Arkansas State University Students Sweep State Public Relations Awards

ASU student Rachel Meredith receives her PRISM Award from Brandon Morris, a recent ASU graduate.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 22, 2011 – ASU public relations and advertising students won top billing when they swept every category at the 2011 Prism Awards in Little Rock Thursday 

hosted by the Arkansas Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

The Prism Awards are Arkansas’ top honor for outstanding work in the field of public relations as judged by professionals in the field. The competition generated entries statewide. The categories for this years awards included exhibited excellence in a communications campaign, PR writing/media, publications, research and social media.

The winners were as follows:

Communications Campaigns

Public Relations Plan and Resources

Heather O’Donnell, ASU graduate May 2011

Lauren Wiseman, May 2011

Rachel Meredith, December 2011

Monique Ball, December 2011

Public Service Announcement

Arkansas Special Olympics PSA

Matt Whitworth, Arkansas State University

Publications/Brochure

College of Communications Brochure

Mari Cobb, Arkansas State University

Special-Purpose One-Time Publication

Arkansas Fair Housing Commission Business Card

Rachel Meredith, Arkansas State University

Effects on the Lives of College Students

Barb Barnett & Katie Cothern, Research Project

Social Media Use: An Exploratory Test of Arkansas State University

Other

Social Media Blitz

Brent Beall & Ashlyn Kohler, Arkansas State University

Writing/Media

News Release (print)

Blue Tuesday News Release

Anthony Dotson, Arkansas State University

ASU winners were members of the student-associated organization, PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America).  This was the first time ASU placed first in every category, attesting to the recognition and support by professional practitioners and academic mentors.

ASU PRSSA Academic Advisor Lisa Moskal said, “These awards are a tangible representation of the caliber and dedication of our students in this emphasis area. They worked hard.  And it paid off.”

The annual event is hosted by the Little Rock PRSA to recognize commendable public relations programs and the skills of Arkansas professionals and students.

Award Winning, ASU Graduate- Michael E. Lewellen

Michael E. Lewellen, ASU Graduate   

      Michael E. Lewellen, a 1983 graduate or Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism who went on to build a successful, award-winning career with such iconic brands as NIKE, Turner Sports, Fox Sports Net, Black Entertainment Television and NBC Universal, just to name a few, visited ASU Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 26-27, as part of the Dr. Joel Gambill Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series. 

 During his visit, Lewellen spoke to several classes and visit with students and faculty in the Department of Journalism.

Lewellen’s career is in its 29^th year of noted expertise in media strategies, reputation management, sports and entertainment publicity, public affairs, crisis management and brand communications. 

His ability as a communications strategist and spokesperson has landed him appearances on CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, National Public Radio, American Urban Radio Network, ABC, CBS and a host of other national, regional and local media outlets.

From September 2007 through 2009, Lewellen served as Vice President of Public Relations at Universal Orlando Resort, a theme park business venture for NBC Universal, General Electric and Blackstone Group, where he supervised media communications, theme park and attractions publicity and crisis management.  After leaving Universal Orlando, Lewellen stepped in as acting chief executive officer of the Central Florida Urban League, the region’s leading civil rights and economic equality agency.  

He not only solidified the existence of this 34-year-old affiliate of that National Urban League, he led a highly-publicized national search for a permanent CEO – all while simultaneously serving as chairman of the organization’s board of directors.  With a new CEO for the Central Florida Urban League now in place, Lewellen has settled back into his chairman’s role and is managing a growing public relations and media consultancy business – LewCom Strategies.  

Prior to joining Universal Orlando, Lewellen served for seven years as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications for Viacom, Inc. subsidiary Black Entertainment Television (BET) at its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C.  While at BET, Lewellen managed communications for BET’s multiple cable television networks, feature film, wireless content, radio, home entertainment, animation, international and Internet interests.  Before joining BET in 1999, Lewellen was Vice President of Media Relations for FOX Sports Network in New York and Los Angeles where he directed media relations and publicity for FOX Sports Net and its 22 regional cable sports networks for national, regional and local sports programming.
           


