront in seeking equality, 100 years later ... including in the Public Relations industry, which is female-dominated.

#19thAmendment at 100: Where are Women Now?

Kelly and Mary Beth proudly welcome the powerful energy and insights of Tearsa Smith, Morning Anchor of WATE-TV Channel 6 News -- the ABC affiliate of Knoxville, Tennessee, to "Ms. InterPReted." Tearsa shares her experiences from the front lines of fielding, delivering and managing community news in the Year 2020, a time of massive global chaos at every level ... and how that chaos unfolds in a Middle-America market like East Tennessee, from COVID-19, to racial injustice and demonstrations, to the day-to-day roller-coaster of the newsroom with daily life. Tearsa shares her career journey, how she managed obstacles along the way, and how she forged success from a very early age with creativity and vision. She also shares her secrets for managing success, career and life in general with a positive spirit and resilience, as well as a focus on giving to others, that invariably always gives back to oneself.

WATE-TV's Tearsa Smith & Community Journalism

In this episode focused on learning, leading and coping in *The Year That is 2020 in the PR Profession*, Kelly and Mary Beth welcome Rod Cartwright, a London-based colleague and leader of Rod Cartwright Consulting, who also serves as Deputy Chair of the PRCA's Global COVID-19 Taskforce. Rod delivers wit, wisdom and a no-nonsense spirit to the topic of PR pros surviving and thriving through a nonsensical year, from both sides of the Atlantic. Rod discusses with Kelly and Mary Beth a variety of management-consulting techniques and fine-tuned methodologies that he brings to his public relations consultations -- and how he complements them with a human-factors sensibility and an appreciation for true humanity-centered empathy for others. Listeners will gain rich insights from Rod's strategic yet caring approach.

Learning, Leading & Coping During Complex Times: Rod Cartwright

Knoxville-based Fletcher Marketing PR's CEO Kelly Fletcher and Senior Strategist Mary Beth West recap a memorable Season 2 of "Ms. InterPReted," with highlights and lessons learned from multiple diverse guests from four different countries, three different generational cohorts, multiple racial / ethnic backgrounds and a variety of professional communities -- from PR to academia / market research, military, law, broadcasting, consulting, consumer products, and healthcare. The season's themes fall into three core categories: 1) Responding to COVID-19, 2) Diversity and 3) Patriotism.

#MsInterPReted Season 2 Memorable Moments

(Recorded June 4, 2020). The public relations industry has a diversity problem. A big one. And one leader who’s proven most effective as an industry whistle-blower is @ReputationDr Mike Paul – a globally respected strategic communications and crisis PR executive, who has resigned from the PR industry Diversity Action Alliance (sponsored by PRSA and the PRSA Foundation), due to inaction and lack of measurable commitment to change. Hear Mike’s insights on the challenges and solutions, and chime into the conversation online, at hashtag #MsInterPReted.

The PR Industry’s Diversity Problem

Tennessee Air National Guard Lt. Col. Ashley Nickloes’ grandfather died as a U.S. military pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War II after running out of fuel on a weather reconnaissance and bombing-raid mission … and his life sacrifice drove his granddaughter’s life-inspiration to become a pilot and – ultimately – a military mid-air refueling mission combat aviator. She shares her story and her leadership tenets, on this special Memorial Day Edition of #MsInterPReted.

PR & Crisis at Mach Speed: Lt. Col. Ashley Nickloes

How must strategic communicators use data effectively in their communications campaigns, advocacy work and in counsel to senior management? Professor Ana Adi of Quadriga University in Berlin, Germany, delves into this topic, with a passion for making our work stronger through the power of the best information and insights.

Data in the Details: A Better Advocacy Model

Aside from the rush to discover a vaccine and a cure for COVID-19 – as well as to forge an economic recovery from the sudden stall of the global economy – one of the most pervasive topics in society today hinges on mental wellness and emotional well-being. People from all walks of life, professions and vocations have had their lives upended – all in a matter of days, mostly beginning in March 2020, for those based in the U.S. Persistent and profound uncertainties add an additional layer of stresses on the global population. And for those working in an already high-stress field as public relations, the urgency to find a “release-valve” for emotional tension presents a daily struggle. Alicia Aebersold – chief communications officer of the Washington-D.C.-based, 121,000-member American Psychological Association – joins Kelly and Mary Beth to discuss the importance of mental wellness and how her role in such an important and relevant organization today is helping shape APA's outreach for the betterment of humanity and the world.

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION: Coronavirus’s Impact on Mental Wellness

The coronavirus impact continues to infiltrate the globe … and the “new” front lines of the battle are beginning to emerge in smaller, more rural communities. But are those communities prepared with health systems that can respond? In the U.S., the fact is that in huge swaths of non-metropolitan, smaller communities, the answer 10 years ago would have been “yes,” but today, the answer may be a definitive “no.” For one smaller community immediately south of the Knoxville, Tennessee DMA, in Blount County (Maryville / Alcoa), citizens are fortunate to have a well-sustained, forward-thinking hospital that's addressing the crisis head-on and in a well-planned manner (full disclosure: #MsInterPReted co-host Mary Beth West serves as a volunteer on the hospital’s foundation board). On this episode of "Ms. InterPReted," two top administrators from Blount Memorial deep-dive into challenges and concerns smaller communities and their health infrastructures face, across Tennessee and the nation – particularly in the face of COVID-19.

