School PR Drive Time - The NCSPRA Podcast

Vendor partners and sponsors of NCSPRA and School PR Drive Time bring valuable insights and innovations to the market, and also to our podcast. Thank you to Apptegy for supporting this podcast and the work of our organization continuing into the 2025-2026 school year! Host Kevin Smith (Orange County Schools) spoke with Vice President Tyler Vawser, who leads Apptegy’s Marketing & Media teams. Toget...

Vendor partners and sponsors of NCSPRA and School PR Drive Time bring valuable insights and innovations to the market, and also to our podcast. Thank you to ParentSquare for supporting this podcast and the work of our organization in the 2024-2025 school year. In this chat with Kevin Smith (Orange County Schools), Senior Product Manager Melissa Mertz and Regional Vice President Tom Arcuri lay out...

In our first episode of a new 2025 season, hosts Ellen Boyd (NCSPRA Executive Director) and Kevin Smith (Orange County Schools) chat with Susan Allred and Dr. Beverly Emory Britton, co-authors of a new book that is quickly becoming a standard text for educators now preparing to lead in a time of rapidly shape-shifting challenges. In "Stuff That Works, Works!" our guests, good friends and richly ex...

In today’s episode, we are chatting with Dr. Baron Davis – Founder & CEO of The Noegenesis Group – a solution-focused and outcomes-driven educational think tank and consulting firm. Dr. Davis served as superintendent for seven years in South Carolina’s Richland District Two, where he was honored by our national organization with the Bob Grossman Leadership in School Communications Award. When he s...

In today’s episode, we are tackling artificial intelligence and the future of marketing. As an emerging technology, there is no denying the impact AI will have on our personal and professional lives. Whether Chat GPT is writing copy for us (should it be writing copy for us?) or AI helping us parse social media metrics to make strategic marketing decisions, it feels like the sky’s the limit! Joinin...

In today’s episode, we are tackling the topic of staff retention and recruitment. This is always a hot topic throughout the school year and many school systems face staffing shortages and challenges at some point. How are our teachers and support staff finding our jobs, can the process be improved, and what can we do to help support a wonderful and diverse culture and environment where staff can t...

In Episode 44 of #SchoolPR DriveTime, we will hear from Superintendent Jason Manuel and Kate Crowder, Communications Supervisor both of Germantown Municipal School District in Tennessee. Mr. Manuel was selected as the recipient of the NSPRA 2023 Communication Technology Award for Superintendents. The award recognizes one district leader annually for leadership in redefining, upgrading, and integra...

In today’s episode, we are tackling the topic of earning a seat at the leadership table within your organization. Whether you are the communications director or a valued member of the team, are you all part of high level decision making and are you in a position to provide your unique PR and stakeholder engagement perspective when high level conversations are happening? Our guests are Cindy Warner...

In today’s episode, we’re so excited to speak to a legend in the school PR space. Rick Kaufman is the Executive Director of Community Relations and Emergency Management for Bloomington (MN) Public Schools. Rick is a nationally respected consultant and trainer on emergency management and crisis communications, having worked in public schools and emergency management for more than 30 years. Rick is...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. In today’s episode, we’re getting to know Kathleen Kennedy, APR. Kathleen is the President of the Center for Communication and Engagement Kathleen works with schools across the country on everything from Crisis Communication to Bond referendums. She also provides professional development for educators and school PR P...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. In today’s episode, we are diving into the topic of great storytelling through great photos! Joining us is Tony Cunningham, digital communications specialist at Durham Public Schools. Tony’s photo is a 2022 NCSPRA Blue Ribbon award winner and a 2022 Best of the Best winner in that category. Check out this project her...

In today’s episode, we are exploring the topic of Communications Audits- why do they matter, how do you do one, and how can audits make us more effective communicators? Our guests today are NSPRA’s Associate Director Mellissa Braham, APR, and Communication Audit Surveys Manager, Naomi Hunter, APR. Learn more: https://www.nspra.org/PR-Resources/Request-a-Communication-Audit Today's episode is spons...

