An Eastern Mennonite University alumna’s team has won PR Daily’s “Media Relations Campaign of the Year (Over $50,000)” award.
Maria Holsopple ’07 is senior programs communications specialist for Plan International USA in Washington D.C., where she leads “the promotion of our technical experts’ thought leadership” and assists with executive communications and brand support, she said.
Holsopple and her teammates Robin Costello, Bernice Morquette, Ann Wang and Patrick Maguire created the winning campaign, which they designed to bring public awareness to its gender norms survey of youth and subsequent report The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents. The campaign earned coverage in more than 45 media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Fortune and Good Morning America, and was followed by Plan-planned youth gatherings across the United States “to brainstorm ideas to further gender equality,” she said.
“Our next step is to work with youth to start advocating for the changes they want to see,” she said. “One of the best parts of my job is working directly with young people so they recognize the power they have to enact change and support them in areas where they need it.”
Holsopple studied visual and communication arts at EMU and earned a master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. She became Georgetown University’s assistant director of the division of communications, and then the program director for its Executive Masters in Global Strategic Communications program.
That position required traveling to residencies in London, Singapore, San Francisco and Washington D.C. – and she credits landing the job in part to her EMU cross-cultural experience.
“EMU’s cross-cultural experience opened up doors for me that otherwise would have been closed,” she said. “In addition, my degree in visual arts allows me to collaborate with creative and marketing teams. EMU, along with my upbringing, drives me to work toward allowing everyone, everywhere to live the life they want to live.”
After she decided she wanted to serve others more directly, Holsopple worked at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) before transitioning to Plan International USA.
Founded by a journalist and a refugee worker who in 1937 assisted children affected by the Spanish Civil War, the organization combats poverty in developing countries and “refuses to believe in the helplessness of children,” according to its website. It supports children’s rights and gender equality in more than 70 countries, plus focuses on education, healthcare, child protection, nutrition, job training, and more, Holsopple said.
PR Daily, a function of Ragan Communications, is a news outlet focused on public relations and associated media worlds.