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Member Spotlight: Kevin Kane

In this member spotlight, we're highlighting Kevin Kane, APR, Corporate Communications Consultant III and self-professed "jack-of-all trades" at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. In addition to his roles and responsibilities supporting internal, external and special projects at Excellus, he's also dedicated to coaching the next generation of communications professionals, recently serving as an adjunct professor and PRSSA volunteer adviser at St. John Fisher College. Learn more about Kevin, his perspective on the benefits of earning your APR designation and more in the interview below. 

How long have you worked at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield?

I’ve been at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield since 2000 serving as a Corporate Communications Special Projects Manager, advancing to a Communications Business Consultant III role. Since college, I’ve worked at a few nonprofit health education agencies in Rochester, including the American Diabetes Association, and at ViaHealth (Rochester General Hospital).

Where and how long have you been an adjunct professor? What led you to take on this role?

I completed my masters in Communications Management about 13 years ago with the intent to learn more to support my day job, and also be eligible for adjunct work if it were to occur. My commitment to support college students and younger professionals goes back to the days I received the same kind of help, so I’ve regularly presented to college classes, managed interns, and jumped at the chance to teach a Business Communications night class at St. John Fisher College in 2012. Recently, the number of course sections at Fisher decreased significantly mostly related to COVID-19, so my evening sessions of Business Communications ended in the Spring of 2021. I do remain the professional volunteer adviser of the PRSSA SJFC Proietti Chapter, starting that role about a year after the chapter was chartered.

Why did you become a member of PRSA Rochester?

Once I moved over to ViaHealth (Rochester General Hospital) from the fundraising/PR field, a few managers including Robert Salmon, APR, encouraged our team to get involved both in taking professional education classes AND involvement in PRSA planning committees. I joined PRSA in 1998, jumped onto the PRism event committee, took the APR journey in 1999-2000, and advanced through most chapter and district leadership roles for about 10 years, and proudly remain active locally as well at the national level tied to Accreditation promotion.

As a recipient of an APR, would you recommend other peers to pursue this accreditation, and what is one moment in your career where this accreditation helped you?

Regardless of your baseline knowledge for communications planning and management gained in college and/or workplace training, you have capacity to learn and use so much more and should invest in your professional self – and that is where I believe Accreditation is in a sweet spot. For tens of thousands of dollars less than a master’s degree, it can teach you both strategic and tactical use of numerous “KSAs” (knowledge, skills and abilities) that will serve you throughout your career and help you advance.

There are so many moments I’ve drawn upon the KSAs over the years that I cannot keep count, but I’d say that I relied on the RPIE structure - Researching, Planning, Implementing and Evaluating (see pg. 21 - https://accreditation.prsa.org/MyAPR/Content/Apply/APR/APR.aspx ) – heavily when our company pivoted to work remotely early in the COVID-19 days and built on our prior work by:

• Researching - gathering data and walking through ‘what ifs’ starting January 2020
• Planning - spent that prep time to build out realistic infrastructure for shared messaging and focused sources of information to support our key audiences – resources often not previously envisioned to this scale
• Implementing – took the tactics and tasks we’d planned and implemented, often learning to manage new delivery channels at the same timeEvaluating - tracked metrics of readership, use, two-way channels for questions and more.
• Evaluation - tracked metrics of readership, use, two-way channels for questions and more.

You were recently a panelist for PRSA Rochester' Coffee and Conversations webinar on "When to Hit Pause: How PR Practitioners Can Navigate the Uncertain World Around Them;" what is one insight you shared during this event that is helpful for our PRSA chapter and fellow PR professionals?

When you make public statements on controversial issues, those words must ring genuine to your key audiences, most importantly with your employees. For example, many companies have been criticized over the past few years when they would run ads or issue press releases about their ‘longstanding’ support of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, yet their employees claim that there have been no measurable initiatives or ‘it is the first we’re hearing of it.’ Credibility and authenticity are key to reputation management.

Describe your role/involvement on the 2023 PRSA Northeast District Conference committee. What can you share with members to encourage them to attend this conference?

I’ve either chaired, co-chaired or served on 10 different Northeast District Conference committees since 2001, so helping (especially when it is hosted by the Rochester Chapter) is part of my DNA. For 2023, we’ll be looking for input from our members and non-members alike who still have need for professional education at a cost-effective price point, and we want to know whether a full day program with ~3-4 in-person tracks of topics is still their need, or if new needs have arisen. We’ll then work as a committee to put on the best event for our peers and ourselves, knowing that keeping pace with new knowledge and skills in our industry is vital.

If you could describe your career/professional life in one word, what would it be?

Rewarding!