Shining Star Award
The Shining Star award (established in 2024) recognizes a mid-level career professional of 10-25 years in public relations doing incredible work, showing a high level of achievement within the field, demonstrating leadership as a professional within the PR industry, and who actively gives back to the community.
Previous Award Winners
2026: Abby Kittrell
2025: Lindsay O'Bar, APR
2024: Taya Jarman, APR
Nominees will be evaluated on the criteria below:
Career successes in the public relations field
- Have they had a demonstrably significant role in successful public relations campaigns or projects?
- Is there evidence of personal growth in the area of leadership?
- Are there examples in which they have shown initiative and self-direction?
- Are they an innovator in the field?
- Has their leadership resulted in ongoing success for their business?
Outstanding work with significant measurable outcomes
- Are there examples of their work resulting in significant, successful, and measurable outcomes?
- How many projects or campaigns have they been involved in with these results?
- Can their work be considered “outstanding” when judged against peers at their same level of experience?
A commitment to the values of PRSA
- Is the nominee a member of PRSA Richmond?
- Do they attend or participate in PRSA meetings, conferences, workshops or special events?
- Does their work indicate a knowledge of and adherence to PRSA values?
- Do they exhibit a high level of professionalism and integrity?
- Do they seek out opportunities to learn and grow in their field?
- Are they involved in PRSA Richmond?
Involvement in the community and volunteer service
- What kind of volunteer work do they do?
- What organizations or boards are they affiliated with?
- Have they used their expertise to help the community outside of their work duties?
- If yes, in what ways have they done this and what are the results of their service?
Leadership and Teamwork
- In what way does the nominee demonstrate leadership in the workplace?
- Are they giving their time and talent to empower coworkers, direct reports, or younger practitioners’ professional growth?
- Are they serving as a formal or informal mentor or advisor to anyone?
- Have they taught classes, lead trainings, or provided formal instruction on relevant industry and workplace topics?
Pursuit of Continuing education in the field
- Have they received or are they pursuing their APR or other forms of accreditation or certification
- Have they pursued or are they pursuing a master’s or doctorate in the field of public relations?
