Brian O'Connor
Brian O'Connor

Public Relations Society of America presented the 54th Annual Los Angeles Prism Awards on Oct. 17. HLN's Michaela Pereira and KTLA's Sam Rubin co-hosted the evening program, at which 64 PRism Awards and 32 Awards of Excellence were handed out. Award recipients included past PRSA-LA president Brian O'Connor of Princess Cruises who was named 2018 PR Professional of the Year and the communications team from Netflix, which was was recognized as the 2018 PR Team of the Year. Fiona Hutton & Associates took home the Best in Show Award for its work on the Southern California Water Coalition's WaterNext Campaign. Rogers & Cowan and Princess Cruises tied for the most PRism wins of the night, capturing five trophies each. For the full list of 2018 PRism and Award of Excellence winners, go to the PRSA-LA website: https://prsala.org/awards-programs/prism-awards/.

Rick French
Rick French

French/West/Vaughan founder Rick French was honored on Oct. 23 with the Watt Huntley Award. Given by the Raleigh Public Relations Society, the award recognizes lasting and meaningful contributions to the field of PR over the course of a career. He is an American Advertising Federation Silver Medal recipient, a two-time PR Agency Professional of the Year, and a 2018 inductee into the N.C. Media & Journalism Hall of Fame. French serves on numerous non-profit boards, including Teen Cancer America (founded by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend of The Who), the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation and the Rock and the Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in Cleveland. “Rick’s career and accomplishments have had a wide-ranging impact on the PR industry nationally, and especially here in Raleigh,” said RPRS president Lindsay Priester.

Crosby

Crosby Marketing Communications won three awards at the 50th annual Thoth Awards sponsored by the National Capital Chapter of PRSA. The awards recognize the most outstanding PR and communications programs produced by firms in the Greater Washington, D.C., area. Crosby was recognized for “Victories for Veterans Integrated Communications Campaign,” a national advertising and public relations campaign conducted for DAV (Disabled American Veterans); "Victories for Veterans Social Media Video Series,” Facebook videos produced to build awareness and support for DAV; and “Driving Organ Donation Awareness Through Video Content,” Facebook videos created to increase organ donation registrations for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Department of Transplantation. To see a complete list of Thoth Award winners, go to https://www.prsa-ncc.org/2018-thoth-winning-entries.