After several nominations from AWC members nationwide, the 2008 AWC Annual National Conference Committee has been selected. They are in the process of brainstorming one of the greatest conferences yet!

Billie L. Rodely

Billie Rodely has more than 35 years of broadcast journalism experience. She has reported, written, edited and anchored for radio and television in the Indianapolis, Kansas City and Oklahoma City broadcast markets.

Professional recognition of her work includes induction into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. She holds a Heartland Regional Emmy Award, five national Aurora Awards and a national Clarion Award in television documentary production, as well as state and regional recognition from the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, Associated Press, and Society of Professional Journalists in reporting, editing, anchoring, writing and production.

Rodely is a member and past President of the Oklahoma City Gridiron Club and Foundation (which provides scholarships to Oklahoma journalism students), the Association for Women in Communications, Central Oklahoma Turning Point (health initiative), Freedom of Information Oklahoma, Inc., Society of Professional Journalists, and the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. Rodely and her husband are elders and active members in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and serve on the board of their congregation.

Billie Rodely was born in Southern Illinois, attended elementary and high school in the suburbs of Chicago, and is a graduate of Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. She began calling Oklahoma home in 1987.

Currently, Rodely is Oklahoma Fifth District Communications and Events Coordinator for Oklahoma U.S. Congresswoman Mary Fallin.

Rodely plays the role of Hillary Clinton in The Oklahoma City Gridiron Show: www.okcgridiron.org

Cathy Stevens

Cathy Stevens has been a member of the Seattle Chapter of AWC for 40 years, joining while a student at the University of Washington. She has served the professional chapter in a variety of roles and board member positions, including as president in 2002-03. She is currently at work helping plan and coordinate the 2009 Centennial Conference. Professionally, Cathy is vice president of The Marketing Partners, Inc., a marketing/advertising agency serving clients in the Pacific Northwest.

Jenny Engle

Jenny Engle has more than 25 years experience in marketing management and communications. Since 1988 she has been the principal in jke marketing and communications, specializing in helping small to mid-size for- and nonprofit organizations establish, turn around and grow operations through strategic planning and positioning. Her client list has included Armstrong World Industries, Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff, Harvest Community Bank, PennDOT, Lancaster General Hospital, and numerous smaller businesses, charitable organizations, and tourism attractions.

In addition, Engle recently loaned herself to the PA Wine Association for a multi-year stint as executive director. In that capacity, she set up policies and procedures, revamped the website; significantly increased membership, media coverage, wine sales, winery visitors, and overall funding; and established a new state wine festival, It’s deVine. She continues to work with wineries on strategic marketing initiatives.

Named to the PA Honor Roll of Women, the Lancaster native is a Past National President of AWC, a graduate of Leadership America, and has served on the boards of national, regional and state professional and civic organizations. Jenny continues to serve as a judge for various national and international communications competitions. She earned an MPA from Penn State University and a BS from Millersville University, is a Master Planner and currently is learning to speak Mandarin Chinese. Jiu ming!

Judith Donohue

Judith Donohue has spent more than 30 years in the field of communication, first as a daily newspaper reporter and national magazine journalist, and later as a public relations professional, working on both the agency and corporate sides.

During a 20-year span in Pittsburgh PA, she worked with Della Femina McNamee agency and its public relations arm, Creamer Dickson Basford; MARC Communications, Ketchum Public Relations and Burson Marsteller. Her key clients have included Alcoa, Mobay Chemical, Nestle, PPG, Pennsylvania's Bituminous Coal Industry, Phillip Morris, and USX, formerly U.S. Steel. She is currently with Hewlett-Packard in Massachusetts, serving as public affairs manager for New England.

She has won many of the nation's top writing and communication awards, including the prestigious Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America, Golden Quills for her journalism work and ADDYs for advertising campaigns.

Donohue holds both an undergraduate in Sociology and a Masters degree in Organizational Communication Regis College, where she occasionally teaches courses in PR and crisis communication. She holds a certificate in Strategic Communication and has done course work at Marquette University, Suffolk Law School and Dartmouth College. She has taught several workshops on crisis communication for PR professionals, as well as graduate courses for secondary school teachers on how to use the newspaper as a teaching tool.

She has been active in numerous trade and professional organizations, including the Pittsburgh Chapter of the World Affairs Council and various chapters of PRSA, International Association of Business Communicators, Association for Women in Communication (AWC) and Ad Women of New York. She currently serves on the public affairs committee of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, on the public affairs board of Associated Industries of Massachusetts and on the Mass High Tech Council.

She and her husband divide their time between homes in Lexington, MA and Bristol, NH. They are parents of five grown children and nine grandchildren.

Lynn Osborne

Lynn Osborne, as president of Ad Management Insights, helps companies find the right advertising or PR firm, consulting with them through the entire agency search. At Grey Advertising in New York City for more than 12 years, she provided senior account management services to a variety of Fortune 500 companies, including Procter and Gamble, Bristol Myers-Squibb/ Clairol, Borden, Block Drug and Glaxo-Wellcome. Before joining Grey, she was account executive at Avrett, Free & Fischer Advertising, serving companies such as Carter Wallace, Estee Foods and Pfizer.

On the client side in Washington, D.C., she directed the national image advertising program for the pharmaceutical industry at PhRMA. She then launched and managed the multi-million dollar national branding initiative for Touchstone Energy, including direction of all advertising, public relations, market research, communications and marketing programs. Recent clients have included such companies as L'Oreal USA, Wella, Washingtonpost.com, Newsweek Interactive, the FDA and EPA, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperatives, Touchstone Energy, Nioxin Research Laboratories, and Aveda.

She also serves as chair of the board of directors for the Matrix Foundation (affiliated with The Association for Women in Communications), president of the Washington, D.C., professional chapter, and is a past chair of AWC. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina and a master's degree. in marketing from New York University. She is located in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, D.C.

Kerrice Mapes

Kerrice Mapes, owner of seveneightfive magazine, proves that Topeka, Kansas nightlife is more than a vicious rumor. Starting the magazine just two years, Mapes specializes in helping locally owned arts and entertainment businesses reach their target audience through print, web and e-mail marketing.

During the day, Mapes is the marketing specialist at Family Service and Guidance Center, a non-profit children’s community mental health center. Like many non-profit marketing professionals, Mapes wears many hats including the coordination and message of internal/external communications, PR, graphic design and branding, event planning and fundraising.

Mapes has been a member of the Topeka, Kansas AWC chapter for four years, a proud recipient of the Rising Star Award and is excited to fill the president position summer of 2008.

She also serves on the board of the Topeka AIDS Project and is on the United Way communication committee and the Chamber of Commerce’s Fast Forward (young leader’s society) committee. Additionally, she is involved with the Zeta Tau Alpha alumni chapter and a member of the Moose Lodge.

Mapes received her BA in Mass Media from Washburn University with an emphasis on PR and a minor in graphic design.

In her spare time she enjoys swimming, playing tennis, playing and listening to music, collecting art and traveling.