Monthly Archives: June 2026

How I Got Here: Bianca Pell’s Journey to PR

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Many career paths are unplanned. As specialists in insurance communications, we hear from insurance professionals all the time who found their way to their professions through unplanned or unexpected means. The same can be true of public relations. Whether it’s journalism, marketing or human resources—the PR field is uniquely suited to diverse backgrounds. That is why we are sharing this blog series breaking down how our team members came to find their current PR roles. For any new grads trying to figure out what they want to do, or even established professionals looking to make a change, we hope this series can shed some light on the PR field. 

What did you go to school for?

I studied English and Public Relations in college. I initially planned to become an English teacher but soon made the pivot to PR after learning more about the way it employed storytelling. 

What did you envision your job would be? 

In college, I envisioned myself in an in-house PR role. I worked closely with my campus’ Relay for Life organization and wished to work with a nonprofit. During my internship at a PR agency my senior year, I learned a lot about the value of working at an agency early on in my career. The fast-paced client work provides a great crash course in all things connected to media relations, and I knew it would serve as a necessary push out of my comfort zone.

What was your first job out of college? 

My professional journey started with an account coordinator role at a public relations agency. Most of my clients were B2C focused, from wellness to tech and even a few nonprofits. 

How did you end up in your current role?

I was looking for a new agency position and happened to see an opening at Kimball Hughes Public Relations for a PR assistant position. Though I had some experience with B2B PR, I had limited experience in a niche like insurance, but I have learned so much while working here. 

What has surprised you most about your career or yourself given your current role?

The technical aspect has surprised me most. I’ve never been well-versed in more technical topics but working in the insurance space has helped me hone my skill in a way I didn’t anticipate. 

What have you learned from your career journey?

Staying still doesn’t get you anywhere. Sometimes it takes a push to get you where you need to be or better yet, jump in headfirst. 

What lesson or myth-busting idea would you want to share with someone thinking about a career in public relations?

PR is a great field for transferrable skills, but those skills can stagnate if you don’t continue to develop them. In order to write or pitch effectively, you have to consistently keep up to date with industry news and trending topics or risk being left behind. 

How We’ll Spend Our Summer Down Time

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For many of us, the memory of required childhood essays about how we spent our summer vacations remains vivid. While summer essays are no longer required for us, our team opted for a bit of proactive nostalgia by sharing a few of our summer plans before a single beach footprint, cracking of book spines or scheduling of an Airbnb, is attempted. 

Logan Thompson

I’m escaping the East Coast heat to visit Colorado for the first time. I can’t wait to see the mountains out west! My other summer plans include attending my brother and sister-in-law’s baby shower, going to my parents’ beach house, searching for a wedding dress and channeling the early-2000s at a Hilary Duff concert. 

Bianca Pell

I’m planning to see Ariana Grande in concert for the first time before joining my family for a much-needed beach vacation afterward. Otherwise, I’ll be taking advantage of the few months of sunshine in Massachusetts by celebrating the 4th of July on a trip with friends. 

Kate Glaviano

Other than a few pre-planned, small excursions this summer, I’m hoping to keep things pretty calm. My family and I are going to see singer-songwriter Tyler Childers in concert in July. I’m also planning to tackle some backyard projects with my mom, to enjoy plenty of park days with friends and to spend some downtime at home in between. 

Liz Rubino

Summer fun starts with our annual family getaway to the beach. It’s always a great time! We also have a trip planned to visit Canada with our good friends. Otherwise, we are looking forward to seeing our friends and enjoying lots of lobster.

Mike Madry

This summer is going to be very wedding-heavy for me. I have three on the books, all of which are taking place in my home state of Pennsylvania. My brother is attending all of them, so it will be awesome to get to spend some time with him.

Cassidy Taylor

Starting July 1, new Mom Cassidy Taylor will be returning to work. She will, of course, also be sharing several firsts with Baby Jackson this year along with her husband, Matt. This includes baby’s first fireworks display celebrating the 250thanniversary of American Independence. 

John Forberger

Next weekend we will be attending the first-ever Major League Pickleball tournament in St. Petersburg. The host facility, opened by a friend, is called St. Pete Athletic, and 60 top pros in North America, including the phenom Anna Leigh Waters, will be there. And yeah, I know the names of pickleball pros as any good South Florida resident should.

