Southern Miss Staff Members Take Home Top Awards at 2017 PRAM State Conference

The University of Southern Mississippi represented well at the Public Relations Association of Mississippi's (PRAM) annual state conference, held April 23-25 in Hattiesburg, with staff members from four offices taking home two of the professional organization's top awards.

During the awards banquet held April 24 at the 2017 PRAM State Conference: AMPLIFY, Southern Miss received two PRism Awards, PRAM's highest honor for outstanding work in the field of public relations, and two Awards of Excellence, PRAM's second highest honor.

PRism Award recipients include:
 
* April Jordan, marketing, public relations and student development coordinator for the Department of Recreational Sports, in the category of special event programs for the “House of Payne Haunted House”; and

* Karelia Pitts, manager of communications for the USM Foundation, in the category of integrated social media programs for “An Attitude of Gratitude,” a marketing campaign that shares the stories of scholarship recipients through various social media channels.

Award of Excellence recipients include:

* Kady Beaoui Pietz, director of Southern Miss Gulf Park Office of Operations and Outreach in the category of special event programs for the 2016 Southern Miss Jazz and Blues Festival; and the

* Office of University Communications in the category of awareness campaign for the announcement of the University's new Bachelor of Science degrees in computer engineering and ocean engineering.  

“These honors are professional recognition of the effectiveness of the creative and effective public relations work executed across The University of Southern Mississippi's campuses, teaching and research sites,” said Jim Coll, director of University Communications and chief communication officer. “All USM students, faculty and staff play a part in writing the Southern Miss story, and the job of the University's communications professionals is to present that story in a compelling manner through words, images and video. It is a job they continue to do at a very high level.”
 
PRAM is a professional organization of public relations practitioners in Mississippi, consisting of approximately 600 public relations professionals from advertising and public relations agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, government, education, industries and others.