Member News – Cheers and Changes

• Theresa Brown Cortez was promoted from senior public relations representative to manager of news media and public relations at CPS Energy. 
• On January 22, Ginger Purdy was the keynote speaker in Austin for the Executive Director’s Conference of the Family Violence Protection Centers of Texas. She was asked to start the conference off on an enthusiastic, upbeat tone, and of course, the evaluations showed she did just that!
• Ashlee Bates has both professional and personal reasons to celebrate this month. She not only has a new job as the Tourism Coordinator of the Castroville Area Chamber of Commerce, but she is also expecting her first baby, who is due July 3.
• Barbara Hendricks was a facilitator for a presentation by a visiting Australian Aboriginal artist and his wife as the first Black History Month event at Northwest Vista College. They are in the United States as part of an exhibit of the Lam Collection of Aboriginal Art, currently on display at the UTSA Art Gallery, 1604 campus. The artist is also part of a two person show running concurrently at the UTSA Satellite Space in the Blue Star area.
• Hendricks also spent two weeks visiting her daughter and grandson at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where her daughter is the base school counselor. From the Indiana Jones-type prop plane ride to the Iguana Crossing signs, it was an adventure, and Hendricks has the pictures to prove it.
• Lynn Gonzales is now a part of the public relations team at Blue Clover, a versatile, highly creative On- and Off-line Branding™ firm fusing strategic online and traditional marketing communications. As an account executive, Gonzales pitches stories to local and national media outlets, writes press releases and media advisories, helps coordinate special events, writes and edits copy for marketing collateral materials and websites, and manages the firm’s blog. She is also an adjunct professor at St. Mary’s University, teaching classes in the English and Communication Studies department, as well as Literature and Composition for Upward Bound.
• Cynthia Ladson is now the editor of Our Kids San Antonio magazine.