Communicating in a Changing World

The Board of PRSA Greater CT Chapter invites you to Communicating in a Changing World: How DEI plays a role in newsrooms and PR agencies on Thursday, Nov. 10 in Hamden, CT. Our guest speaker, Mercy Quaye, founder & president of The Narrative Project, will also be joining us!

Date & Time: Thursday, November 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. coffee/light breakfast)

Location: Quinnipiac University, Mt. Carmel Campus Auditorium  (Campus Map - Building 2). Enter campus via the Harwood Gate (Visitors) Entrance and park in the Visitors Lot (see below for additional details)

What to expect: From 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., join us for coffee, light breakfast and networking. Then from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., our brief annual meeting followed by our featured guest presentation with Mercy Quaye, founder and president of The Narrative Project, editor and columnist at CT Mirror.

Tickets: Free for PRSA CT members, $25 for non-members, & free for college students

Directions to  Mount Carmel Auditorium from the Quinnipiac University Visitors Lot:

Exit the Visitors Lot via the sidewalk that extends toward the Campus Quad.  The brick Communications & Engineering Building will be on your right.  Veer right on the sidewalk toward the Communications & Engineering Building.  Take your first right via the doorway into the Mount Carmel Auditorium. Signs for “PRSA Event” will be clearly posted along the walkway and on the doorway.

Guest Speaker: Mercy Quaye

Mercy has built a storied career in journalism, communications, and public relations in New Haven and statewide for more than a decade. After working in the public and non-profit sectors, spearheading communications strategies in a variety of industries, she launched The Narrative Project to offer high-quality communications for organizations who seek to do good in the world.

After leaving a formal career in Journalism, Mercy began working in mission-driven communications for public and non-profit organizations focusing on equitable education, undocumented students' rights and more. She’s also spent time working in public relations as the Managing Director of External Affairs with Educators for Excellence, the Director of Communications with New Haven Public Schools, and as a Communications Associate with the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now.

At the core of everything she does is a deeply seeded desire to effect positive social change through collaboration and highlighting lesser-discussed aspects of the Black and American experiences. The daughter of a Ghanaian immigrant on one side and a first-generation college student on the other, Mercy's relationship to justice through storytelling and exposure was born shortly after moving from low-income housing in Newhallville to the West River neighborhood -- a Westville adjacent community with the promise of opportunity, but far fewer resources than it required.

A self-proclaimed "inner-city kid who went to college," Mercy's perspective on life has been shaped through a number of experiences including: converting from Christianity to Islam to agnosticism; joining a historically Black sorority at a predominately white university; section hiking the Appalachian Trail and having a brief stint in the outdoor industry; having an oddly in-depth interest in astrophysics; being in an interracial marriage with an former Wyomingite from a conservative family, and a convergence of countless other random happenings.

She’s a professor of digital journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, the Vice President for Communications with the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists, and a columnist with Hearst Connecticut Media. Her column Subtext offers readers a lesser-examined perspective on well-known topics and delves into the potential ripple effects of any given issue.

She obtained a Bachelors in Journalism and a Masters in Public Relations from Quinnipiac University.