IABC/SC announces the 2018 Board of Directors. The Board consists of both returning and new members.

Cynthia South was elected to the SC IABC Board in 2014 and last year attended the IABC National Leadership Institute. South is president and partner of the Alison South Marketing Group with offices in Columbia, Aiken, and Augusta. The full-service agency has won international, regional, and statewide awards for its work.

South was a reporter, editor, and photographer at the Columbia Missourian newspaper and later assumed an editorial position at Bobbin International, publisher of the textile industry’s management magazine, published in English and Spanish. She went on to become the assistant director of media relations and spokesperson for the University of South Carolina. After finishing her Master’s Degree in Public Administration at USC, specializing in health care, South became the director of public relations and marketing for Columbia’s Richland Memorial Hospital, now Palmetto Health. Her healthcare career continued with similar positions at Greenville Hospital System and University of North Carolina Hospitals. South later co-founded a statewide radio network followed by establishing an advertising agency.

Michael Ettlemyer was elected to the IABC/SC board in 2017 and attended this year’s IABC Leadership Institute meeting in San Diego, Calif. A New York native, he brings more than 20 years of marketing communications experience to the University of South Carolina. Ettlemyer has served in several corporate, agency, and higher education roles, most recently as a senior manager in digital and social at LG Electronics’ internal ad agency. Ettlemyer also worked in senior communications positions for GE’s consumer finance arm, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and MakerBot. He started his career in higher education marketing and communications at schools in New England and NY. Ettlemyer joined the NY IABC Westfair chapter in 2012 and became that organization’s vice president.

Alison Shuman is a corporate communications coordinator II for Farm Bureau Insurance. Prior to joining Farm Bureau Insurance in 2007, Shuman was the scholastic press manager for the S.C. Scholastic Press Association (SCSPA) and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. She was also the assistant director of the Carolina Journalism Institute.

Shuman is an active member of IABC/SC, AAF of the Midlands and the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society of South Carolina. She has held numerous board positions with IABC/SC and the CPCU Society of South Carolina and currently serves as the past president of both. In 2000, Shuman was recognized as SCSPA’s Journalist of the Year.

After eight years of working in the publishing industry at Bruccoli, Clark, Layman, Dickson Monk joined Columbia’s nonprofit community as communications manager for the Columbia Museum of Art and, later, as director of marketing and communications at Historic Columbia. Monk joined the Columbia World Affairs Council in June 2016, becoming executive director in January 2017. He also serves on the boards of the Sister Cities of South Carolina Association, Columbia Council for Internationals, and the Midlands Anchor Advisory Board.

Bailey Crafton joined the IABC/SC board for the first time in 2017, serving as secretary. She is currently the site master and branding coordinator for Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, a 575+ attorney law firm headquartered in Columbia, S.C. Prior to joining Nelson Mullins, Crafton spent two years as the senior graphic artist and marketing/advertising coordinator for Ellett Brothers, in Chapin, S.C. She has experience with professional photography, videography, and specialized branding design work done for multiple freelance clients.

Patrick Cobb is the communications and voter engagement director for AARP South Carolina, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people 50 and older. In this role since 2001, he manages AARP South Carolina’s communication strategies and voter engagement activities – a true political junkie. Cobb has worked on three AARP early state primary campaigns and has met just about anyone running for President. Over the years, he has worked on numerous state level campaigns including home and community based services, passage of the cigarette tax for Medicaid, and consumer issues including predatory lending and consumer fraud. He served as the interim state director for AARP Virginia during the summer of 2017. Cobb was honored with AARP’s Community State & Nation Award for Excellence in Communications in 2016.

Todd Hudak is a senior communications specialist at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. He works with the company’s Corporate Marketing Communications department creating and executing communication strategies.

Prior to joining BlueCross, Hudak worked as a writer/strategist at Semaphore Inc., a full-service advertising agency in Columbia, S.C. He previously served as news editor/writer in the communications office at Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C. He also has several years of experience as a newspaper editor and writer.

Kristin Scott is a web content specialist at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and uses her expertise to provide clients with excellent health care communications. Scott is also involved in events and communications for Women in Philanthropy and uses her communications skills in other ways throughout the Columbia area.

Emily Eckert moved 500 miles from Baltimore, Md. to Columbia, S.C. with the intention of meeting new people and building new relationships. Through undergraduate involvement and hands-on internship opportunities, she’s learned to develop and maintain strong relationships to be successful at long-term and short-term goals. During her time as a student at USC, she served in numerous leadership positions and completed internships with prominent Midlands organizations, IMG Gamecock Sports Marketing and IT-oLogy.

Lauren Prettyman is the media specialist for the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation. She has been with SCFB since 2014. Prettyman writes and distributes press releases and newsletters, organizes social media, and is involved with the SCFB Young Farmers & Ranchers committee and the SCFB Women’s committee. She was introduced to IABC in 2014 and became an IABC board director in 2017.

Ginny Jones has recently assumed the role of public information director for the S.C. Judicial Department. Until recently, she was a senior public affairs specialist for SCANA in Cayce, S.C., serving as a public spokeswoman for natural gas and electric utility SCE&G, helping the company connect with viewers with the company about a range of topics. With 15 years of agency- and corporate-side marketing and communications experience, Jones has worked in a variety of industries including energy, utilities, manufacturing, packaging, and construction.

Kevin Floyd is an Emmy-award winning journalist who has been helping individuals and businesses tell their stories for more than twenty years. A former executive news producer at WIS Television in Columbia, S.C., Floyd taught first grade through the Teach for America national service corp. For the past ten years, he’s been promoting lawyers and law firms while launching business development, marketing, and communications initiatives for attorneys and small businesses.