nwasianweekly.com
Sept. 16, 2006

PR specialist Rita Brogan specializes in transportation and development issues. She recently played a key role in building public consensus for the I-405 Corridor Program.

By James Tabafunda
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

Rita Brogan takes on challenges with the bigger picture in mind — making sure her work benefits not only her clients but also the entire community.

Brogan is the chief executive officer of PRR, a public affairs consulting firm with 42 employees and offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C. It is the 38th largest minority-owned company in Washington state and the 74th largest public relations firm in the United States.

Founded in 1981 by James Langlois, PRR was purchased by Brogan in 1989, when it had only three employees.
Brogan believes PRR makes a difference with its full range of public affairs and communications solutions for the community at large. “We achieve this by targeting projects that aim to address vital issues that affect us all: health and wellness, the environment, community planning, transportation and sustainability,” she said.

The firm has provided award-winning work in marketing, public relations and customer service for clients throughout the country. Over the years, it has expanded into a broad-based public affairs practice, adding marketing, research, strategic planning, public involvement, media relations and graphics.

Brogan specializes in shaping public consensus on high-profile programs in the areas of transportation and development. Recently, she played a key role in building public consensus for the I-405 Corridor Program.

“What makes our company unique is that we completely integrate communications with policy and planning, so in addition to having communicators on staff, we also have attorneys, planners, urban designers and architects,” said Brogan. “As a result, we are able to offer substantive value to our clients in the areas of decision-making and problem-solving.”

The integration proved effective this past June, as PRR was the only Seattle-based, independently owned agency awarded the Silver Anvil Award of Excellence by the National Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in New York. The award came for a campaign marketing Northwest Weight Loss Surgery as one of the best gastric surgery centers in the country.

PRR also received the Totem Award in 2002 from the PRSA’s Puget Sound chapter. The award recognizes excellence in public relations programs, including Web sites, community relations, marketing and special event campaigns.

Now, she is among the nominees for 2006 Asian American Entrepreneur of the Year, an award is being given out by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation for the first time.

Growth management, said Brogan, is one of the most challenging aspects of being a CEO. The difficulty, she explains, is “how to help your company grow while sustaining a high level of work quality and customer satisfaction.”

One of her professional goals is to keep focused despite the “competing stresses” of assuring profitability while, at the same time, exceeding client expectations. “When glitches happen, you cannot allow yourself to be consumed or demoralized by them,” explained Brogan. She attributes her company’s long-term success partly to her ability to stay focused.

An active participant in the local Asian American community, Brogan is a founding leader of the Asian Pacific Islander Roundtable and a co-founder of the Asian Pacific Women’s Caucus. In the past, she has served on the International District Urban Design Advisory Committee, the Asian Counseling and Referral Service’s board of directors and the board of directors of the Japanese American Citizens League.

For more information about PRR Inc., visit www.prrbiz.com.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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