PRPLI honored six outstanding public relations professionals at its Annual Awards Luncheon. Fellow pros, honorees, their colleagues, and loved ones gathered at Westbury Manor on Wednesday, May 17 to recognize the achievements and success of the 2023 award recipients.
In addition to the six awards honorees, the luncheon recognized Kayla McKechnie, the 2023 PRPLI Scholarship recipient. The event also featured a tribute to PR professionals who we tragically lost last year, Mindy Wolfle, President of Neptune Marketing, LLC, and Steve Haweeli, Founder of WordHampton PR.
Planned by PRPLI’s Awards Committee, this year’s luncheon was the 32nd iteration of this annual event. Many thanks to the PRPLI Board of Directors for their support and to Awards Committee members Theresa Jacobellis, Lauren Delguidice, Diana Bassett, and Nicole Esan for their diligent planning for a fabulous afternoon!
Pictured above, left to right: Anthony Lambroia, Account Executive, Corbett Public Relations, Rising Star Award Recipient; Bill Corbett, Jr., President, Corbett Public Relations, PR Campaign of the Year Award Recipient; Mark Grossman, Founder, Mark Grossman Public Relations, Jack Rettaliata Award Recipient; Janine Logan, VP, Communications & Population Health, Suburban Hospital Alliance of NYS, Howard M. Blankman PRPLI Mentor Award Recipient; Jaci Clement, CEO & Executive Director, Fair Media Council, Long Island Achievement Award Recipient; Not Pictured: Carolyn James, Editor & Publisher, Amityville Record, Babylon Beacon, & Massapequa Post, Outstanding Media Award Recipient
Thank You, Sponsors & Raffle Donors!
Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State Platinum Sponsor
Corbett Public Relations Gold Sponsor
Hofstra University Gold Sponsor
Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk, Inc. Gold Sponsor
Mark Grossman Public Relations Silver Sponsor
Connected Culture Bronze Sponsor
Raffle Donors
- Hampton Soaptique
- Fleur’d Pins
- Karli Langone, KJ’s Korner
- Christine Waldhof
Meet the Honorees
Anthony Lambroia, Account Executive, Corbett Public Relations
Rising Star Award Recipient
Anthony Lambroia is an Account Executive for Corbett Public Relations, Long Island’s leading PR and personal branding firm. During his year and a half with the company, Lambroia has successfully secured over 200 media placements for his clients in over five different markets. As an account executive, he serves as the promoter and protector of his clients’ brands and businesses. Having developed strong relationships with journalists and media professionals, Lambroia has enhanced his client’s brands by positioning company executives as leaders in their respective industries, making them go-to experts for media outlets and further strengthening the company’s reputation.
In addition to his work at Corbett Public Relations, Anthony is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Relations at Hofstra University. He is passionate about learning and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in the field, and his dedication to his studies has earned him high praise from his professors.
Lambroia attended The University of Scranton, where he excelled both academically and athletically. He was a standout athlete, serving as the varsity catcher on the baseball team for four years. Here, Lambroia helped lead them to the program’s first-ever conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance. Lambroia was also a member of Lambda Pi Eta, Communications Honor Society. Outside of work and school, Anthony is also an accomplished martial artist and instructor at Tiger Schulmann’s Mixed Martial Arts. He currently resides in East Northport.
Bill Corbett, Jr., President, Corbett Public Relations
PR Campaign of the Year Award Recipient
Bill Corbett, Jr., is President of Corbett Public Relations, Inc., the firm is known as Long Island’s Public Relations Firm. The award-winning Corbett Public Relations is based in Floral Park, New York. Bill is known as an Entrepreneur Publicist and is a professional speaker, TV show host, media trainer and creator of Elite Personal Branding.
Corbett PR was awarded the PRPLI PR Campaign of the Year Award for its outstanding Paws of War campaign. Since 2014, Paws of War has brought over 300 dogs and cats, rescued by our troops serving overseas to safety in the U.S. They have provided hundreds of Veterans with service and support dogs rescued from kill shelters. Their mission is to train and place shelter & support dogs to serve and provide independence to our U.S. military Veterans that suffer from the emotional & physical effects of war. In turn, each Veteran can experience the therapeutic and unconditional love only a companion animal can bring. They aim to provide animals rescue for our troops serving overseas.
Mark Grossman, Founder, Mark Grossman Public Relations
Jack Rettaliata Award Recipient
Mark Grossman is one of the most sought-after communications professionals on Long Island and in the Metro-New York City area. He served as former-New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo’s Regional Director on Long Island, a time where he built strong ties to local governments, civic groups, educational institutions, organized labor, and the business community. He later served as a deputy town supervisor in the Town of Brookhaven, a municipality of 480,000 residents on Long Island, the State Labor Commissioner’s Long Island Regional Representative, and the field director at the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, a near two-year redeployment in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
In the private sector, Mark founded and managed Grossman Strategies, now Mark Grossman Public Relations, an award-winning public and government relations firm whose clients have included major national and regional corporations including AT&T Wireless, Hess Corporation, The Home Depot, Pathmark Stores, Publishers Clearinghouse, Duke Energy, Solar City, and Invenergy. He’s also worked with a myriad of Long Island-based non-profits, labor groups, and trade associations.
