PRSay Houston

The Importance of Transit Communication and Public Relations

• Veronica V. Sopher, PRSA Member and Host

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Welcome Ramona Crayton, to PRSay – the podcast of the Houston PRSA Chapter.

In this episode, Ramona shares about The Importance of Transit Communication and Public Relations.

Ramona is a Native Houstonian, with over 20 years of experience as a Communications professional. She holds a designation as a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Change Management. Interesting Fact: She spent 3 years in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a civilian contractor. Ramona loves to travel and fitness.

Connect with Ramona at:
www.linkedin.com/in/harrietramonacraytoncmp-a1124a13
https://www.facebook.com/ramona.crayton.50

Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.

PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations.

Veronica Sopher:

Hello and welcome to PRSA. This is the podcast of the Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, and I'm your host, Veronica Sopher. I have the pleasure of bringing to you some of our amazing members in PRSA here in Houston, and the objective of our podcast is to get to know one another, learn from each other, so that when we are together in person, we can connect and have some great commonalities to grow our network here in the Houston area. So we're going to go be we're going to have our guests join us in just a second. But let me take care of some housekeeping. If you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of PRSay. And if you are watching on Facebook or on YouTube, drop us some comments and we will be sure to connect. So we'll go ahead and bring our guest on now. I have Ramona Crayton joining us. Thank you so much for being on PRSA.

Ramona:

Thank you for having me.

Veronica Sopher:

I'm so excited about our conversation today for a couple of reasons. But number one, I think it's always fun to learn about new members. But two, because you have such an important job here in the Houston area and the public sector, tell us a little bit about what you do and where you're at now.

Ramona:

Oh, thank you so much again, Veronica, for allowing me the opportunity to share with you my experiences about what I do, as well as my awesome experience being a member of prsa. Houston. I've been a member of prsa since 2011 and yes, long time 2010 when I returned, I worked three years in Iraq as a contractor, as a liaison officer. So when I got back home, I was looking around for opportunities in which that I felt that I wanted to continue to serve in the capacity and communication. And ironically, I attended a prsa luncheon, and the then chairman and CEO was the was the guest. I knew about Metro, because in my previous life, I worked as a convention services manner for manager for the greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. So I was already very familiar with Metro and the importance and the critical goals that they had for Houston and its surrounding areas. So I attended that luncheon network met someone who eventually became my, one of my directors, and as well today, as one of my mentors, and from that point on, it's been, I've been connected with prsa and just being so fortunate and very happy to be a part of that organization, and being able to get the Education Network and just help even other colleagues and other communications professional professionals in the organization to achieve their goals out every way that I can.

Veronica Sopher:

Oh, I love it. Ramona, I love that you started off with a great piece of advice, and that is networking at the our prsa lunches can land you a future job. So

Ramona:

it really can. Yes, it really can. I know that sometimes it's kind of hard for us as professionals to get away during the mid day, and you know, it's investment, not only monetary, but for our time, which is sometimes we can't even put $1 sign on that. But I tell you, that was truly a blessing, that I was able to network and not only with that particular contact, but other people as well, who in the past 13 years who had a who helped add it on to my professional career and my my achievements that I have today, once I became a member certain leadership. They didn't want me to just keep sitting at that table and just keep coming to meeting. They encouraged me to get involved. I think it was Lisa diamond. She was very instrumental and encouraging me to be part of a board. I was the chair of the Diversity Committee as well as the Christmas party community, Christmas party meeting committee as well so and then I continued. I was on the board for approximately three to five years as. Well. So I really enjoyed my time. Yeah.

Veronica Sopher:

Well, thank you for your for your leadership, because it takes members to step up and volunteer and really help our chapter become what it is which is a great resource for learning, for networking, for connections that are outside of our niche, outside of our space. So oftentimes, I tell people, we may not be able to work together, but I might know someone who would be able to be a perfect lead for you in the type of space that you're in. So I always encourage people to continue to attend events, whether they're in a leadership role or not. So thank you for your service.

