Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) celebrated the unique and inspiring careers of three public relations practitioners: Jody Arlington, Managing Partner, PR Collaborative and Director, Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance; Kirsten Suto Seckler, Director of Global Brand Marketing and Awareness, Special Olympics; and Sarah Temple, Senior Vice President of Social Marketing Practice, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Temple received the top honor as she was named the 2009 “Washington PR Woman of the Year”. Temple, left in photo, was selected from a panel of judges who nominated three final honorees based on their exceptional leadership and integrity to their fields as well as their community involvement.
(Temple is pictured above with Kate Perrin.)
"Each of the honorees far exceeds standards within the public relations profession,” said Lauren Lawson, president of Washington Women in Public Relations. “Sarah Temple was selected as the 2009 PR Woman of the Year for setting the benchmark in terms of her strategic communications planning, partnership development and social responsibility programming.”
The awards ceremony, held at the Marriott at Metro Center, is in its 20th year. Keynote speaker Dana Bash, CNN’s senior congressional correspondent, responsible for covering the activities of both the U.S. House and Senate, discussed how far women have come since she became a reporter.
During her nomination speech, Temple amused the crowd by quoting Eleanor Roosevelt in a saying that helped shape her career: "A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." Temple’s 18-years of experience includes spearheading partnership development as project director for award-winning National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) The Heart Truth campaign on women and heart disease. Currently, she advises NHLBI on community and corporate partner outreach across all its social marketing campaigns. She also directs the Screen for Life’s partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation/Stand Up 2 Cancer.
Just like the organization’s logo, the program of today’s luncheon came full circle when the first Chairwoman of the Woman of the Year committee, Kate Perrin, came to the stage to present the award. Each year, WWPR presents an award to a senior level Washington area female PR practitioner as a means to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of PR women and expand awareness of contributions to the industry.