IONA COLLEGE PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENT

WINS NATIONAL OFFICE AT

PRSSA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

San Diego, California, March 25^th, 2002 -- Ms. Kelly Albanese, an Iona College junior and the writing coordinator for the Iona College Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, became the first Iona College student to win a PRSSA national office in the school’s 62-year history. Iona College PRSSA Chapter President, Michael Dennehy, appointed Ms. Albanese writing coordinator within one month of joining PRSSA, which has given her national praise and recognition for being a quick study.

This past Saturday, Miss Albanese was elected to the position of Vice President of Chapter Development for 2002-2003, and will serve on the PRSSA National Board. The elections of national officers took place at the annual PRSSA National Assembly, which took place in San Diego this past weekend.

According to Miss Albanese, her candidacy for this position was a hard-fought contest with other students from major universities such as Brigham Young, Iowa State, and the University of Florida (PRSSA Alpha Chapter, 1 of 13 original Chapters) competing against her. She was able to state her platform successfully and then defend her ideas during a heated question-and-answer period. After the question-and answer-period, the votes were cast but there was not a clear winner, which meant the candidates from the University of Florida and Iona College which garnered the most votes had to go through a run-off election after another 30 minute question and answer period. The new votes were then cast, and PRSSA National President, Dirk Munson, announced that Miss Albanese from Iona College was the new PRSSA National Vice President of Chapter Development.

Iona College PRSSA Chapter President, Michael Dennehy, said, “I am extremely delighted for Kelly on her major accomplishment and very satisfied that our Chapter’s accomplishments have now helped an Iona PRSSA member become a National Officer.” The Chapter’s Faculty Advisor, Professor Robert Petrausch, ABD, said, “Over the last year, Kelly has been very creative and enthusiastic about PRSSA and she deserves to be on the National Board.” The Chapter’s Professional Advisor, P. Michael McDermott, APR, Fellow PRSA, added, “I am very proud of what Kelly has accomplished. I also congratulate Chapter President Mike Dennehy for his hard work over the past two years, which paved the way for Iona’s PRSSA Chapter to garner these accomplishments.”

Among Albanese’s accomplishments, her coordination of the PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition and her consulting to the school newspaper, The Ionian, have given her the experience and foundation to become a PRSSA National Board Member. Her goals for the 2002-2003 year are to develop a “Community Building Program,” which will help PRSSA Chapters and their sponsoring PRSA build tighter relationships as well as with local communities. This can be done through charity and volunteer work such as hosting blood drives and organizing charity walks.

She also hopes to foster closer relationships between PRSSA chapters who give Chapter Development Presentations at the annual PRSSA National Conference in San Francisco this coming November. She hopes to encourage and implement social events between the chapters that are paired up at the Conference so their Chapter Development sessions will flow smoothly. She will continue to offer excellent leadership seminars and forums for Chapter President’s to develop and motivate them into better leaders. One of her biggest goals will be to implement “Chapter Chats,” which will be an online forum hosted on the PRSSA National Website by 2002-2003 PRSSA National Webmaster Roman Gaponenko where Chapter presidents can share ideas and voice concerns with each other on a monthly basis mediated by Ms. Albanese.

Each March, PRSSA holds its National Assembly to elect new National Officers who serve from June 1^st to June 1^st of the following year. Chapters send one voting delegate to cast the official vote for each Chapter. National Office positions include: National President, Immediate Past President, VP of Chapter Development, VP of Internships/Job Services, VP of Member Services, VP of Professional Development, VP of Public Relations, VP of Regional Activities, PRSSA Forum Newsletter Editor-in-Chief, and PRSSA Webmaster.

The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is the nation’s pre-eminent pre-professional public relations organization with over 6,500 members in some 225 chapters nationwide. PRSSA is chartered by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the nation’s largest professional public relations organization with over 20,000 members worldwide. The Westchester/Fairfield PRSA Chapter sponsors the Iona College PRSSA Chapter.

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