Paul Eagle

This July I’ll be headed to Austin, Texas to celebrate my son Austin’s birthday. (Yes, that is his name.) The rest of the summer will consist of smaller get-aways to swim in Lake Tahoe, eat oysters in San Francisco, hike with our dog, Angus, at Scott’s Flat Lake and tackle two new rock biographies, including Sing Backwards and Weep, the Mark Lanegan Story, and Even The Good Girls Will Cry, A 90’s Rock Memoir by Melissa Aug Der Mauer.

Eileen Coyne

Every summer my family vacations with close family friends at the Jersey Shore. With six boys between the two families, it’s always a fun adventure. Though the sandcastle-building days may be behind us, no one seems to age out of jumping from the dock into the bay with the occasional “Watch this, mom!”

Rod Hughes

With the big event being my brother’s beach wedding in late July at the Jersey Shore, the rest of our plans this summer are low-key by comparison. Ron Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain continues to call to me from my bedside table as a must-complete summer project. I’ll need to find one more to maintain parity with Paul Eagle’s summer reading list. The rest of the calendar will be filled with coffee and lunch meetups with friends. From all of us at Kimball Hughes PR, we wish you an enjoyable summer!

Managing a Crowded Hour with the Media

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Theodore Roosevelt described his experience leading his Rough Riders, a volunteer cavalry force, on a charge up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American war as his crowded hour. He used the phrase to describe an intense, critical and life-altering activity where he risked all to achieve a monumental goal; in this case, taking the hill and securing a strategic advantage for the U.S. military.

While few public relations professionals take on anything beyond proverbial fire (they do call us flacks), if you have been in the communications trenches long enough, you have experienced a comms-version of your own crowded hour. Often, these crowded hours involve the need to convey a crucial organizational message or announcement in the wake of bigger news events.

The question, in these high-stakes media moments, is what to do?

Which Hill to Climb?

There are a range of approaches, and each offers its own risk-reward scenario to consider.

  • Ride the Wave. If the situation is pliable, you may be able to tie the organization news or announcement to the bigger issue or news wave dominating the media. This could come in the form of expert commentary as well as market or trend analysis. For instance, if the dominant story is about a major cybersecurity incident and you’re announcing a new SaaS or tech tool, lean on the product or service’s security features to reassure your target audience this new product or service is meeting the moment by providing improved security.
  • Try New Channels. If there is a market-moving event, the likelihood business or trade media will focus on your announcement is slim. The good news is the media market has fractured enough that there are ample opportunities to still get your message out. Social media (especially LinkedIn) can be a godsend and is a major tool feeding AI searches today. Specialty outlets like Substack and Medium can provide access to laser-focused audiences regardless of the news cycle. There are also countless podcasts that have gained credibility and wider audiences. And never count out trade newsletters, which sometimes speak more directly to audiences. 
  • Lengthen Your Runway. Try splitting your announcement into a range of different angles or news hooks. This can include client-testimonials, regional statistics or vignettes, contributed articles to trade media, pithy video content for the organization’s owned social channels (i.e., YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, etc.) as well as both your email and LinkedIn newsletters. (*If you aren’t self-publishing a LinkedIn newsletter you’re missing a tremendous audience as a B2B brand regardless of the news cycle.)
  • Hold the Announcement. Reading the room is a critical communications tactic. There are moments such as the 9/11 attacks, the March 2008 run on Bear Stearns and the February 2026 initiation of major combat operations in Iran that can distract from all other news events. There are also regional or more focused events, such as school shootings or VIP arrests or deaths that can dominate broader news cycles. In these instances, it’s not worth the risk of your news being missed entirely or only reaching a fraction of your target audiences while the focus is on other events or news. Delay the press release, LinkedIn or other social media posts.

Good public relations professionals, and certainly those who have been through a crowded hour or two, will formulate an informed opinion and advise senior leadership accordingly. 

Experienced leaders should heed the experienced advice provided from their comms teams.  Those who ignore that advice risk wasting their efforts during the media’s crowded hour and damaging their reputations with the media in the process.