TPRA recognizes members and other PR professionals for their hard work and contributions to the public relations field with various Special Awards. The Special Awards is presented at the Silver Spur/Best of Texas Awards Banquet during the TPRA Annual Conference.
To submit a nomination, please review the criteria and eligibility requirements and complete the Special Award Nomination Form or send your nomination along with supporting information to Scott White at scottwhite@bizcompr.com.
Categories
Golden Spur Award
Outstanding PR Practioner Award
Alan Scott Rising Star Award
New Member Achievement
Lone Star Award
Silver Spur Media Award
PRFT Educator of the Year
Golden Spur Award
The Golden Spur is TPRA's highest recognition for member service. The recipient must make significant and long-lasting contributions to TPRA and to the public relations profession during at least 10 years of membership. The award is presented only in years when outstanding candidates are nominated and approved by the TPRA Board of Directors.
2008 Recipient
Melanie Villalobos, Chief of Staff, San Antonio Housing Authority - During her career, she has been recognized for her work by such prestigious organizations as the Association of Women in Communications, PRSA, IABC, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) and, of course, the TPRA. She has also been an important part of the TPRA for the past two decades. In addition to co-chairing TPRA's Summer Conference in Kerrville in 1989, she also stepped in to assist with TPRA's recent 50th Anniversary Celebration, serving as committee chair of the special Friday night anniversary event. She is also currently serving as Secretary of the San Antonio Chapter of the Association of Women in Communications (AWC) after having served as Treasurer the last 2 years and as President in 1988-1989. She has has nearly 25 years of experience in issues management, crisis communications, media relations and community relationship-building. 20 of those years include advising housing related clients as vice president and co-owner of Curnutt/Hovis, Inc.
View past recipients
Outstanding Texas PR Practitioner Award
This award winner must have made noteworthy career contributions to the public relations profession. Individual achievement and recognition, commitment to excellence and mentoring are also considered. The award is granted only in years when an outstanding nominee is confirmed by the board of directors. Recipients do not have to be TPRA members.
2008 Recipient
Joe Householder, Public Strategies, Inc. - Anyone who has been around Joe knows that he has an impact on the PR profession on a daily basis.
Over the course of his career, he has used integrity and creativity to establish himself as one of Texas' most successful and influential public relations professionals.
Among his many accomplishments: He pioneered the role of PR director for Houston law firms, creating the position at one of the city's mega firms, Vinson and Elkins. Now that role is common at law firms throughout Houston. During his tenure at V&E, the firm allowed him a one-month leave of absence in order to act as press secretary for Houston Mayor Lee Brown during a contentious runoff re-election. His work at that critical time during the campaign is still remembered among Houston political circles. He also handled V&E's crisis PR during the Enron scandal. V&E was Enron's law firm. He served as communications director for U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, successfully navigating the challenging media climates of both Washington, D.C. and New York. He was director of public affairs for Varoga Rice & Shalett, a Houston-based public-policy firm, and served as communications director for the successful re-election campaign of Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson.
Alan Scott Rising Star Award
The Rising Star Award recipient must be a member of TPRA for at least three years and have provided dedicated service to the organization during this time. In addition, the recipient must exhibit outstanding potential for achievement in the public relations profession and TPRA leadership.
2008 Recipient
Nan Powers Varoga,
Varoga & Associates - She is a Houston native and graduate of the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. As a newspaper reporter for 15 years, she covered the Senate, House and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. She also covered economics and personal finance for the New Orleans
Times-Picayune; and wrote for the
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and
USA Today. All of us who have had the pleasure of working with her know that she is an incredibly talented communicator who represents the very best in ability, skill, initiative, and ethical standards. And her commitment to her community is on display daily. She also is a co-founder of The Friends of the
Times-Picayune Relief Fund and previously served as Director of Communications for the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of the March-of-Dimes. She is the former Director of Public Affairs for The Houston A+ Challenge, where she directed internal and external communications, media relations, technology, government relations and fundraising. And she also serves on the TPRA Board of Directors, where she chairs Communications Committee.
New Member Achievement
The New Member Achievement Award recognizes service to TPRA and the Public Relations Foundation of Texas.
