{"id":2654,"date":"2021-11-15T15:09:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vapc.org\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2021-11-15T15:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:10:00","slug":"member-profile-gail-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/member-profile-gail-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"Member Profile: Gail Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Terry Haycock, 1st Vice President for Membership<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail Kent is a longtime VPC member who served as our president from 2014\u201316. Like her colleagues in VPC, Gail is a fascinating, multi-talented writer and PR practitioner. She hails from Hickory, North Carolina. Gail says she \u201cwound up in Virginia\u201d 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\u201345, and a granddaughter, Cheyenne, a VCU senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gail Kent <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s marches. She supports candidates and causes that fight for social justice and equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail spent her sophomore year in college (1971\u201372) 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, \u201copened up the world in new ways I could never have imagined as a na\u00efve, small-town girl.\u201d She has maintained friendships with program participants for 50 years, recently organizing and attending a reunion in Nags Head. To quote Gail, \u201cWe are more than friends \u2014 we are family!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201celated\u201d when she plays well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other interests include crochet, for which she has a \u201chobby business\u201d creating afghan blankets, dolls, decorative items, and baby and women\u2019s 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\u2019s disease. She also participates in online book groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail notes that VPC has offered \u201cthe best friendships with people who are committed to their careers.\u201d She likes the variety of fields the members represent. \u201cI appreciate the opportunity to have been involved in an organization as a lifetime commitment that offers common interests, friendships, education, and opportunity.\u201d She is truly a VPC treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Terry Haycock, 1st Vice President for Membership Gail Kent is a longtime VPC member who served as our president from 2014\u201316. Like her colleagues in VPC, Gail is a fascinating, multi-talented writer and PR practitioner. She hails from Hickory, North Carolina. Gail says she \u201cwound up in Virginia\u201d in 1975 with her first husband, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,45,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-member-profiles","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMember Profile: Gail Kent - VPC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Virginia Professional Communicators\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/member-profile-gail-kent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Member Profile: Gail Kent - VPC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Virginia Professional Communicators\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/member-profile-gail-kent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VPC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/42804826486\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"VaCommunicators\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T20:09:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T20:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vapc.org\/vapc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/gail-feature-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"VPC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"VPC\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"VPC\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8dd82343fadf1a1f3997437b44e25c62\"},\"headline\":\"Member Profile: Gail Kent\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-15T20:09:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T20:10:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":673,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/gail-feature-image.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\",\"Member Profiles\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/vapc.org\\\/vapc\\\/member-profile-gail-kent\\\/\",\"name\":\"Member Profile: Gail Kent - 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