By Terry Haycock, 1st Vice President for Membership

Gail Kent is a longtime VPC member who served as our president from 2014–16. Like her colleagues in VPC, Gail is a fascinating, multi-talented writer and PR practitioner. She hails from Hickory, North Carolina. Gail says she “wound up in Virginia” in 1975 with her first husband, a Navy man stationed here. She later married Bob Kent, a native Virginian, and, as they say, the rest is history. They reside in Newport News. She has three sons, ages ranging from 32–45, and a granddaughter, Cheyenne, a VCU senior.

Gail earned an AB in Journalism from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a MFA in creative writing (non-fiction) from Old Dominion University. She started her career as a journalist at a weekly in Chesapeake, then moved on to the now-defunct afternoon daily Times-Herald in Newport News joining VPC (then VPW) when a news editor friend suggested it. She went on to public relations, writing, branding, marketing, and handling employee and media relations for hospitals, health care organizations, and universities. Gail has owned her own business, The Buzz Factoree, LLC, for 16 years offering marketing and public relations services for non-profits and small businesses. She also writes for local magazines.

Gail has a multitude of interests. She has volunteered to assist in local and state political campaigns; she attended rallies in Washington, D.C., and participated in three women’s marches. She supports candidates and causes that fight for social justice and equality.

Gail spent her sophomore year in college (1971–72) as a European Studies Minor at East Carolina University. She lived in Germany, also traveling throughout Europe, including behind the Iron Curtain to East Berlin and Moscow. She made lifelong friendships during the program, which she says, “opened up the world in new ways I could never have imagined as a naïve, small-town girl.” She has maintained friendships with program participants for 50 years, recently organizing and attending a reunion in Nags Head. To quote Gail, “We are more than friends — we are family!”

Gail loves music. After taking lessons as a teenager, at 50, Gail bought a piano but really did not play until the past two years when she started taking lessons through a local church music school, continuing via Zoom during the pandemic. Gail says she likes playing piano for herself and feels “elated” when she plays well.

Other interests include crochet, for which she has a “hobby business” creating afghan blankets, dolls, decorative items, and baby and women’s apparel for her customers. She also repurposes old furniture via chalk painting, transfers, and stencils. Gail is a member of a writing group that meets every two weeks, now online. These members are good friends as well as writers, and she finds their friendships invaluable. She is currently writing a memoir about caregiving for her husband who has advanced Parkinson’s disease. She also participates in online book groups.

In addition to her term as VPC president, Gail has served as treasurer, district director (several times), VP for membership, awards chair, and was the main project manager for VPC’s rebranding. She is now secretary of the VPW Foundation board of directors and strongly advocates for donating to the foundation to support scholarships for deserving young communicators. In addition to receiving the state’s Communicator of Achievement Award in the 1980s, she is also the recipient of more than 100 VPC/VPW and NFPW awards as well as more than 50 from other organizations.

Gail notes that VPC has offered “the best friendships with people who are committed to their careers.” She likes the variety of fields the members represent. “I appreciate the opportunity to have been involved in an organization as a lifetime commitment that offers common interests, friendships, education, and opportunity.” She is truly a VPC treasure.

Look for Gail at our next VPC Zoom or in-person meeting. They are the perfect places to renew old friendships and generate new ones. Thank you, Gail, for your many years of continued service.