PR Department brings home NCMPR awards,
including ‘Communicator of the Year’

Brisk, rainy weather in Boston didn’t dampen the spirits of CCBC’s Public Relations team as Mary De Luca, senior director of Public Relations and Hope Davis, director of Media Relations, traveled to the annual District 1 conference of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) to accept awards on behalf of CCBC’s Public Relations department and honor De Luca as the District 1 Communicator of the Year.

CCBC’s PR team received silver and bronze Medallion Awards for two of its publications at the conference’s Medallion Reception held Nov. 3. CCBC’s Speakers Bureau brochure, designed by Barbara Wishard (publications designer), written by Hope Davis and Bonnie Stecker (managing editor) and printed by Gary Edsall (printing services manager), received the Silver Medallion award. The annual report for Continuing Education and Economic Development (CEED) received the Bronze Medallion award. Lisa Hetrick, director of Marketing Communications, oversaw the project. Publications Manager Jodi Ceglia designed the annual report while Brenda Marshall, CEED coordinator of publications and promotions, provided the copy.

The highlight of the evening was the honoring of the Communicator of the Year, an award that went to CCBC’s very own Mary De Luca. De Luca competed against public relations and marketing professionals in the eastern United States from Maine to the District of Columbia, as well as the Maritime Provinces of Canada and the United Kingdom. The award recognizes the individual who has demonstrated special leadership and ability in marketing and communications among community colleges.

Employed by CCBC for 13 years, De Luca took charge of the Public Relations department in 1998 when CCBC officially reorganized as a multi-campus, single college. Under her leadership, the department has flourished, winning several regional and national awards for public relations and marketing campaigns, feature writing and publication design. With this district win, De Luca automatically competes for the national title. NCMPR will announce the national Communicator of the Year winner at its annual conference scheduled for March 2004 in Baltimore, Md.

“It was an incredible honor to be singled out for this award,” said De Luca. “But it’s not for me alone. I share it wholeheartedly with the entire public relations team, whose talent and hard work inspire me every day.”

De Luca has a master's degree in publications design from the University of Baltimore, where she earned the graduate program’s prestigious Ampersand award in 1995. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from James Madison University with a degree in journalism and public relations. She is a past president of the Baltimore Public Relations Council and an alumna of Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson. While her office is on the Catonsville campus, De Luca has worked on all three CCBC campuses. She started as an intern in the Public Relations office at Essex and landed the PR coordinator position at Dundalk the following summer. At 15, she’d also volunteered in the Children’s Center on the Dundalk campus.

NCMPR is the only organization of its kind that exclusively represents marketing and public relations professionals at community, technical and junior colleges. As one of the fastest growing affiliates of the American Association of Community Colleges, NCMPR today has more than 1,550 members from more than 600 colleges across the United States, Canada and the Bahamas.