The Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association (PenSPRA) was chartered in 1969 and is an organization of school public relations professionals whose goal is to improve educational communication and support student achievement through systematic, proactive, and responsible public relations programs.

Long before I found my way into school communications, I spent a career in broadcast and print journalism, frequently surrounded by fellow reporters, anchors, and editors who were far more experienced and quite often intimidating. That feeling may be familiar to anyone who has moved into school PR from outside of education.

Newsroom culture, especially that of a decade or two (or more) past, would send most school-based HR departments screaming. Journalists often worked in physically close quarters, under the palpable pressure of continual deadlines, in a gritty, irreverent culture that lived by its own rules. It was a bold and messy environment, a strange mix of egos and personas mingled with broad views of what constituted journalistic standards.

In the midst of so much frenetic energy, it’s easy to feel spun around, much the way school comms folks sometimes do when we are charged with leading one of the district’s most important functions – often by ourselves. For me, the stability to navigate and manage that energy with some level of grace has come in form of mentors.

Several mentors truly shaped my professional and even my personal life in news, and now in school communications. They’ve been gifts in my life and career. They tolerated my incessant questions about the industry, let me tag along to study what they did and how they did it, provided feedback on my work, and perhaps most importantly, they offered perspective, support, and friendship.

Read Deana's message here!