 2009
Lifetime Achievement:
Betsy Plank
Congratulations to this year’s Lifetime Achievement
Award recipient Betsy Plank.
 During
her 60-plus years in public relations, Betsy Plank has
marked several “firsts.” In 1963 she became the first
woman elected president of the Publicity Club of Chicago
and, 10 years later, the first woman elected president
of the Public Relations Society of America. Plank is the
only person to receive PRSA’s three capstone honors: the
Gold Anvil as outstanding U.S. professional; the Lund
Award (1989) for exemplary civic and community service;
the Jackson Award for distinguished service to the
society. In 1979, she was the first woman elected by
readers of Public Relations News as Professional of the
Year and in 1984, that publication named her one of the
Worlds’ 40 Outstanding Public Relations Leaders.
Plank’s career spans both agency and corporate practice.
She was Executive Vice President and Treasurer of
Edelman, an international counseling firm, before
joining the Bell System. After serving as AT&T Director
of Public Relations Planning, she became the first woman
to head a department at Illinois Bell, directing urban,
community and educational affairs, issues management and
economic development before retiring in 1990. Since that
time, she has been actively engaged in counseling, as a
volunteer in professional and civic work.
In 2002, the Arthur W. Page Society of corporate public
relations executives awarded her its first lifetime
honor for Distinguished Service to the Profession. That
same year, she was the first woman to receive the
Institute for Public Relations’ Alexander Hamilton
Award, named for the founding father primarily
responsible for persuading 13 diverse colonies to accept
a unifying Constitution. When receiving the award, Plank
said, “In my philosophy, public relations is fundamental
to a democratic society where people make decisions in
the workplace, marketplace, the community and the voting
booth. Its primary mission is to forge responsible
relationships of understanding, trust and respect among
groups and individuals – even when they disagree! Mr.
Hamilton’s historic work continues to inspire and inform
that difficult challenge today.”
In her longtime advocacy for public relations education,
Plank co-chaired the 1987 Commission to develop
guidelines for undergraduate studies and later launched
the program for onsite reviews and certification of such
programs. A past national advisor to the Public
Relations Student Society of America, she has a namesake
PRSSA Chapter and scholarship at Northern Illinois
University. Plank is founder and co-chair of the
Champions for PRSSA and received the student
organizations 25th Anniversary Award and its annual
scholarships are named for her.
A native of Alabama, Plank returned in 1965 to join the
final legs of the Civil Rights Selma-to-Montgomery
March. She received her B.A. degree (1944) in history
and political science from the University of Alabama,
where she was elected to its Communication Hall of Fame
in 2000. In 2005, the university trustees established
the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations,
whose mission is to conduct and sponsor research and
programs which advance the ethical practice.
Active on the community scene, Plank chaired the
Illinois Council on Economic Education and the
Citizenship Council of Metropolitan Chicago, has served
on the boards of the United Way, Girl Scouts USA and
Girl Scouts of Chicago, and twice chaired annual
Leadership Luncheons of the YWCA of Metropolitan
Chicago. She is a founder and past chair of The Chicago
Network, the area’s leading career women, and received
its First Decade Award in 1989. Plank continues to serve
on the board of Illinois Issues, the state’s public
policy publication.
Plank is the only person to have been president of four
Chicago communications organizations: Publicity Club of
Chicago (1963); Welfare Public Relations Forum
(1966-67); Chicago Chapter PRSA (1969); and the Public
Relations Forum (1979).
Plank is named in Who’s Who in America and is a lifetime
member of the Publicity Club of Chicago, a member of the
Economic Club and Union League Club of Chicago and the
International Public Relations Association. She was
married to the late Sherman V. Rosenfield and resides in
Chicago.
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