PRSA-NY Big Apple Awards: Maria J. Ramirez

Maria J. Ramirez, Public Relations Manager at Fidelis Care, joins Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media and President-Elect of PRSA-NY, to discuss her experience winning a 15 Under 35 Award and her success throughout her Public Relations career.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

CAROLINA OSMA: Hi I’m Carolina Osma Senior Marketing Associate at D S Simon Media. We are here today to talk about PRSA New York and the Big Apple awards. With us, we have Maria Ramirez as a previous winner of the 15 other 35 Awards. So, you were a winner. Congratulations on your win. Can you tell us a little bit about winning and what that experience was like?

MARIA RAMIREZ: Yeah. So, when I was nominated by a couple of my former colleagues, you know, they let me know. But I think once I got that final confirmation that I was one of the winners it was the most exciting phone call I probably have gotten. They actually e-mailed me in the middle of the night and I was very blessed to have had that opportunity for them to nominate me. So far so good.

CAROLINA OSMA: Yeah it is such a humbling experience. And then can you tell us a little bit about how winning the 15 Under 35 Awards has helped you currently in your career now?

MARIA RAMIREZ: Yes so being a winner of the PRSA 15 Under 35 has been very very beneficial to my career I think now as public relations manager for Fidelis care which is a New York State Health Plan, it’s definitely open a lot of opportunities for me, a lot of doors. The exposure I’ve gone internally has been absolutely incredible the number of projects I’ve been able to work on ever since becoming a winner has been really eye opening and beneficial to my career. So definitely something I appreciate.

CAROLINA OSMA: Yeah yeah. And so, would you like to share maybe some tips to people that would also like to be nominated or maybe be part of the Big Apple Awards even if it was just volunteering or participating, what are some tips that you have for PR professionals?

MARIA RAMIREZ: I think for PR professionals definitely a tip that I would say is definitely keep in touch with your network and those that you’ve worked with along the way throughout your career. It’s very important to continue to nourish those relationships because at the end of the day those are the people that know you most professionally. So I think networking is something key especially if you want to be nominated for several awards it’s very important to know who you are reaching out to as far as being your biggest advocates.

CAROLINA OSMA: Yeah yeah networking is absolutely important. And then we also know that you went from working directly with PR agencies and now you’re working at Fidelis care and so can you tell us about your transition of what it was like from going directly from PR to a more specified field?

MARIA RAMIREZ: Yeah I can tell you that starting off my career I worked in different PR agencies so I worked at Edelman, Havas, Alison  Brod Communications, and then making that transition over to Fidelis care which is an in-house position as a public relations manager has been very eye opening for me in terms of the exposure I’m getting with-specifically to a brand. So before I would focus on different CPG brands or lifestyle brands or beauty brands even beauty products. But now just focusing on one single thing has been very eye opening from a strategic perspective because I get to give it that 360 view of what I’m working on.

CAROLINA OSMA: Yeah absolutely. Well Maria thank you so much for coming on. It was a pleasure to have you. Thank you. And thank you to our audience for tuning in. And we’ll see you next time.