President’s Note: September

What does #WomanUp mean to you? For WWPR, it recently meant celebrating several outstanding young women professionals at the Emerging Leaders Awards! We honored their contributions to the field of public relations and communications in the DC area. Check out this video Throughout this year, we’ve been exploring the theme of #WomanUp. For us, this means to be bold courageous, and resilient enough to persevere through even the most difficult challenges in work and life. We’ve been engaging industry leaders, WWPR members, and others about what it means to them. Let me share a little about what #WomanUp means to me:

• Bold means having the ability to be different or think differently while maintaining your confidence.
• Courageous refers to the ability to take risks and act despite fears or uncertainty.
• And being resilient is the ability to keep going on despite resistance, difficulties, or failure.
• Having the capacity to #WomanUp doesn't mean setbacks or frustrations don't happen--it means enduring, learning, and continuously growing through professional and personal experiences.

All the nominees for the Emerging Leaders Awards embody these qualities and more. It’s a great pleasure to recognize such accomplished women! Coming up in November, we continue our theme of #WomanUp by honoring women who are reaching the pinnacle of the communications profession at the Woman of the Year Awards Luncheon. Special thanks to our co-chairs Sabrina Pringle and Sara Tuman for planning such a fantastic event, along with task force leader and moderator Lauren Lawson-Zilai, and keynote speaker Blayne Alexander. It takes a talented group of dedicated volunteers to make a spectacular celebration possible! We hope to see you soon at another fun event on October 5 for “Fashion’s Night Out: Sip and Shop Presented by CRAFT and SuiStudio.” Explore SuiStudio’s tailored suits, along with cocktails and networking. Meet WWPR board members and learn about the value of membership. Non-members will receive a 20% off promo code to join WWPR! And coming up on October 26 is one of our most popular events—the Annual Media Roundtable. Don’t miss out as we usually sell out this lunch event! Best, Kelly