News
Roberts Wins 2024 Not-for-Profit PRism Award for “Jenn Suhr Boosts Athletics Recruitment and Olympic Dreams at Roberts Wesleyan University”
The PRism Award winners were announced during PRSA’s 34th annual ceremony on Thursday, June 13. Roberts’ public relations team, Associate VP of Brand and Marketing Communications Donna McLaren, partnering with agency partner DS+CO, Public Relations Supervisor Courtney O’Gorman, won a PRism Award for a local media relations strategy to announce Jenn Suhr’s new coaching position, leveraging her local “celebrity status” and accomplishments in the sport to support recruitment efforts on behalf of athletics.
Roberts Wesleyan University is New York’s leading university for character education. It is the alma mater to many accomplished alumni including U.S. Olympic gold and silver medalist in women’s pole vault, Jenn Suhr ‘04 (Psychology). Following a legendary and record-breaking career in track and field that began at Roberts Wesleyan, Suhr retired from the sport in 2022.
With her local ties to the Greater Rochester region still intact, she took another career leap (no pun intended) and returned to her alma mater by joining the university’s athletics staff as assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach, overseeing the training and recruitment for student-athletes competing in the university’s NCAA DII pole vault program.
The PRism awards entries were judged by professionals from the Las Vegas PRSA chapter. This media relations work further establishes Roberts’ prestige as a competitive school of choice among prospective student-athletes in track and field. This public relations effort boosted engagement across Roberts’ owned channels, garnered significant earned media, and recruited athletes.
Donna McLaren and Courtney O’Gorman