Paola Vargas-Strassner, MPS, APR

I'm a lifelong learner and I don't give up easily. I also like to align myself to the environments that allow me to grow, because that's another important thing when you want to continue to develop and grow in the industry. You want to make sure the environment where you are allows you to find the right leadership. There's leadership and there's management, and I attribute my success to having great mentors and great leaders that taught me the right way to serve for the people, to speak with transparency, to hold up to my accountability and my standards as a communications professional. We have our ethical standards too, our code of conduct. We strive to deliver the truth, whether it was in mass communications and journalism, or whether it is in the PR industry, where we're doing the same thing, but we're just changing our public. In journalism or mass communications, you write for the public, which is the people that read you. But in public relations, you write on behalf of an organization and you write for the media. But in both professions, you still need to uphold the standards of writing with truth. I've had great leaders. When I started in Central Florida, I had a great community leader who founded the first bilingual newspaper for over 25 years, and it's still on. And then when I went back in the PR and public affairs industry, my mentor has been another great leader. Having the capacity to work alongside this type of leadership helps you grow. You need to be in an environment that helps you grow and allows you to spread your wings so that you can continue to help others spread their wings too.

Believe in yourself and reach for the stars. After working with my mentor, who is also now a retired service member but also public affairs and PRSA fellow, she was really key and vital in helping me through all my professional development in strategic public relations. One of the reasons why I want to continue to do the same for other younger professionals is because of what she did for me. That's one of the things I get from her - believe in yourself. Sometimes we have that imposter syndrome where we don't think we are growing, but it needs to take that internal reflection and believing in ourselves, and then the rest will show. Believe and also trust the process. And from my father, always reach for the stars.

Continue to learn and develop professionally. Invest in yourself and in your education. Nobody can take that away from you. If we open a business or have different things, they can be taken away from you, but education will remain with you. For the younger professionals or aspiring PR and communications professionals in the industry, I definitely encourage them to invest in their education, and that will continue to grow their skills. Also, reach out to other people that are already where they want to be and expand their network, because there are other people that want to support them. Someone helped me, and I really want to help and give back. There are a lot of women that are empowering other women, and the young professionals just need to reach out to these networks. There are PR networks and communications networks where there are professionals that want to help others. I am in the Public Relations Society of America, but I know there are others, like the Public Affairs Council, and there are so many other networks that want to help aspiring professionals in the industry.

To be fair, in the statistics, PR women are 64%, so they're the majority in the industry in the U.S. We're already leading, and there is no disadvantage between men and women. However, there is still a gap in the compensation. I think an opportunity is to measure the work, because if they are leading, it means they have earned these trusted counsel positions, and then the compensation should be equally applied to what they're delivering and bringing to their organizations. Many of them are accomplished in their experience and background, but there are not opportunities for them where they can get equal pay compared to their male counterparts. That's definitely an opportunity that I see across the industry. A challenge is probably continuing to adapt to the landscape and the media evolving landscape, but that's a given. Whoever breaks into the industry needs to keep that in mind, and that's another reason why we want to continue to develop professionally. As media specialists, we obviously need to be at the forefront of all the new technologies, so now we are leveraging AI and the tools, so we need to get on board with that, not only so that we can apply them ethically, but also so that they don't take over our jobs, but we use them in a responsible way. That goes through continued education.

Ethical standards are most important to me, and I think that applies for both professionally and personally. I strive to be the same person that I am outside as I am inside with my family. With my kids, I can only teach them by example, leading by example. Professionally, I strive to work with mission-aligned organizations that are value-centered in honesty, truth, transparency, and having our own moral compass and ethical standards.