Before his arrival at FOX Sports in 1998, he served as Director of Public Relations for Turner Sports in Atlanta, specifically in charge of the Goodwill Games – an international multi-sport event staged in New York City and featuring 1,500 Olympic-level competitors from more than 60 countries, and covered by more than 1,000 journalists from around the world.  Lewellen also held a variety of public relations, strategic planning and product line management positions during a five-year span at NIKE, Inc.’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.  In addition, Lewellen’s career includes one year as North America Communications Director for Amsterdam-based ING Group and six years in multiple public relations roles for telecommunications giant SBC Communications (now AT&T) and its regional subsidiary Southwestern Bell.

A native of Jonesboro.  

Lewellen is an internationally accredited public relations practitioner through the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators.  In 2009, the 58^th Annual Southern Regional Press Institute at Savannah State University in Savannah, Ga., bestowed upon Lewellen the Robert S. Abbott Memorial Award for Meritorious Service in Mass Communications.  

The National Black Public Relations Society honored Lewellen in 2005 with its highest honor – the Founders Award – for his achievements in the public relations profession.  PR WEEK Magazine has recognized Lewellen multiple times as one of the country’s top African-Americans in the field of public relations – first in 1999 and twice in 2003, including a spot on the coveted “In-House A-List” of the country’s best communications executives at major corporations.  

Along with the Urban League, Lewellen serves on the board of the Garden Theatre performing arts center in Winter Garden, Fla.  He’s a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, National Black Public Relations Society, International Association of Business Communicators, Public Relations Society of America, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and the United States Professional Tennis Association.

Teaching Competition Winner- Holly Kathleen Hall

Holly Kathleen Hall, ASU Faculty. 

Holly Kathleen Hall, assistant professor  of journalism, won second place in the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications law division’s Innovations in the Classroom  teaching competition.

In a graduate-level “Advanced Communications Law” class that focuses on U.S. communication law, Hall devotes a week every semester to comparative media laws. Students are asked to choose a country and an area of media law in that country, research that legal topic and compare it with U.S. law, and present their findings to the class.  

Hall started implementing this idea partly because her school has been observing an increased presence of international students. But, she also felt, perhaps more importantly, that it is essential to acknowledge that we live in a global society and need to be aware of different cultural philosophies and approaches in media laws. She reports that the “self-discovery” aspect of this

project is critical and that this project enables students not only to recognize but also to celebrate the differences in perspectives, cultures, and philosophies around the world.

All The Way From L.A.- Jason Ball

Jason Ball, Director of KTAL-TV in Los Angeles

Jason Ball, a native of Trumann and current news director of KTAL-TV in Los Angeles, visited with students as the first speaker in the Professional-in-Residence program offered by the radio-television department.

Ball is a 1992 graduate of ASU and began his news career while still a student in the R-TV department at his hometown newspaper, The Trumann Democrat.  An internship before his senior year at WREG-TV in Memphis, Tenn., changed the course of his career and life. He continued to work at the station part-time until graduation when he moved to Memphis and started working as an assignment editor and eventually a newscast producer at WREG-TV. 

In 1996, Ball moved to Miami where he worked as a newscast producer and executive producer at WPLG-TV.   In five years at WPLG, he covered numerous hurricanes, the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace, and the custody and immigration status of a young Cuban boy Elian Gonzales. 

Ball moved west to Los Angeles in 2001 and began working as senior executive producer for the nation’s largest local news organization. He was an integral part of merging two television stations, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV.  Ball oversaw multiple newscasts on both stations, led the successful re-launch of the stations web sites (cbs2.com and kcal9.com) and managed the special projects unit.

In 2008, Ball took on his most challenging and rewarding job, news director at KTLA-TV.   Under Ball’s direction, KTLA 5 News expanded from 32 hours of local news a week to 50.5 hours a week.  In 2009, the station successfully launched an hour-long newscast at 6 p.m. seven days a week as well as weekday newscasts at 4:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.  In 2011, KTLA launched four hours of news on weekend mornings.  Additionally, the KTLA 5 Morning News has become the most watched morning news program in Los Angeles in total viewers and key demographics and is the second largest market in the country.