{"id":21157,"date":"2017-04-04T09:20:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T13:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=21157"},"modified":"2017-04-05T11:52:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:52:50","slug":"ucf-graduate-student-recognized-public-relations-industry-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-student-recognized-public-relations-industry-work\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Student Named PR Pro of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Story by Nicholson News<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"container subpage\">\n<div class=\"single\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"span7\">\n<div id=\"attachment_15987\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\">\n<div id=\"attachment_15987\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15987\" class=\"wp-image-15987 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/communication\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/172\/2017\/03\/Kena-and-Alayna-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kena Lewis, left, celebrates with FPRA Chapter President Alayna Curry.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Kena Lewis<\/strong>, APR, has been recognized by the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) Orlando Chapter as the 2017 PR Pro of the Year. Lewis graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia with a bachelor\u2019s degree in communications in 1982. Now a UCF graduate student studying communication with an emphasis in mass communication, Lewis is a seasoned professional who is director of public affairs and media relations for Orlando Health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cI\u2019m just grateful to have had so many tremendous opportunities in the field,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI\u2019m also grateful for the many mentors who shared their knowledge, skills and abilities with me to help me become the professional that I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Members of the chapter\u2019s leadership and several of Lewis\u2019 colleagues surprised her with the news at a small reception last month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cAs president of the Orlando Chapter of FPRA, it was such a joy to learn that my director at Orlando Health would be the recipient of our chapter\u2019s prestigious award,\u201d said Alayna Curry. \u201cDuring my time as an Ad\/PR student at UCF, Kena was my first internship supervisor. She taught me so much about PR then, and continues to do so today. She\u2019s a true leader in our community, and I\u2019m proud to work alongside her!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis joins a remarkable group of people in the public relations industry, many of whom are UCF alumni. 2016\u2019s recipient of the award was Nicholson School of Communication Associate Instructor and Advertising &amp; Public Relations coordinator Joan McCain, who is widely regarded by those in NSC.<\/p>\n<p>As a PR professional in the health industry, Lewis led the crisis communication plan during the Pulse tragedy in June 2016. \u201cFrom a professional perspective, it was a once-in-a-career-type event. From a personal perspective, I hope that it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime event,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cWithin a few hours of the first shots, hundreds of media outlets from around the world descended on Orlando Regional Medical Center, which is our hospital that is home to the area\u2019s only Level One Trauma Center. My team and I set up interviews with every major national network in the U.S. The coverage we received in both traditional and \u2018new\u2019 media was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Orlando Health is a not-for-profit health care organization and a community-based network of hospitals, physician practices, diagnostic centers and other care centers in the Orlando region. Lewis\u2019 team is made of four managers, an administrative assistant, an intern and herself. The intern does as much as anyone else on the team, according to Lewis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a paid intern every fall, spring and summer semester. They do almost everything we do: write, pitch, work on minor issues and attend meetings,\u201d said Lewis, who provides lead support on issues management. She and her team also handle proactive media outreach and responsive press inquiries.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis said there was a lot to be done regarding the Pulse tragedy and helping others. \u201cOnce things quieted down, I started to receive requests to speak at other hospitals or healthcare conferences. I have done a fair amount of traveling to other healthcare systems around the country sharing the Orlando Health experience with them. I am happy to do whatever I can to help other healthcare systems\u2019 media team be prepared for an event like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis already has an impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Her background and public relations accreditation make her stand out, but she has decided to continue her education at UCF. She is studying to earn her master\u2019s degree in communication with an emphasis on mass communication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to do,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI\u2019ll probably just keep doing what I\u2019m doing until I retire from full-time work. Then, I\u2019ll look for some place where I can work as an adjunct professor and maybe do a bit of consulting. I eventually want to teach at the college level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis said there are many things about this field that she loves. We are sure that with her education and experience, she will go far.<\/p>\n<p>View the original story <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/communication\/ucf-graduate-student-recognized-for-public-relations-industry-work\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story by Nicholson News Kena Lewis, APR, has been recognized by the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) Orlando Chapter as the 2017 PR Pro of the Year. Lewis graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia with a bachelor\u2019s degree in communications in 1982. Now a UCF graduate student studying communication with an emphasis in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":21158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,40,13,37,29],"tags":[4417,4423,763,4425,4416,1361,1795,4419,4421,2479,4422,4426,4424,4418,2791,3457,4420],"class_list":["post-21157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-graduate-student-news","category-news","category-communication","category-ucf-news","tag-2017-pr-pro-of-the-year","tag-alayna-curry","tag-communications","tag-crisis-communication","tag-florida-public-relations-association","tag-fpra","tag-joan-mccain","tag-kena-lewis","tag-mass-communication","tag-nicholson-school-of-communication","tag-orlando-health","tag-orlando-regional-medical-center","tag-pr","tag-pr-pro-of-the-year","tag-public-relations","tag-ucf","tag-university-of-missouri-at-columbia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Student Named PR Pro of the Year - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-graduate-student-recognized-public-relations-industry-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Student Named PR Pro of the Year - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Story by Nicholson News Kena Lewis, APR, has been recognized by the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) Orlando Chapter as the 2017 PR Pro of the Year. 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