Mark is an Adjunct Professor of Communication at Suffolk County Community College and Nassau Community College. At Nassau, he serves as the Communication Department Representative to the Adjunct Faculty Association. Mark formerly served on the faculty at New York Institute of Technology where he developed a special course in “Media and Politics.” He currently presents a corporate seminar he created, “Marketing to Government: The Art and Science of Political Salesmanship,” to a national audience.
Twice elected by overwhelming margins to the South Country School District Board of Education, Mark was a co-founder of the Long Island STEM Hub, is a board member of the Gestalt Center of Long Island, and has served on other non-profit boards and advisory councils. Mark was also a board member of the Mastic Beach Hebrew Center where he served as a teacher in their religious school.
A 2017 graduate of the highly acclaimed Stand-Up University at The Brokerage comedy club in Bellmore, NY, Mark can now be found on-stage at various comedy clubs and dive bars on Long Island performing his stand-up routine that centers on the challenges of online dating at an advanced age.
Mark earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from School of Visual Arts in New York City. He then attended New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, NY as a Graduate Fellow on full scholarship, earning his Master’s Degree “With Distinction.”
Janine Logan, VP, Communications & Population Health, Suburban Hospital Alliance of NYS
Howard M. Blankman PRPLI Mentor Award Recipient
Janine Logan is Vice President, Communications and Population Health at the Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State (SHANYS), an association that represents 50 hospitals and works to ensure that reasonable and rational health policy and legislation prevails. She is also Director of the Long Island Health Collaborative.
Janine manages all communications, media relations, and marketing efforts for the Suburban Hospital Alliance and its regional associations – the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council on Long Island and the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association in the Hudson Valley. She launched Alliance Health Communications, a marketing/communications service assisting not-for-profits and public health agencies, in 2021 as a service of the Suburban Hospital Alliance. Janine combines expertise in health communications and public health initiatives. She offers 25 plus years’ experience and has been recognized regionally and nationally for her evidence-based approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating health education and cause-related awareness campaigns that resonate with audiences of all levels.
She is adept at fashioning a compelling narrative around data points, while drawing upon communication theories that are based in social science concepts. Janine is an adjunct assistant professor of community health at Farmingdale State College and has spoken at numerous conferences and symposia about health communications and marketing, nonprofit advocacy, and how to effectively engage the media. She is a member of New York State’s Prevention Agenda committee and sits on a statewide Community Health Taskforce overseen by the Healthcare Association of New York State.
Janine holds a master’s degree in health communications from Boston University, a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communications from St. John’s University and national accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America. When not writing about health policy or community health, Janine writes about living on Long Island, raising children, and achieving balance in a hectic world on her blog, FirstNarrative.com
Jaci Clement, CEO & Executive Director, Fair Media Council
Long Island Achievement Award Recipient
Jaci Clement earned her first byline in a daily paper when she was in the fourth grade. She’s worked in news and with news ever since. Now, she is considered one of the country’s most influential media scholars. As CEO and Executive Director of the Fair Media Council, Jaci is noted for her visionary leadership of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which is now a prominent U.S. platform for thought leadership in news and media. The Fair Media Council advocates for quality news and works to create a media-savvy society.
She also hosts the award-winning podcast, FMC Fast Chat. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, she came to Long Island to attend Hofstra University, where she earned a B.A. in communications and journalism. Today she lives on the North Shore, is owned by a large dog, and drives a small car.
Carolyn James, Editor & Publisher, Amityville Record, Babylon Beacon, & Massapequa Post
Outstanding Media Award Recipient
Carolyn James is the editor and publisher of three weekly newspapers, the Amityville Record, Babylon Beacon and Massapequa Post. She and her husband purchased the Post and Record papers in 1991 and the Babylon Beacon in 1999.
Prior to that, Carolyn worked as an editor and reporter for the Babylon Beacon under the founding owners Ed and Jane Wolfe of Babylon. She also worked for weekly newspapers covering Nassau, Suffolk and Queens and freelanced for the New York Times Long Island section. She is a member and former regional director for SPJ and past president of the Press Club of Long Island. She currently serves as New York State FOI Chair for SPJ. She also teaches journalism as an instructor at Hofstra University and is a member of the New York Press Association. She and her husband have five children, eight grandchildren and live in Bay Shore.
Learn more about each of PRPLI’s annual awards here.
