Last month, our Senior National Director of Marketing and Communications Paula Gwynn Grant participated in an interfaith communications workshop session at the annual Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) conference held at the historic Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The hotel is known for hosting major events like the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and the National Prayer Breakfast. It is also the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
A longtime PRSA member since 2004, Paula joined a one-hour panel discussion with other communications experts from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Religion News Service, a Christian filmmaker, and a Jewish public relations executive to specifically share insights about her work experience and our Catholic perspective regarding “A Leap of Faith: How Religion, Media and Communication Sectors Work Together (or Don’t) in our Digital Age.”
Paula enjoyed freely sharing how she navigates communications in a faith-based context by sharing our daily Vincentian work here at SVdP and in our global Catholic Church. She talked about the necessity of having the conviction of your faith, clear messaging and priorities, and a deep commitment to authentic truth-telling in all of our stories, interfaith partnerships, and day-to-day work in order to touch hearts and make a positive impact on our brothers and sisters online, in person, and in every way that life presents us.
Paula reminded the over 110 attendees of communications/marketing students and professionals from Catholic University, Brigham Young University, and various secular and religious non-profits that, as members of the human family with various faith traditions or perhaps no particular faith tradition (as Pope Francis used to say), it is vitally important that we focus our individual and collective efforts on consistently thoughtful marketing and communications strategies. Paula offered this as one way for us to emphasize the common good, so we build/maintain trust and good health to counter the high volume of divisive language, mis/disinformation, and other negatives we all experience each day.
