IABC/SC announces 2022 board of directors

The South Carolina chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC/SC) announces its new board of directors for 2022. Eight communications professionals from around the Midlands will lead the organization. The board consists of returning and new members. The long-standing organization, which provides thousands of business and communication professionals with an international knowledge-sharing community and network, is excited to announce its new leadership.

President, Leigh Lowery

Lowery lives in Lexington, where she serves as Membership Director for the Lexington Chamber and Visitors Center. She has more than 20 years of experience working in local news and served in multiple public relations positions for a government agency and non-profit. She is a graduate of Winthrop University in Rock Hill.

President Elect, Charnita Mack

Charnita Mack serves as a client success manager at Rhodes Branding in Columbia. In her role at Rhodes, Mack is responsible for working with clients on a wide array of social media and digital initiatives to enhance their brand to students, parents and community members. Before joining the Rhodes Branding team, she served as the public relations and social media coordinator at Claflin University. A native of Williston, Mack earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and her master’s degree in organizational communication from Queens University of Charlotte in May 2021. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Beta Zeta Omega Chapter, in Orangeburg.

Past President, Emily Eckert

Emily Eckert is building her communications career on developing a wide range of marketing and public relations skills, from end-to-end event management, to social media campaign execution, stakeholder management, to creative marketing collateral. Recently, Eckert joined the South Carolina Department of Commerce as a communications specialist, where her widely ranging duties include executing both internal and external communications strategies for the state’s leading economic development body. A Baltimore native, received a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from the University of South Carolina in 2016.

Secretary, Carolyn Culbertson

Carolyn Culbertson enthusiastically contributes her communications skills to the marketing department at Nelson Mullins. With a special passion for internal communications and culture, she coordinates the firm’s award-winning internal publication and intranet. She also has experience freelance writing, editing, and tutoring. In 2017, Culbertson earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of South Carolina, where she won the J.S. Reynolds Essay Award and was an editor for The Daily Gamecock.

Vice President of Communications & Webmaster, Mary-Kathryn Craft

Mary-Kathryn Craft is the communications director for the South Carolina Bar, where she oversees strategic communications efforts to elevate the message and brand of the organization to its more than 17,000 members and targeted public audiences across the Palmetto State. Before joining the South Carolina Bar, she served in public affairs and media relations roles for more than 15 years in higher education and public health. Craft began her career in communications as a newspaper reporter in North Carolina. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Vice President of Finance, Alison Shuman

Alison Shuman is a corporate communications coordinator II for Farm Bureau Insurance. Prior to joining Farm Bureau Insurance in 2007, Shuman was the scholastic press manager for the S.C. Scholastic Press Association (SCSPA) and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. She was also the assistant director of the Carolina Journalism Institute.

Shuman is an active member of IABC/SC, AAF of the Midlands and the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society of South Carolina. She has held numerous board positions including president with IABC/SC and the CPCU Society of South Carolina and currently serves on both boards. She also serves as vice president of awards on the IABC Southern Region Board of Directors. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in advertising and a minor in retail from the University of South Carolina.

Vice President of Membership, Bailey Crafton

A South Carolina native, Crafton joined the IABC/SC board for the first time in 2017 as secretary and served as president in 2020. She was awarded the IABC Southern Region Rising Star award in 2021. Her current role at Nelson Mullins includes managing the creative and branding team, strategizing, and creative development for the more than 930 attorney law firm headquartered in Columbia. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina in journalism and mass communications, majoring in visual communications and minoring in photography.

Member at Large, Cynthia South

Cynthia South was elected to the SC IABC Board in 2014, attended the IABC National Leadership Institute, and served as president in 2018. She serves as a chapter liaison for IABC’s Southern Region. South is president of the Alison South Marketing Group with offices in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and South Florida. The full-service agency has won international, regional and statewide awards for its work. As a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, South was a reporter, editor and photographer at the Columbia Missourian newspaper and later assumed an editorial position at Bobbin International, publisher of the textile industry’s management magazine, published in English and Spanish. She went on to become the assistant director of Media Relations and spokesperson for the University of South Carolina.

After finishing her master’s degree in Public Administration at UofSC, specializing in health care, Cynthia became the Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Columbia’s Richland Memorial Hospital, now Prisma. Her healthcare career continued with similar positions at Greenville Hospital System and University of North Carolina Hospitals.

 

About IABC/SC

IABC/SC links organizational, business communicators to a global network of communication professionals who develop, establish and adhere to the highest professional standards of quality and innovation in organizational/business communication. IABC/SC members gain access to a diverse network of 15,000 communication professionals in more than 80 countries worldwide, for unmatched networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities at events and online. Learn more at https://sc.iabc.com.