Spotlight on PRSA Board Member Vicki McDonald
Posted on Feb. 19, 2023 / Subscribe 0
by Mary F. Nozak, Cleveland State University graduate
Vicki McDonald is the communications director for JumpStart Inc., a venture development organization that helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses. McDonald leads the communication efforts, both internally and externally, that includes media and public relations. She also consults high growth tech companies that typically have no marketing or public relations units inside of their business.
Outside of her work life, McDonald is a board member with the Public Relations Society of America, or PRSA, Greater Cleveland Chapter. In 2022, she served as the vice president of membership which entails membership retention, recruitment, and benefits. This year, McDonald is President-Elect and the Chair for the Hill, Lighthouse Young Awards.
McDonald became a board member for PRSA because she believes in its mission and feels strongly about responsibility toward ethics in the profession. Becoming a board member gave her the unique position to advocate for the profession and help others uphold those ethical components. McDonald also loves working with the other board members and feels that they uplift one another personally and professionally.
McDonald was originally drawn to PRSA because she did not study public relations in college, but was in a job that included responsibilities with PR. The organization gave her professional development and networking capabilities, which kept her ahead of trends in the communications field.
PRSA also aligns with her mission to remain a lifelong learner, which is why McDonald recently did the Accreditation of Public Relations certification, or APR. “I did the APR certification to learn. I don’t have a formal degree in PR and I wanted to formalize the profession. I wanted to learn and start the next steps to advancing in my career,” said McDonald.
McDonald had several takeaways from going through the accreditation process, including understanding the PR profession as a whole, “I found it very easy to connect with social issues and crisis management and media relations. It also rounded out myself as a professional. I hadn’t realized I had honed these skills over the course of my career...It helped me understand how crucial PR is to corporate responsibility and ethics,”
If McDonald was not a public relations professional, she feels like she would be a lawyer. She feels strongly about ethics and corporate social responsibility, and being a lawyer would help her advocate for these values in a different way. McDonald finds the juxtaposition between being a public relations professional and being a lawyer funny, since she noted most PR people want their clients to say more, while lawyers advise them to say less.
When asked about a work-life balance, McDonald says she remains cognizant of addictiveness to her work and is attentive to the time she spends on her computer and phone when she is not in the office. McDonald noted that the digital connection makes it hard to separate these facets of life, unless the devices are turned off. She “disconnects” from work by hiking, kayaking, biking, and being outside in general. McDonald typically brings her dog, Hugo, when she goes outdoors, and calls him her “best friend.”
For more information on Jumpstart, follow this link https://www.jumpstartinc.org/.
For more information on PRSA, follow this link https://prsacleveland.org/join.
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