Officers & Committee Chairs

Jean is the manager of public & community relations at Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS).

Amanda Kirkpatrick is an account supervisor with Carolina Public Relations & Marketing, a full-service PR firm based in Charlotte, N.C. Since joining the company in 2005, Kirkpatrick has established herself as a trusted resource for clients and co-workers alike, providing candid, professional and ethical counsel. She provides strategic counsel and day-to-day communications support to an array of local and regional clients including Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte Housing Authority, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, UnitedHealthcare, 7-Eleven and Spay Neuter Charlotte.

In addition to serving as treasurer for PRSA Charlotte, Kirkpatrick serves as an advisor to the chapter’s Young Professionals Group and oversees all chapter communications. She was the recipient of the PRSA Charlotte Young Professional Award in 2009 and earned her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) in the spring of 2011. She is also a graduate of the Dale Carnegie course.

Prior to coming to Charlotte, she was public relations and special events coordinator for the Charleston, S.C.–landmark Drayton Hall Plantation. She is a proud graduate of College of Charleston.

Jennifer Darwin works as a Senior Vice President and Corporate Communications Manager for Bank of America within their Consumer and Small Business Banking group. In this role, she provides internal and external communications counsel for leaders and employees in the Preferred & Small Business Banking team supporting the products and acquisition strategies for Merrill Edge, a unique business that combines the investment expertise of Merrill Lynch and the banking strength of Bank of America.

Jennifer joined Bank of America in 2008 as a Vice President and Corporate Communications Manager within the Chief Financial Officer group. In this role, she provided communications counsel to teammates supporting financial systems and processes, operational risk, process excellence and finance technology platforms. Jennifer has worked in the financial industry for most of her career in corporate communications starting with First Union in 1999. She worked her way up through the company that became Wachovia supporting every customer facing business, including leading external media campaigns and interviews, crafting internal memos, policies and speeches.

Jennifer is an active member of the Charlotte Public Relations Society of America and has earned her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), a voluntary certification program for public relations professionals, that signifies a demonstrated broad knowledge, experience, competence and professional judgment in the field. Outside of work, she enjoys mentoring young professionals, triathlon training, volunteering with children and her church. Jennifer grew up in Charlotte, N.C. and still lives there with her husband and children.

Christy is the director of external communications at Delhaize America.

Harmon is media/PR manager for Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte. She previously was director of marketing and PR for Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill. She also has worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Charlotte Regional Partnership. She has 20 years of PR/communications experience and has spent half her career working in the healthcare industry.

Christina Thigpen, APR, has 10 years of experience in public relations and marketing communications. Thigpen is the director of marketing and public relations for The Bissell Companies, a collection of closely affiliated organizations specializing in commercial development, office leasing, property management, hotels, golf and spa.

Prior to joining The Bissell Companies in her current role, Thigpen served as the public relations public relations manager for The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge. Before that, Thigpen worked in entertainment marketing at Edelman and corporate communications at Lifetime Television.

In addition to serving as a director at large for PRSA Charlotte, she is the chair of the Leadership Development Institute for the Junior League of Charlotte. Thigpen holds a M.S. in hospitality management from the University of South Carolina and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Betsy Conway is the manager of Charlotte community affairs and sports marketing at Duke Energy. In this role, she leads the company’s philanthropic strategy and is responsible for sports marketing governance and management of corporate sponsorships and hospitality venues. Before assuming this role in Sept. 2012, she served as a communications manager and spokesperson for the company’s regulated utility in North Carolina.

Prior to joining Duke Energy, she served as a management consultant to Duke Energy’s nuclear generation department and worked in the corporate communications and enterprise process improvement departments at General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products. Her work has received two PRSA silver anvil awards for excellence in internal communications in 2007 and 2010.

In addition to serving on the PRSA Charlotte board, she serves on the board of the Junior League of Charlotte and the Leadership Charlotte marketing committee. She is also a member of the Mint Museum Auxiliary and the Arts and Science Council’s Young Donors Society. Conway has a M.S. in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University and a B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

A native of Argentina, Natalia A. Flores, APR, has spent a decade as a public relations and marketing professional developing communications strategies for the U.S., U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets. Flores has experience with local, national and international communications outreach while working at top-notch global agencies Burson-Marsteller and Porter Novelli in Florida. She is currently a director at Fusion Communications, a public relations boutique agency with an in-depth understanding of Latin American and U.S. Hispanic audiences. Clients have included VMware, Samsung, MasterCard Worldwide, SAP, Office Depot, Latin GRAMMYs and Batanga.

She is a graduate from Florida International University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and is accredited in public relations. Flores is a current board member of the Charlotte chapter of PRSA, Treasurer for the Southeast District and is a past president of the Miami chapter of PRSA. She is also an advisory board member for The Center for Global Public Relations at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Flores is bilingual in English and Spanish. She recently relocated to Charlotte, NC with her husband and 4 year old daughter.

Ray Jones was named Executive Managing Editor at Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) in January 2012. His primary duties include executive communications and editorial oversight of print and online publications. He previously served as Director of Public Relations and Senior Media Relations Specialist at CHS, having joined the organization in 2004.

Before entering healthcare, Jones was the principal of Media Ink Communications, a public relations consulting firm in Kansas City. He also headed up the public relations departments at Monmouth University (West Long Branch, NJ), Winthrop University (Rock Hill, SC) and William Jewell College (Liberty, MO). Prior to his career in public relations, he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor and served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

Jones is a longstanding member of PRSA and received the Charlotte Chapter's Infinity Award in 2008.

Akilah Luke has 10 years of public relations and marketing experience with local and international organizations. Luke is a marketing and communications coordinator for Dixon Hughes Goodman, the largest certified public accounting firm headquartered in the Southern U.S. and the 14th largest in United States.

She has spearheaded national media relations campaigns for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, where she supported media coordination for the Charlotte episode of Extreme Maker Over: Home Addition. Akilah also assisted with various capital campaign press conferences, which included a national $6 million donation from Bank of America and $1 million donation from Crosland, LLC.

After working with Habitat for Humanity, she joined News Generation, a communication services company, based in Washington, D.C. At News Generation Akilah was responsible for handling marketing relations, social networking, and external communication. A Minnesota native, she has a M.A. in Publication Design from The University of Baltimore and a B.A. in Mass Communications from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC.

Benny Smith is the External Communications Manager at Delhaize America in Salisbury, N.C. He formerly worked as the director of public relations at Johnson C. Smith University for six years.

An award-winning journalist, Smith began working at JCSU in 2004 as the assistant director of public relations. He was promoted the following year to director of public relations. Smith more than 14 years of journalism experience working with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, an affiliate of the New York Times Newspaper and the Hendersonville-Times News.