Emerging Voices: Myreete Wolford

MWolford

Myreete Wolford is an Associate Manager within the Business Development team at Ketchum in Chicago. 

What can organizations (and the industry as a whole) do to prepare women for top leadership positions? What are some strategies that can help women achieve a more prominent role in leadership?

StepUp, Plank Center and Internal Diversity and Inclusion teams

As a role model for women, what advice do you have for women interested in a career in public relations?

A seasoned PR woman on my team shared this sentiment just the other day… she said: I vividly remember a time in my early career when women didn’t lift each other up. There were so few spots at the top, it was more about shoving people out of the way than supporting growth. None of that exists at Ketchum today, and certainly not with this team. We applaud each other’s incredible successes, and we’re the first to step in to help on the rare occasion that someone stumbles. That’s what women need to do. That’s the advice I want everyone to know.

What has been the hardest thing about being a woman in PR?

PR is a woman-led industry and yet, CEOs are mainly men. We fight every for and against each other in a way that men don’t.

How did you manage the transition from the classroom to the boardroom? What was the biggest shock or surprise during that transition about the profession?

I did everything in college – was president or a leader in every organization possible. What shocked me was that I didn’t have a clue what PR really was nor did I know what I’d be doing day-to-day. What I learned in college was my stamina, my breaking points, my team-care – how I worked and that is something you don’t have time for outside of college. You’ll always have time to learn your job, you won’t always have time to learn how you work with others – you won’t always have the ability to mess up and learn from it the way you can in college. So, push yourself, get super involved, learn what your breaking points are so you can apply them in real like.

What’s something you wish you had learned in college but didn’t? What do you do to be an eternal student?

Coding!

With the myriad of industry changes, what inspires you to stay motivated and encouraged? 

The change itself.

The Plank Center created the Millennials in PR series for rising public relations professionals to detail their experiences and share messages of counsel with students and other professionals.

Published: March 25, 2019