Welcome to Single Shot. I’m Nicole Schuman, Managing Editor of PRNEWS.

Looking at the past allows us to learn, in many ways, how we got to our present. Women's History Month, celebrated throughout all of March, serves as a good example for that.

A woman PR really needs to acknowledge and thank is Betsy Ann Plank. One of the first women to rise above the status quo when it comes to the communications industry, Plank served as Executive Vice President and Treasurer at Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. (now known as Edelman) in 1960—a time when it was difficult to find any women in leadership positions.

She also noted the lack of education when it came to PR at the university level and worked to change that. Public Relations is now a major at almost every communication and journalism schools, a bedrock for many who practice.

Learn more about Plank here, and Happy Women's History Month!

• Plank attended University of Alabama, and at the time, there were no public relations degrees at the school, which inspired her to advocate for PR education throughout her career.
• In 1967, she played a key role in establishing the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), the student affiliate of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), to encourage the study of public relations and promote networking between students and professionals.
• To ensure her passion for developing public relations leaders continued long after her lifetime, she endowed the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at the University of Alabama in 2005.