Professional Designations Provide Prestige, Learning

Elise Mitchell learned how to tread water in a public relations crisis after getting thrown neck deep into the Hot Springs flood of 1990. She was an assistant director of public relations at Walker & Associates Advertising in Memphis, and the Hot Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau was a client.

The weekend before Memorial Day, the traditional start of the tourist season, a 12-inch deluge caused two overnight flash floods. Video cameras were the rage at the time, and amateur video streamed into TV stations.

Pictures of cars washing into storefronts got picked up by the national news, and it looked like Hot Springs’ main industry was sunk.

Mitchell said that baptism by flood started her obsession to think like a client and communicate their most strategic and affective messages. That passion for learning is also what apparently helped her attain the highest honor workers in the public relations field can achieve.

Mitchell was recently inducted into the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows during a ceremony in New York. She was one of 18 new members and only the second Arkansan to become one of the 430 “Fellows” among PRSA’s 20,000 members.

Bob Sells, founder of Sells Clark in Little Rock, is also a PRSA Fellow. The honor requires a 20-year track record of professional development, rigorous testing, demonstrated professional success, and even mentoring and community service.

“The legends of our field are in that group, and there also are not many women,” Mitchell said. “Most of the inductees are retired or close to it, so to get there at age 42 is a real honor. I figured I’d just apply and apply again until I got it.

“I cried when I got the letter.”

Joe Epley, chairman of PRSA’s College of Fellows and a past president of the organization, said the distinction puts special emphasis on advancing the profession through mentoring.

“We started this program 15 years ago to not only pay tribute to individuals who are solid professionals, but for those who’s work is extraordinary and who have given back to their profession and communities,” Epley said.

Setting Sail

Mitchell, now the president of Mitchell Communications Group Inc. in Fayetteville, already held a PR accreditation and her clients include the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tyson Foods Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. But she said the time and effort it took to get to the top 2 percent of her field — 50 hours of work on just the application, not counting the overall requirements — were worth it.

She hopes more companies will value and nurture the PR professionals in their organizations, because of the premium the market now puts on reputation.

“Investing in your PR team’s professional development comes back to you 10-fold through better counsel, better strategic thinking and greater anticipation of potential problems,” Mitchell said.

Other local professionals with similar accomplishments, such as commercial real estate broker Steve Fineberg, a certified commercial investment member, agreed it’s about the process.

Fineberg, who works out of Lindsey & Associates’ Rogers office, said his company helped invest in his expensive CCIM title because it saw the value in professional development.

“The value in my designation is centered around the knowledge that I gained through the courses I took more than the letters behind my name,” Fineberg said. “But in the end what I gained was knowledge for my clients.”

The majority of the cost involved for professional designations is sweat equity. The PRSA Fellow application cost only $250, for example, but the real investment is time.

Mitchell said the best way to get the most out of professional groups like PRSA is to get involved.

She helped found the organization’s local chapter, she said, to learn from her colleagues the same way she does from her clients. Mitchell, whose firm employs five full-time equivalents and five others part time, fulfilled the rest of the designation requirements by being widely published in trade journals and starting numerous internship programs.

Staying Afloat

Back 14 years ago in Hot Springs, Mitchell’s team got out the message that the flood was short lived and the city was already rebuilding. Although during the initial coverage, tour groups began canceling trips, by Memorial Day, Mitchell’s crew got stories about Hot Springs’ successful cleanup on “Good Morning America” and “The Today Show.”

She said city tourism figures eventually showed the number of visitors was up 105 percent year-over-year for July 1990 and 119 percent a month later.

“Sometimes in public relations you have to face a crisis and tell a hard truth,” Mitchell said. “Learning from your experiences, continuous improvement, is our mantra. What can I learn from this, how can I get better?

“… [The designation] doesn’t mean I’m through improving. It means I’m on the right track, which is a great encouragement to me.”