Officers & Committee Chairs

Kim Counts, APR, is the president and owner of Novella PR, a public relations firm that helps clients tell their story utilizing media relations, community outreach and online marketing. With 20 years of experience servicing clients in healthcare, real estate and finance, she is a media relations expert and innovative public relations planner. From coaching CEOs for media interviews to building coalitions of volunteers, her perseverance gets results. An Asheville native, she began her career serving six years in Washington D.C. with creative agencies and as the Communications Manager for the American Heart Association. Charlotte has been her home since 1996 when she joined Luquire George Andrews and later Crown Communications and Capital Strategies. A Steering Committee member and PR Chair for the past four years, she helps advance the support for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), a program of the North Carolina Technology Association founded in Charlotte. In addition to her position as President of the PRSA Charlotte Chapter, she was appointed to the MS Society Mid-Atlantic Board of Trustees and promotes the new Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte by working on the Marketing Committee.

Jessica Graham, APR, has over 18 years of experience in virtually every aspect of public relations, including media relations, corporate contributions, internal communications and event planning. Jessica currently serves as public information officer and assistant to the president for Community Relations & Marketing Services for Central Piedmont Community College, the largest community college in North Carolina. Her previous positions include director of public affairs for Time Warner Cable, corporate relations manager for Harris Teeter, Inc., and program director for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. Jessica is active in the community, serving as past president of the JDRF Charlotte Chapter and Classroom Central Boards of Directors. She is a member of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Executive Leadership Team, of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors and Rotary Club of Charlotte. She is a graduate of Leadership Charlotte Class XIX. A winner of the Silver Anvil award, Jessica has been active member of PRSA since joining the organization in 2000. She has served as Southeast District Chair, Charlotte Chapter President and a member of the National Volunteer Leadership Task Force. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband have a two-year old son and live in Lake Park, NC.

Janet C. Hart, APR, CFEE serves as Vice President of Public Relations and Communications, brand champion and spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau of the Southern Piedmont. Since joining the BBB in 2007, she has increased the Charlotte BBB’s media activity ranking to #2 out of 145 BBBs nationwide. Hart serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the PRSA Charlotte Chapter and she earned Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) in 2009. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the UNC Chapel Hill in 1983 and completed Duke University’s Non-Profit Management Program in 2001. Over the past 26 years, Hart has produced and consulted with dozens of festivals and events across the country on corporate sponsorships, media sponsorships, event production and public relations. Most notably, She was the Executive Director of the Bank of America Coconut Grove Arts Festival from 1995 to 1997 – one of the largest and most prestigious fine arts festival in the world. During her tenure, she sold the largest corporate sponsorship ever sold for a fine arts festival. She also created a new public relations plan for the festival that won the International Festivals & Events Association’s (IFEA) Grand Pinnacle Award as the Best Public Relations Campaign in the world in 1996. Hart completed the IFEA’s Certified Festivals and Events Executive Program in 1999 making her one of only a few hundred individuals in the world to earn this distinction.

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.

Brannan is the owner and president of BRANSTORM PR & Marketing Inc., a firm she founded in early 2006 after 15 years at top national firms, large corporations, niche consultancies and integrated shops in Washington DC, Atlanta and Charlotte. From newsrooms to boardrooms, Colleen's creativity and opportunistic eye have earned her and her clients numerous industry awards including the prestigious Silver Anvil and Phoenix. In addition to her work for PRSA Charlotte that has included leadership of the mentor/protégé program, Chapter Awards, sponsorships and alliances, Brannan serves on the boards of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Metro Chapter of the Charlotte Chamber. She is currently president of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Charlotte Chapter of more than 200 members and a proud graduate of Leadership Charlotte Class 30. A native of Springfield, Virginia, she earned a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina.

Brandon Uttley, APR, is president of Web Business Freedom, Inc. a web marketing and public relations consulting firm. Uttley earned the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) designation from Public Relations Society of America. He is currently vice president of the PRSA Charlotte chapter and a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Uttley is a 1987 graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.