PRWEEK LISTS PR EXECUTIVE OFIELD DUKES
AS ONE OF FIVE TOP COMMUNICATORS IN 2005
By Margot Jordan

Ofield Dukes

New York, NY --- PRWeek, the leading trade publication for the public relations industry, has listed Washington, DC public relations executive Ofield Dukes as one of the five most effective communicators of 2005.

In reviewing what its editorial team described as “the highs and lows of an eventful year in PR,” PRWeek, in its December 19, 2005 edition, highlighted “5 Communicators Who Awed” during 2005. That list included the following:

Max Mayfield, Director of the National Hurricane Center, who “rose to the occasion by communicating with great precision and urgency the deadly track of Hurricane Katrina”;

Marsha Evans, former CEO/president of the American Red Cross, who “deftly used the skills that she acquired as a Navy admiral to manage communications and serve as the public face of a charitable nation, imploring Americans to support relief efforts”;

Steve Jobs, “Apple’s CEO saw his star power intensify in 2005, with boom sales of the iPod portable audio and video players. Jobs appeared frequently at big media events, delighting the company’s devoted Mac users and impressing Wall Street analysis”;

Ofield Dukes, “the longtime PR pro and president of the Black Public Relations Society of Washington, DC, spearheaded an examination of the industry’s struggle to embrace diversity in the workplace. Through his leadership in bringing people together, the industry finally made some progress in 2005”;

Terri Schiavo’s parents “Though they ultimately failed to keep their daughter alive, Bob and Mary Schindler used various communications tactics, including releasing multi-media videos of her and encouraging a vigil outside her hospice, to turn the story into an epic political battle”;

Dukes, now in the 37th year of operating his successful public relations firm in the Nation’s Capital, brought together 13 major PR firms to support a regional conference in July on “Strategies to Achieve Minority Diversity in Public Relations.” A 30-page conference report on specific steps to achieve diversity is being made available to PR firms throughout the country. In 2001, Dukes became the first African American to receive the Public Relations Society of America’s Gold Anvil, the highest individual award in the PR industry.

 

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