Joshua Romero is PRSA Oregon’s Secretary and it’s newest APR. Congratulations, Joshua!
Joshua is passionate about engaging and empowering employees as the Employee Experience and Engagement Program manager at the City of Bend, one of the fastest growing mid-sized cities in the nation. In this new role, he will use the knowledge, skills and abilities from the accreditation process to develop a program that supports almost 800 employees. Prior to his new role, Joshua served as the assistant communications director for the city.
He considered earning his Accreditation in Public Relations for a few years, but the timing wasn’t quite right until this year. Joshua knows the value of professional development and continuous education to stay effective and relevant in the field. He also knows the need for more diverse representation in the industry and among APRs. So he made accreditation one of his professional development goals at work and committed the time and energy needed to successfully pass the APR exam on September 8.
Joshua’s 13-year public relations and communications career spans agency, higher education, public health, medical device and local government. Early in his career, he was Membership Co-chair for the national PRSA New Professionals Committee. In 2021, he served as PRSA Oregon Communications Co-director. He’s currently the chapter’s Secretary.
Joshua has been internationally recognized as a Council for the Advancement Support of Education Simpson-Scarborough Scholar and has won regional and national awards for his writing and editing.
He is an advocate for integrating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging practices into communications. He served on the board of United Way of Central Oregon where he chaired the Community Impact Committee and was a founding member of the DEI Advisory Group. Prior to that, Joshua served on the Latino Community Association Advocacy Committee, Bend 2020 Civic Equity Project Advisory Board and Inclusive Innovation Initiative.
Joshua is a FEMA-certified Advanced Public Information Officer and holds a certificate in diversity, equity and inclusion from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’s also certified in Employee Experience and Engagement from Emer Local Government Leaders.