PR Week magazine has named Christina Steed, senior vice president of Flowers Communications Group, one of its “Top 40 Under 40: Rising Stars,” a prestigious honor in the public relations industry. PR Week, an industry go-to guide, lists the movers and shakers under the age of 40 who are making a mark in public relations.
“The industry is changing, so to be at the top of my game in an industry that is changing is great,” Steed tells rolling out. Steed is a board member of the Publicity Club of Chicago, and will become the organization’s treasurer in 2013. “Christina is representative of the quality and caliber of communications professionals who make up the PCC,” said Dave Smolensky, PCC president. “Having worked with Christina on the PCC board, I have been fortunate to see firsthand the communication expertise and insight Christina offers.”
With her diverse background in international communications, journalism and public relations, Steed brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role at Flowers Communications Group, where she leads major accounts including Wells Fargo, AT&T and McDonald’s. Steed says her award-winning campaign for McDonald’s in Chicago and northwest Indiana is one of her favorite campaigns.
“[McDonald’s is] a client that believes in the community that they serve and reach every day … one of the key ones that we recently did was in support for [McDonald’s] National Hiring Day,” Steed says. “Locally we have an unemployment rate that is abysmal for African American males. We highlighted the opportunities that McDonald’s has for entrepreneurship, for jobs and careers, and it went over so well, it won a couple of awards. It had a social media component, a PR component and a community component … that’s one of the campaigns I’m most proud of.”
Steed’s best advice for future public relations professionals is to network and study the industry. “Don’t give up. This is a tough industry and the industry is changing every day. We’re not splitting atoms, but it is hard work,” she says. –zondra hughes Christina Steed is on Twitter @CCSteed.
