PRSA Boston

Number 12 on our list of 75 PR practitioners who’ve helped shape the PR profession in Boston for years is Barbara Wellnitz, APR, Fellow PRSA.

We asked Barbara:

What is your current role and why did you choose public relations as your career path?

My career evolved. I worked in academia, journalism and at a Fortune 500 company before I joined the business-to-business group at a major public relations agency. My niche: helping companies market their products and services to other companies. In 1994, I opened my independent practice, a virtual agency with several associates who work remotely.

I’m now retired from agency management, and living on Cape Cod, but I often apply my public relations skill set to the non-profit boards on which I serve.

What is your most memorable public relations success and why?

Two campaigns stand out because we made an impact on people’s lives —managing the Rhode Island Campaign for Adult Literacy, which resulted in two dozen worksite literacy programs, and working with a medical device company to launch the first tubeless insulin pump, helping to ease the impact of a diabetes diagnosis, especially for children and teens.

How has PRSA/PRSA Boston impacted your career?

Three PRSA friends and I started the Independent Practitioners Network in Boston, which became the model for the national section. I became president of the Boston chapter in 2003. That led to my avocation of serving on, and chairing, a half dozen non-profit boards over the years. I think the APR beside my name mattered to clients and prospects.