Member Spotlight - May 2016

MEET PRSA AUSTIN CHAPTER MEMBER: Mark Hanna 

What do you currently do for a living? I am the manager of Public Relations and Membership at the Insurance Council of Texas.  We are a state insurance trade association representing 500 insurance companies that offer homeowner and auto insurance in Texas. 

What motivated you to pursue a career in communications? My sister worked in TV news and I began working on my voice in middle school.  While a senior in high school, I got trained to work at the local radio station and that summer, I began my first communications job as a weekend disc jockey at KSTB radio in Breckenridge, Texas.

What was you first job in PR/communications? My first public relations job was PR for the University of Texas System.  It allowed me to promote our Chancellor Hans Mark around the state and highlight all of the research and brilliant professors at UT’s 15 schools through a PBS TV series I produced called University World and a half-hour weekly radio I produced called The University of Texas Report.

Where are you from? Where have you lived? I am from Breckenridge, Texas.  I attended my first two years of college in Stephenville at Tarleton State University, graduated in Broadcast Journalism at UT Austin.  My first job upon graduation was News Director at KRIG radio in Odessa, then news announcer in Dallas at WRR radio and then back to Austin as News Director of KOKE AM-FM.  TV news, voice offers, documentaries, public relations and raising a family has kept me in Austin ever since. 

How has PRSA Austin contributed to your development as a public relations professional? Networking and learning new tools that are used to spread the word. 

What is your most memorable experience as a PRSA member? Meeting friends I have worked with along the way and finding them PRSA members. 

What are one or two main reasons you’ve continued to renew your PRSA membership every year? It’s an ever changing world and the PRSA keeps me apprised of what my associates are doing to tackle new and challenging PR dilemmas. 

Fill in the blank - My favorite thing about PRSA Austin is: hearing fresh ideas in making our job work well.