Mid-Missouri Public Relations Society Names Gerding As President

Group serves communications professionals in Jefferson City and Columbia

The Mid-Missouri chapter of the Public Relations Society of America has elected Laura Gerding as president of the board of directors for 2012. Gerding is a senior information specialist with the University of Missouri School of Medicine Office of Communications. She has been a member of the Mid-Missouri PRSA board for three years and served as accreditation chair and programming co-chair for the regional group that serves area communications professionals.

Gerding

Gerding received a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 2002 and obtained an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) certification in 2008. She served as a public relations account executive at VANGEL in Columbia before joining the MU School of Medicine in 2009. Before moving back to the area in 2007, Gerding held positions as an assistant account executive at Mitchell Communications Group in Fayetteville, Ark., and as an associate editor for the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal.

Gerding is vice president of the board of directors and chair of the fundraising and marketing committee for Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity and is a member of the marketing committee for Tiger Town. She is a past executive committee member of Emerging Professionals in Columbia (EPIC), a division of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and also served as a member of Team EPIC on the 2011 Chamber Total Resources Campaign. Gerding is also a past and founding member of the board of directors for Northwest Arkansas Young Professionals, a networking and professional development group created in 2005 in Rogers, Ark.

Click here to download a high-resolution portrait of Gerding.