(PRSA News Release, October 18, 2010) Judith T. Phair, APR, Fellow PRSA, has been awarded the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) 2010 Gold Anvil Award, the Society’s highest individual award. First awarded in 1948, the Gold Anvil is considered PRSA’s lifetime achievement award and is presented to an individual whose work significantly advanced the profession and set high standards for those engaged in the practice of public relations. The award was presented to Phair during the Monday luncheon at the PRSA 2010 International Conference, Powering PRogress, in Washington, D.C.
“This profession and this Society have given me a great career, great friends and wonderful opportunities to serve,” said Phair in accepting the award. “I am grateful for receiving this significant honor and it is an inspiration to me to renew my commitment to serve our profession and my fellow professionals to the best of my ability.”
Phair is a senior public relations executive with extensive experience in strategic planning, branding, worldwide public relations and marketing, media relations, fundraising and government relations. She recently returned to a full-time focus on PhairAdvantage Communications, the public relations and marketing agency she founded in 2002. From 2006–10, she served as vice president of communications at the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC®), an association of 182 top graduate business schools around the world that also owns the GMAT examination.
“Judith Phair is a testament to the success of the public relations profession, dedicating herself to enhancing the value of public relations through her service,” said James J. Roop, APR, Fellow PRSA, chair of the PRSA Awards & Honors Committee and president of Roop & Co. “Her contributions to the industry have had an enormous impact, moving us forward and making us all proud to call ourselves her peers. Her work is of a caliber and scope that deserve nothing short of the Gold Anvil, our profession’s highest honor.”
Previously, Phair was vice president for public affairs at the Council on Competitiveness, a nonpartisan, nonprofit association of corporate chief executives, university presidents and labor leaders. Prior to that, she held public relations leadership positions at several colleges and universities. She also was an adjunct faculty member at Goucher College and Towson University.
Phair was PRSA president and COO in 2005. She currently is chair of the Society’s prestigious College of Fellows, and co-chair of the Educational Affairs Committee. She is a frequent speaker on public relations and marketing issues, and has won numerous awards. She received her Bachelor of Arts in communications from Simmons College in Boston, and Master of Arts in American studies from the University of Maryland, College Park.
About the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
With more than 31,000 members, PRSA is the largest organization of public relations professionals and students. PRSA is comprised of 111 local Chapters organized into 10 geographic Districts; 16 Professional Interest Sections that focus on issues, trends and research relevant to specialized practice areas, such as technology, health care, financial communications, entertainment and sports, and travel tourism; and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), which has more than 300 Chapters at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. PRSA is headquartered in New York.
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