Carrie Rathbun Hawks, APR
President

Carrie Rathbun Hawks, APR is president of Rathbun Public Relations. She is responsible for the creation and management of strategic public relations programs for her clients. Rathbun has practiced public relations for 16 years and is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America.

Prior to opening RPR, Rathbun was marketing counselor with Pace & Partners, an integrated marketing communications firm in Lansing. She also served as the director of public relations and marketing for the Great Lakes State Games and as community affairs coordinator for TCI North Central Region, now Comcast Cable. Rathbun was also a public relations counselor for Lezotte Miller Public Relations in Okemos and was instrumental in starting the firm in 1995.

Rathbun received a BA in communication from Michigan State University in 1992 and serves occasionally as an adjunct instructor for the MSU Department of Advertising's elite Specialization in Public Relations Program. Her accreditation, or APR, is the highest designation a public relations practitioner can earn from PRSA and is only available through extensive written and oral examinations to professionals with progressively more responsible public relations experience.

She is also a member of the Shiawassee Regional Chamber of Commerce and is president of the Laingsburg Educational Advancement Fund. Rathbun also oversees public relations and fundraising as a board member for The Clothesline, a nonprofit resale shop benefitting needy families in Shiawassee, Ingham and Clinton counties.