Going to the public library with her husband, Vice-Chancellor of Marketing and Communications at the University of Denver, Renea Morris, made a commitment to figure out what career she wanted to pursue. She spent hours going through career guidebooks before she finally came across public relations (PR), and since then, she was set on becoming a PR manager.
As a public relations manager, the responsibilities of the career entail that you create and manage the media and content of a company. Managing a company’s or a celebrity’s public relations can be difficult due to the multiple differing opinions people can have around the nation and even the globe.
“When people ask me what my average day at work is, but each day looks different, and that’s why I enjoy it so much because there is something new each day,” Morris said.
In the job description, people are required to coordinate all public relations activities. This includes creating social media content, coming up with ideas for campaigns, developing strategies in order to further a company’s success and more. Because of this, Morris became more vocal about her thoughts and opinions in order to strengthen her presence in workspaces.
“The best advice I can give someone who is going into the career is to always speak up. Always speak up when you have a thought or even if you’re just agreeing with someone. Let people know you are listening,” Morris said.
The field has changed since Morris began to start off her career in the field. When Morris jumped into Public Relations, it was completely separated from any marketing-related responsibilities; however, as time has passed, companies have realized that the two fields have more in common than differences.
“Now, almost all jobs that are public relations also contain marketing tactics because the two fields are similar, and a lot of companies decided to combine the two,” Morris said.
To pursue a career as a public relations manager, there is the requirement of having a bachelor’s degree. Most likely, individuals will have to acquire a degree in public relations, journalism, communications, business, or other related fields degrees.
To be a public relations manager, the job also requires that individuals have strong people skills, writing proficiency and organization skills. This is due to the career requiring many SWOT analyses, multiple presentations and the ability to understand people’s thoughts, wants and needs.
“You need adequate people skills because the name of the field is public relations and that holds the words public and relations. That is why you have to be able to connect with people both in the workplace and to others,” Morris said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with an entertaining occupation, the pay of the job is adequate for a person to live a comfortable life with an average pay of $62,800 per year. Along with the fair average pay, the government link also wrote that the job growth predicted for 2020 to 2030 has been said to be an 11% spike.
“The field is growing because many companies are realizing how important it is to have a strong public relations department. There are different jobs being created in the field that have news roles and aspects about them constantly,” Morris said.
Even though Morris had many opportunities to become a leader in her workplace, she faced many difficult obstacles throughout her career. Specifically, she was forced to be one of the few people of color in previous places of employment.
“At Convergys, other Blacks and Hispanics were not working at the executive level and the only other person of color was the head of HR. It was difficult to have all representation at the executive level since many who worked there were white males,” Morris said.
Although Morris faced the difficult task of trying to bring other people of color to Convergys, she decided she wanted the opportunity to be the head of the whole public relations department at Ohio University. This opened many doors for Morris, allowing her to be at the head of many decisions for the public relations at the university.
“I liked the switch from only working at corporate jobs to a university because I did not have to worry whether we met a sales goal. Working at Ohio University reminded me of working for the nonprofit I did when I first was starting off because I was allowed more liberty with decisions,” Morris said.
Once her children left her and her husband’s house, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to work somewhere else in the United States. This caused Morris to become the Vice-Chancellor of Marketing and Communications at the University of Denver.
“For the first time since college, I felt I had the chance to go anywhere with my career. Because of that, it was exciting and I wanted to go somewhere else that was not in the northeast,” Morris said.
Since Morris decided that public relations is the field for her, she has always been passionate about the career. She has had many opportunities in the field which all came back to the moment she and her husband decided that they were, once and for all, going to figure out what Morris would do for her career.
MFJS Reporter Spring 2022 