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION: Coronavirus & the Community Hospital Impact

Based in London, U.K., Koray Camgoz, MPRCA, serves as Head of Communications and Marketing for the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA). He is an internationally experienced, post-graduate communications specialist with an eye for news, a passion for digital and a track record of crafting impactful communications strategies that deliver business results. On this episode of #MsInterPReted, Koray lends a wide-ranging view of how COVID-19 has impacted the UK and larger global market, and how the PRCA has undertaken fast-paced, diverse response. As the PRCA’s full focus has shifted toward COVID-19 PR industry crisis resource-development, Koray is working with the full PRCA team (working for weeks now under the UK government’s national lockdown from home-based / remote locations) as well as volunteer senior leadership team based in locations spanning the globe, to deliver solutions and resources to its 35,000 members worldwide. On April 2, 2020, the PRCA announced that it is providing six months of free individual membership to anyone who has lost their job in the public relations industry, or to anyone who is self-employed and has seen a significant decline in their income. The offer is open to members and non-members alike from across the globe – including the U.S. – and the PRCA says it will take the word of self-employed practitioners who claim they have suffered losses.

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION: PRCA Ramp-Up of COVID-19 PR Industry Resources

Need a jolt of PR wisdom as you're navigating the COVID-19 crisis (or ANY crisis) for your organization? Then this episode of #MsInterPReted offers it in spades... As the public relations profession absorbs its share of the COVID-19 impact with job, contract and revenue losses, practitioners are seeking to help their clients and employers craft truthful, productive and forward-looking messages. Yet examples of both good and poor PR practice abound, in the current environment. How is COVID-19’s global societal impact bringing out the best – and the worst – in brands’ public relations and marketing communications? Two veteran practitioners who – like Kelly and Mary Beth – are no shrinking violets about speaking the unvarnished truth as they see it, Julia Angelen Joy and Molly McPherson join #MsInterPReted with the latest they’re witnessing from the PR front lines of the crisis.

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION: PR Done Well or Wrong in the Coronavirus Era

COVID-19 has taken over the world as we once knew it, and almost nowhere is the brunt being absorbed like the employer and employee sectors. Countless employers – who just weeks ago were likely having a normal or strong year – have had the rug pulled out from under them, through no fault of their own. And the same goes for employees and the self-employed. In the U.S., what does new federal legislation portend for employers? What should they be thinking about, bracing for and – to the extent possible – getting out ahead of, to survive? Employment law Attorney Chad Hatmaker of Woolf McClane joins Kelly and Mary Beth to break down the technical as well as the strategic points of employer considerations . . . as well as how management teams must coordinate between both the Legal and PR sides to ensure that C-Suites are acting in good faith, on the best information and wise counsel possible.

COVID-19 SPECIAL EDITION: Employment Legal Impacts of Federal Aid Legislation

As worldwide business, governmental and organizational entities face crisis-preparedness demands for coronavirus contingency planning – and as crisis issues and incidents of all forms are part of each daily news cycle – CEOs, management teams and boards of directors must stand accountable to make sure their organizations are prepared for the completely unexpected… or, in the coronavirus case, a fast-evolving and foreseeable disruption with a full-scale impact that is yet unknown.

SPECIAL EDITION: Crisis Planning for Business Continuity

#MsInterPReted Co-Host Mary Beth West made history in February 2020, by being officially banned by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management (GA) during its #EthicsMatter Month – a move the GA admonished Mary Beth (in its written reprimand to her) as being unprecedented. And why the ban?... Mary Beth revealed on an #EthicsMatter Twitter thread that she had directly asked ethical-compliance policy questions -- which the GA had failed (or refused) to answer for months. In the wake of this intimidation tactic by the GA’s nearly all-male Executive Committee, Kelly and Mary Beth break down the ethical hypocrisies and #PRfails of #EthicsWashing . . . a.k.a., when industry authorities tout codes of conduct that they themselves reject and fail in practice. Kelly and Mary Beth discuss transparency and authenticity issues that plague the public relations profession and how industry groups like the GA and PRSA let down their stakeholders through censorship, secrecy and obstructed channels of communication, when they refuse to disclose basic information that their own members rightfully request and should receive. The GA’s and PRSA’s stonewalling (including PRSA’s recent policy decision to start concealing the members of its own Audit Committee) stands in stark contrast to their joint-campaign in 2018 that touted the virtues of “a free press” and the right to “speak honestly and fearlessly on behalf of ourselves…” What are the implications of the GA’s and PRSA’s credibility and leadership posture in the PR industry? Will the GA or PRSA accept Kelly’s and Mary Beth’s invitation to appear on a future episode of #MsInterPReted, to clarify their viewpoints? Stay tuned!

#EthicsWashing: The New Authenticity Fail?

Public Relations stands as one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted areas of business and organizational management. With Fletcher Marketing PR Founder and CEO Kelly Fletcher and Senior Strategist Mary Beth West, we’re here to turn around PR’s own bad PRess, cut through the nomenclature, and demystify public relations as the best pathway to create, grow and amplify the roots of positive management, communications, culture and careers -- for success that matters.

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Ms. InterPReted

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