DIVERSITY: A Top PRSA Priority
By Joann Killeen, President PRSA

During my administration as president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), I have made diversity one of my program priorities.

As the 2000 US Census reported, America is more diverse now than ever before. A large part of this diversity stems from heavy immigration from Central and South America. Therefore, America's Spanish-speaking population has increased substantially.

I think American firms now fully realize that having employment policies and practices to achieve staff diversity and for reaching a highly diverse and an economically potent Hispanic marketplace is a business imperative that relates to the bottom line.

In order to deal with local, national and global diversity, cross-cultural teamwork and a diverse staff become essential in a firm's business success. This is especially true for public relations firms and practitioners. If we, as public relations people, are to function effectively and productively, we must learn to see our differences as assets, rather than as liabilities.

For the above reasons, PRSA in January 2001, under the leadership of then President Kathy Lewton, established a PRSA Diversity Committee highly representative of all racial, cultural, and ethnic groups. Since one of the priorities of my administration was to begin a series of initiatives on diversity, the PRSA Board of Directors this year approved unanimously and enthusiastically recommendations for a 20-city program to promote diversity in several areas.

We know for a fact that we need to do much more in reaching out to Hispanic, African American and Asian public relations firms and public relationspractitioners. Our targeted cities include my own hometown of Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Miami, New York City, Washington, DC, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and St. Louis.

Our recommendations include:
• PRSA chapters reaching out to Hispanic and other minority firms and public relations practitioners to involve them in chapter professional development and other public relations programs;
• National and local public relations firms developing and implementing special job recruiting strategies and programs to achieve greater multi-cultural diversity;
• PRSA chapters developing mentoring and internship programs for minority college students and graduates;
• PRSA chapters developing a cooperative working relationship with local Hispanic, African American and Asian public relations groups to help increase the flow of minority professional in the mainstream of public relations;
• PRSA chapters working with the College of Fellows, Multi-Cultural Section, and the PublicRelations Student Society of America (PRSSA) in developing coordinated programs to increase local diversity in public relations.

Among those serving on this PRSA Diversity Committee are Ofield Dukes, APR, Fellow PRSA, Ofield Dukes & Associates, Chairman; Scott Shirai, APR, Fellow PRSA, Visual Perspectives, co-chairman of College of Fellows Diversity Committee and Chairman of the PRSA Multi-Cultural Section; Gigi de Mier, APR, Fellow PRSA, Partner De Mier & Sainz de la Maza, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Craig T. Miyamoto, APR, Fellow PRSA, Principal, Miyamoto Strategic Counsel, Honolulu, Hawaii; Elena del Valle, LNA World Communications, Miami, and Jeneen Garcia, Director of Education, PRSA staff.

We want to form a partnership with public relations organizations, firms and professionals in the Hispanic community to achieve our practical goals of increasingdiversity in the public relations industry. With the combined minority purchasing power at 1.3 trillion dollars, the public relations industry cannot overlook this tremendous economic fact.

Joann Killeen is the President of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and is also the President of Killeen Communications in Los Angeles, California. For more information, please contact her at joannk@mindspring.com