Editor’s note: In celebration of Black History Month in February, PRSA invited prominent black leaders in the public relations profession to offer their views and ideas for achieving greater racial and ethnic diversity in the profession. This is the third post in the series. A compilation of previous PRSA Black History Month blog posts can be found here.
At the writing of this blog, it had been roughly 24 hours since the untimely death of singing star Whitney Houston. I carry an extensive background as a trained musician and as a professional in various levels of the entertainment industry. So, I have always found the passing of any influential and prominent musician to be a very sad occurrence. But somehow, Houston’s passing struck me as being much sadder and more poignant than many. I found myself reflecting on my own contribution to my community, and to the world.
For the past three years the New York chapter of the National Black Public Relations Society (BPRS-NY) had been totally inactive. Some wondered what happened to the chapter, but never investigated. There were those who were not aware that the chapter ever existed. I was focused on my special events design and production business, but felt I had made my contribution to the chapter with years of work I had put in as a chapter member, vice president, and diversity officer on the board of directors.
Last July, it became clear to me that it was totally unacceptable that in New York City, media capital of the world, there was no active Black Public Relations Society chapter. I decided to try and re-boot the New York chapter.
