Our chapter members have diverse backgrounds, interests and career aspirations. Let’s get to know each other! In this newsletter, we’re kicking off a q-and-a series featuring your fellow chapter members.
These answers are edited for length and clarity.
Meet Nell McCormack Abom
Q. Tell us about your background, whether it is your education journey, your career journey or your aspirations.
A. Born and raised in Philadelphia, I remain a “Philly Girl” at heart. That means I love sports, lively conversations, healthy debates, delicious foods, a thriving arts and culture scene and most importantly, the company of family, friends and new acquaintances. After graduating from Ithaca College, I pursued my passion for television reporting with jobs at TV stations in Duluth, Minnesota, Charleston, West Virginia, Baltimore, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Then, I took a different career path and for 10 years, I served as a senior communications advisor to Pennsylvania Govs. Bob Casey and Tom Ridge, honing my event management, crisis communications and media relations skills along the way. A week before 9/11, I returned to broadcast journalism and for 12 years I hosted Smart Talk on WITF-TV while raising my three outstanding children. Since 2014, I have been a public relations professional in private practice and absolutely love helping clients find and use their voices for good!
Q. Of all the directions you could have gone, why are you interested in PR?
A. The practice of public relations is all about making connections with people and effecting positive actions or behavioral changes through smart communications. It allows me to use the lessons I have learned and the experiences, knowledge, skills and talents I have gained over the last four decades to help clients understand the importance of communicating effectively to achieve their personal and professional goals. There is both an art and a science to the purposeful practice of communications. I strive to marry those disciplines, harness clients’ passions and couple them with proven strategies that will lead to success. I thrive on doing something new every single day and PR keeps me energized and engaged to adapt and test the limits of my own creativity.
Q. Tell us something about yourself or your experiences that is intriguing.
A. Born as the second of four kids in an Irish-Catholic, Philadelphia family, I am a natural conversationalist and teller of tales. Our mom and dad raised us to speak our minds, let our emotions show and to be proud citizens of the world. To our parents, there was not a barrier invented that the four of us could not hurdle. I spent my high school years under the tutelage of the Sisters of Mercy – true badass women of faith – who taught me the meaning of their motto Live Mercy, Seek Justice … and how to dissect sentence structure. My three grown children keep me current with life’s evolving culture and expand my understanding of the world and my place in it. I am a unicorn because I know I do not know it all, BUT I seek always to learn and to do. I am here as an entrepreneur, a friend, a colleague and a human being with an open mind and the will to make a difference and that surely makes me a potent force in today’s marketplace.
Q. What do you want to learn in the next year?
A. How to hit my driver straight off the tee. It’s so much easier to start playing a hole if your ball’s not immediately under a tree, in a sand trap or buried in thick rough. I would also like to learn how best to use TikTok. I know that one will terrify my children but it is a communications skill I would like to master.
Q. Where do you see yourself in two years?
A. Pandemic-free, war-free, and occasionally enjoying ocean breezes with an absorbing book, a spirited companion and a delicious skinny Margarita.
Meet Briana Shervinskie
Q. Tell us about your background, whether it’s your education journey, your career journey, or your aspirations.
A. I attended Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, to study a dual major in Public Relations and Organizational Communication, dual minor in Public Speaking and Emerging Media, and graduated right into the pandemic. So, I moved back in with my parents/roommates. After a whirlwind of a job search, I am now an Account Coordinator at Gregory Welteroth Advertising in Montoursville.
Q. Of all the directions you could have gone, why are you interested in PR?
A. PR has always been attractive to me because I have many different interests and hobbies. Going into college I was terrified of having to commit to one major, but PR has the benefit of being a part of almost every field. It is constantly evolving, and it allows me to flex my creativity in different ways.
Q. Tell us something about yourself or your experiences that’s intriguing.
A. Besides my job I have a nonprofit project about which I am super passionate. When I was 21, I took over the planning and direction of a Girl Scout Day Camp that I attended growing up. It appeared it would be cancelled when the previous director had stepped down. So, with the help of my sister and best friend (and many other people, honestly) we made it happen. I kind of live to be on my toes and I love being thrown a curveball. Some of the best ideas are born out of necessity and I like to be in the thick of it. … Learning firsthand about fundraising, event planning, scheduling, and organizing a team was a huge preparation for my career.
Q. What do you want to learn in the next year?
A. I would like to hone my writing skills and learn more about fundraising.
Q. Where do you see yourself in two years?
A. I hope to be taking on new responsibilities and learning from new people with differing perspectives and experiences.
Want to share your story? Email Alysha Davis at alyshabrennan@gmail.com.