2008 Recipient
Terri Larson, Vice President,
Fleishman-Hillard - Terri has certainly made an impact on our organization. She has an outstanding record of professional accomplishments and service to fellow public relations practitioners. With more than nine years of public relations experience in the legal, non-profit and corporate public relations areas as well as an additional eight years as a working journalist, this individual is a consumate communications professional. Our honoree became a TPRA member in spring 2005, shortly after joining the Enbridge Energy Company public affairs staff. As a new association member, she actively participated in the fall 2005 professional development event in Houston and in the 2006 annual conference in Austin, where she volunteered to chair the 2007 annual conference in Houston. Her enthusiastic leadership of the conference committee helped us recruit new Houston members and produced a annual conference that featured an impressive array of relevant topics and top-notch speakers, including the legendary Harold Burson.
Lone Star Award
The Lone Star Award recognizes a company that places a high priority on its public relations and values both the function as a key management strategy and the public relations practitioners it employs as major contributors to the success of the organization. The company must exemplify outstanding ethics and operations in its dealing with all its constituencies. Creativity in how these relationships are developed can be a plus in consideration for this award. A Lone Star Award winner should also be a supporter of the profession of public relations in Texas and development of its public relations professionals, as well as others in the state.
2008 Recipient
CPS Energy -
CPS Energy is the nation's largest municipally owned energy company, providing both natural gas and electric service to its customers. Since this company exists solely to serve Greater San Antonio, its executives and management team place great emphasis on effective public relations and community relations programs. This is clearly reflected in the company's Core Purpose: "Benefitting our community by improving the quality of life of the people we serve." Because of the 24/7/365 nature of the energy business, CPS Energy public relations professionals must be both proactive and responsive in communicating with news media, customers and their many other key publics. The company embraces "learning and growing" and encourages its corporate communications team to take advantage of professional development opportunities offered by organizations such as TPRA, PRSA, AWC and IABC.
Silver Spur Media Award
The Silver Spur Media Award recognizes contributions by a print or broadcast reporter/photographer/editor/producer or a print or broadcast outlet to a public affairs, public education or community relations program that benefitted the community and was also supported by professional public relations efforts. This award was given first in 1999.
2008 Recipient
Jim Forsyth, Director of News & Information,
WOAI Radio - Jim has had a tremendous impact on the San Antonio community for almost as long as anyone can remember. As one local PR professional put it, "he's been a voice for San Antonio happenings for more than two decades." In fact, he has been Director of News and Information for Clear Channel Communications in San Antonio for 21 years, responsible for day to day news coverage at more than a dozen Clear Channel radio stations in several Texas cities, including the company's flagship here in San Antonio, WOAI-AM. Before that, he worked in radio news in Pittsburgh and Wheeling West Virginia, and in television news in Indiana and Iowa. He is a correspondent for the Reuters News Service, a Resident Correspondent for Fox News Radio, a reporter for the Texas State News Network, has worked as a consultant for radio and television newsrooms nationwide, and has written articles which have appeared in such national publicaionts as the Washington Post and the New York Times.
PRFT Educator of the Year
The Silver Spur Media Award recognizes contributions by a print or broadcast reporter/photographer/editor/producer or a print or broadcast outlet to a public affairs, public education or community relations program that benefitted the community and was also supported by professional public relations efforts. This award was given first in 1999.
2008 Recipient
Doug Newsom, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA, Professor of Journalism, Texas Christian University - 2008 marks the establishment of the Public Relations Foundation of Texas Educator of the Year Award. In keeping with the foundation's mission of furthering public relations education in Texas, it seems fitting that we establish an award that recognizes teaching excellence in the field. It is even more fitting that our first recipient is so well known and so widely respected in and outside the state of Texas for just that quality. And, it's just icing on the cake that Doug Newsom of Texas Christian University is also a past president of TPRA, a charter life member of the foundation, a TPRA Golden Spur Award winner, accredited in public relations, a PRSA Fellow and too many other distinctions to detail tonight. Doug has agreed to help us define criteria for future winners of this award.
