Ann Willets, president and CEO of Utopia Communications, Inc., will join the Master of Arts Corporate and Public Communication (CPC) Colloquium Speaker Series, Tuesday, November 5, at 8 p.m. in the Plangere Center for Communication, room 134.
Ann has over two decades of experience conducting successful public relations campaigns in a variety of industries. She has worked in both large and small agency environments as well as in a corporate setting.
Ann is a monthly columnist for PRSA’s Tactics Magazine. She is a contributing writer for PR News, PR Week, and was a contributing author for PR Week’s Guide to Media Training. Prompted by the headline-grabbing corporate scandals of Enron and WorldCom, to the fall-out from Sarbannes-Oxley, Willets sought to offset the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” method of many businesses and public relations firms. She set out to create a new type of communications firm: an ethically focused practice that represents organizations, ideas, people, and companies that enhance the human condition and that operate within a strongly principled framework. She proudly named that firm Utopia Communications.
Ann holds a Bachelor of Science degree in public relations and a Master of Science degree in communications management from Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Public Communication, for which she received an academic merit scholarship from the Women Executives in Public Relations Foundation.
In the course of her career, Ann has managed public relations/marketing communication programs for a variety of clients, garnering over 50 prestigious national awards. She was recently named PR Pro of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America, NJ Chapter, as well as one of NJ’s leading entrepreneurs by Own It Ventures & NJ Monthly Magazine.
All are invited to attend, and light refreshments will be served.