By Dwight Bachman, Public Relations Officer, Eastern Connecticut State University

Multi-billionaire Bill Gates once said, “If I only had two dollars left, I would put one on PR.” Such a statement by one of the richest men in the world shows the value placed on disciplined public relations. Eastern’s Communication Department has produced several students who, too, know the value of PR.Nana Agyemang’13 is leaving her mark across the continent of Africa. She is founder and campaign Strategist for Arba Stature, a Namibia, Central Africa-based Pan African creative solution agency designed to help private and development sector businesses to accelerate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. “We offer African solutions to African problems.”
After earning her Communication degree at Eastern, Agyemang earned her Master’s in Global Marketing Communications and Advertising at Emerson University in Boston. From there, she joined a Harvard-based startup until her return to Africa, where she has worked for some of Africa’s biggest brands in roles ranging from marketing specialist to advertising account manager and strategist.
“We have multiple years of cross-industry, international experience, having worked with clients in several countries, including Namibia, Ghana, South Africa, USA, Botswana, Kenya and Zambia.
“For the brands (in the image), we offer evidence-based, practical implementation, and our signature in-house framework is designed to achieve maximum engagement, implementation, adoption and impact in Africa communities.”
Agyemang said Eastern was MUCH more than a liberal arts education. “Professors like Dr. Christopher Ayeni define Eastern and I will always be indebted to him for the knowledge he instilled in me about the advertising and PR industries. I owe much of my academic excellence to him. But beyond the classroom I also learned an immeasurable amount from Dean Amy Coffey, Dr. Indira Petoskey, Kemesha Wilmot and Mr. Dwight Bachman – lessons you can never learn in the classroom.
Gabrielle Little ’14, of Glastonbury, serves as a media relations specialist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. She is charged with enhancing the national reputation of the hospital. She writes media advisories, op-eds, and press releases about new research, events or important hospital announcements. She pitches feature stories and expert interviews to reporters and secures earned media coverage in local and national outlets, and monitors hospital media coverage daily with Cision, a media tracking platform.
She recalled her first national media hit. She had tried everything to get press coverage on a bone marrow donor, a Central Connecticut State University football player and his relationship with his donor recipient, a 2-year-old patient at the hospital. “I thought it was perfect, but my pitch was constantly ignored or declined.”
Little knew the story had merit. She knew she had to change her pitch, so she reached out to the football player and learned that he was flying down to Washington D.C. to plan a surprise birthday party for the 2-year-old.
“I helped him plan the party at our hospital and re-pitched the story to local and national media outlets. This time, local media outlets flooded my email with coverage requests. In addition, the story was picked up by a couple of national media, including CNN’s Headline News. This experience forced me to enhance my relationship building and storytelling skills and to think strategically when pitching to the media.”
Little said in addition to writing her recommendation letter to graduate school in Washington D.C., Dr. Ayeni also helped her learn about public relations on a global scale by sending her and her classmates to London, England, and Paris, France to learn about advertising on a global scale. Selfless professors like Ayeni help students thrive and go on to be successful alumni. “I am grateful to have encountered a professor like Dr. Ayeni.”
Noreen Wilson ’08, who earned her Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Albertus Magnus College, serves as a marketing producer for Voya Financial. She has worked in the financial services industry and is skilled in event management, editing, media relations and corporate communications.
At Voya Financial, Wilson is responsible for utilizing consumers’ insights to develop and execute marketing strategies. “It is up to me to understand the needs of our consumers as it regards retirement, so I am proactively looking for opportunities to improve the consumer experience through the lens of business needs. I also manage project plans, maintain general awareness of other content projects and initiatives to help identify how our current work can be more efficient.”
Wilson said Eastern perfectly prepared her for her career. “From the professors to the students, the lessons that I learned have carried me to where I am today. Each provided me with instrumental lessons that are immeasurable in my career.” ■