Henry Shannon Receives State Public Relations Award
April 18, 2023
The Community Colleges Public Relations Organization has named Chaffey College Superintendent/President Henry Shannon the 2023 winner of the PROmoter Award for championing public relations and marketing initiatives.
Shannon accepted the award April 13 at the Sheraton Universal in Universal City, Calif. The Chaffey College Strategic Communications Department also received six awards during the ceremony for its work.
“I am honored and grateful to CCPRO for recognizing me for my role in promoting community college education,” Shannon said. “I consider it a moral imperative to help every student we can to succeed in their academic and career goals and supporting our talented strategic communications team is one of the ways we do this.”
Shannon, who has served in higher education leadership roles for more than 40 years, came to Chaffey College in 2007. Under his leadership, the college has been named a top 10 college in the nation by the Aspen Institute, a winner of the state chancellor’s $1 million higher education award and “One of the 12 Most Innovative Colleges for Adult Learners” by Washington Monthly. Shannon received the Marie Y. Martin Chief Executive Office Award from the Association of Community College Trustees in 2018.
The college in 2021 received a $25 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, thanks to Shannon’s leadership and support of equity initiatives.
CCPRO is a California professional development and service organization serving the state’s community college public relations professionals and related professions. The PROmoter award recognizes community college administrators who demonstrate leadership in supporting public relations and marketing at their college and throughout California.
Shannon has advanced community colleges on a local, state and national level through his work with the Community College League of California, the California Community College Commission of the Future, the American Association of Community Colleges and the Alliance for Education of San Bernardino County, among other organizations.
“Dr. Shannon’s support of Chaffey’s strategic communications initiatives extends beyond allocating financial resources for billboards and radio commercials,” said Alisha Rosas, associate superintendent of student services and strategic communications. “He also offers opinion articles to local and regional news publications on current topics that affect all of us, providing valuable thought leadership to the communities we serve.”
Chaffey’s Strategic Communications team earned the following awards for public relations and marketing projects:
- Gold – manipulated photo
- Silver – feature story
- Silver – wild card
- Silver – novelty advertising
- Silver – annual report
- Bronze – social media marketing
