Meet a Hodger: Casey Prentice

Casey Prentice first walked through the doors of The Hodges Partnership as an intern her junior year in college. Just a couple of short years later, she’d walk back through our doors to start the career that has brought her where she is today.

Originally from Small Town, N.C., Casey didn’t have public relations on her radar growing up. But she started at East Carolina University as a communications major and never looked back. Being organized and building relationships were intertwined in her DNA, making her a valuable asset to any public relations agency, which for us means bringing digital and content savvy to the table.

From being a Sonic carhop and dressing up as an elf at the mall, to being an orientation assistant and a telefund caller at ECU, Casey has had her fair share of interesting, yet rewarding jobs that, in hindsight, all helped fuel her passion for communications.

Without further ado, meet Casey Prentice.

What advice would you give an intern or young professional coming into the world of public relations? 

Particularly for PR, we’re in the nature of forming and building relationships, so the biggest thing I would recommend is to stay in touch and continue to nurture the relationships of people within your network. I would create reasons to come to Richmond and visit Hodges after I interned. But there’s a fine line of doing that and being pesky and annoying. You’ve got to strike a balance.

When and why did you decide to get into PR?

I applied to ECU as a sociology major, but at orientation I ended up at the communications table, looked at the PR curriculum, and thought, “These are the exact classes I want to take. This is what I’m going to do.” I stuck with it, got an internship at Hodges and that really validated that this was something I wanted to do. I also really liked the agency life. I’d rather be busy than bored, which makes me a perfect fit for juggling accounts.

Is there a particular account that you feel most proud of the work you have done?

I do a lot of work with Virginia’s Community Colleges. My first large-scale project to manage was for VCCS, and now, most of my workload ties back to a community college program. Just being able to see our work make an impact is great. FastForward, in particular, is an effort I was part of from brand launch on. We’re starting our fourth year and not only has our awareness grown, but we’re seeing FastForward involved in national conversations about workforce development.

What is your favorite thing about working at Hodges?

This sounds cheesy but we really are a team and we work together as a team. When one person is having a bad day, everyone rallies around you for support. It’s really collaborative, and we like to work hard (but we also like to play hard, too).

When you’re not working at Hodges, what does a typical day look like for you?

I have a two-year-old son. When I’m not in the office, I’m usually outside with him, playing in the hose and checking out the construction trucks on our street. When he finally crashes for some rest, I love to catch up on reading or decompress by working through my DVR, which is a mix of Grey’s Anatomy and reality shows like The Masked Singer, Top Chef and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

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