In today’s episode, we are getting an inside peak into an expansive marketing and event campaign that earned a 2022 Best of the Best designation as part of the NCSPRA Blue Ribbon Awards. Our guests are Dr. Lindsay Whitley and Ms. Renarta Moyd of Cumberland County Schools. Cumberland has earned multiple Best of the Best awards for their strategy and attention to detail that makes special projects a...

In today’s episode, we are exploring how school communicators can play a positive role in shining a light on diversity and inclusion best practices in our school systems. Joining us for this conversation are two members of the Minnesota School Public Relations Association (MinnSPRA) board who have tackled this challenge head on with the creation of Good Trouble PR. Dirk Tedmon, Executive Director...

In today’s episode, we continue exploring the topic of crisis management and crisis communications and important lessons learned. Joining us is August Vernon, the Director of the Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management in Winston-Salem, NC. I experienced a presentation that he recently made to first responders in Western North Carolina about active shooter response training. He also teaches...

In today’s episode, we are exploring the topic of crisis management and crisis communications and important lessons learned. Joining us is August Vernon, the Director of the Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management in Winston-Salem, NC. I experienced a presentation that he recently made to first responders in Western North Carolina about active shooter response training. He also teaches class...

In today’s episode, we’ll be chatting with Andrea Gribble about her first book that just launched: Social Media for Schools: Proven Storytelling Strategies & Ideas to CelebrateYour Students & Staff — While Keeping Your Sanity. Social media is an ever changing landscape, and as school communicators, we may struggle to post content, generate content, and then get that content in front of the right a...

*Note that this episode was recorded before Blackboard and Finalsite merged. This NSPRA Award was originally co-sponsored by Blackboard. In today’s episode, we will hear from Superintendent Dr. Jared Cotton, Chief of Staff and Clerk to the Board, Dr. Angie Smith, and Dr. Chris Vail, Director of Communications for Chesapeake Public Schools in Virginia. Dr. Cotton was selected as the recipient of th...

In today’s episode, we are diving into the topic of great storytelling through great writing! Joining us is Christina Beam, Marketing Specialist with New Hanover County Schools. Her article, "Still She Rose," is a 2022 Blue Ribbon Award and Best of the Best Recipient. Another one of her articles, “You Saved My Life: Forest Hills Teacher Rescues Student from Choking,” was a Best of the Best Writing...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. In today’s episode, we will explore the topic of branding. We are not talking school branding or organizational branding-- we’re discussing your personal and professional brand management. Our guest today is Dr. Patricia McLean, a long time NCSPRA member and former NCSPRA president and State and National School PR Ac...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. In today’s episode, we will be discussing the currency of courtesy. What is it and why it matters. Joining me today is Brent Campbell, Chief Communications and External Relations Officer with Winston- Salem/Forsyth Co. Schools and Dionne Jenkins, the board attorney for Winston-Salem/Forsyth Co. Schools. Brent and Dio...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. Co-hosts Stacia Harris and Kevin Smith have a wonderful conversation with a school PR practitioner who is new to the industry. Kylie McDonald is the PIO for Richmond County Schools. Stacia and Kevin met Kylie at a PD event when she was just a month into the job. She'd already learned valuable lessons, and we wanted t...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. Today's episode is all about the power of relationship capital. Joining us for the conversation is Stephanie McFarland of McFarland PR. Stephanie is a senior issues-management consultant and president of McFarland PR & Public Affairs, Inc., with nearly 30 years of deep public-relations expertise honed in pressure-int...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. In today’s episode, we will explore the topic of conversational civility in crisis. As school communicators, we know the importance of conveying a message accurately and being able to address any feedback, questions, or concerns from our stakeholders. But, as we’ll discuss today, this process has become broken in man...

Welcome to another episode of School PR Drive Time, a podcast produced by NCSPRA. Today’s episode will continue exploring crisis communications and response to an emergency event at a school. Since we know a crisis can strike in many ways, we want to tackle the topic from a couple of perspectives. In part one, which I will link below, we explored crisis communications and response from a law enfor...