Ramona:

Yes, well, thank you. It's been my pleasure, and I continue to you know, however I can serve the organization. It's my pleasure. Well,

Veronica Sopher:

tell us, and we appreciate that. Tell us a little bit about some of the projects you're working on. I know you have a wonderful opportunity to serve our community and your role there at Metro. And so I just think it'd be fun for some of our members to learn about what some PR folks get to do on the communication side, which is different, because, you know, we have members who are in oil and gas, some are in healthcare in the energy space, but not everybody has an opportunity to serve the public the way you do.

Ramona:

Yes and that it can be challenging, but it can be also very much rewarding, when you're able to see the fruits of your labor, and you're able to share with the public and even our employees, the importance that Metro plays our role plays in the Houston and surrounding area by providing a our public transit system. Very important. I serve, I currently serve as the Transit Safety Education Manager for our safety department. I've been in that role for approximately three years. Prior to that, I was a public engagement a senior public engagement representative for our public engagement department for approximately eight years. So I've been with Metro for about going into my 13th year, wow. And just, you know, just seeing how we're growing, how Houston is growing, you know, we are the fourth largest city in the United States and growing. And so being able to to be the storyteller of how public transit can work, not only for just people who have cars, but especially for those who don't have transportation. It's so important. You know, I come from a family, at one time, there were six of us in the house and there were five cars in our driveway, yep. So Houston is a driving we love our car community. We understand that, but we also understand that everyone does not have that type of opportunity, and either, if it could be to no fault of their own, they may choose just to use public transit, which we encourage that, you know, to use public transit not only just for going to the rodeo or to those rockets games or to the Astros to Minute Maid or various events that are going on around Houston, but you know, we encourage our our public to ride the rail, ride a local bus, try it. Sometimes you may not, you may need transportation, and there's just no one to help you, so you have to get on a bus. And you know, we have very much so many different avenues in which that you can pay, which you can if you don't know how to ride the train or our system, we have how to ride and opportunities for you on our website. So so many different educational opportunities to learn. If you a little nervous with utilizing public transit,

Veronica Sopher:

and that's so important, and that education component really probably is more important today than ever, because we've got learners of all different levels, languages, all different languages. And we do live in such a diverse metropolitan area where it's important for people to have access and so the work that you're doing is just so important for our economy to stay fluid, for people to enjoy the quality of life that we have. And so I was just curious, what are some of the benefits of working in your role that you might share with someone who's considering a communications job in the public service sector?

Ramona:

That's a very good question. So thank you so much for asking. When I started at Metro, I had no idea. You know, I saw. I had a vision. I knew that public transit was important, but then once I got here, I saw the opportunities in which that we could tell the story. So what we do as communications professionals, our PR professionals, we can take those types of skills to. And and it could go to any industry, you know, because you have to be a visionary, you have to be creative. You have to be one that's flexible and adaptable. You know, being able to write, being able to add a drop of a dime, be able to, you know, have to interview or share some share a story or pitch an idea. You know, because what I do internally, I have to go to my partners on several occasions, on most times, and pitch an idea to them that I have, because my role is focus on the safety education. You know, I have to have utilized the collaboration and partnership of our other departments, such as our communications, our corporate community, our corporate communications, our marketing, our press office, our social media team, to get to things that I need to do, to take them from out of my head right, to pay for to that social media post, or even just something, a messaging that's located inside of our busses and our trains, you know, so it takes, it's a full court. So I'm very lucky that I these are that's my team, so I work very closely with our communications team at all times to help tell the story and educate the public and our over 4000 employees about the merits and the importance of safety education, and particularly now I'm working on a pedestrian safety awareness program, and it's called Be safe, be seen. Right now we do you, you, if you pay attention to the trains and you see one of our LRVs go by and it's got these lime green people on over, crossing over a crosswalk with a crosswalk in between them. Look, that's Ramona Creighton, PR, proud member of prsa. That's one of the campaigns that I'm leading on, leading on and coordinating. And we just have some great things coming with that we're expanding our footprint of making sure that we get because pedestrian safety is so important now. Veronica, you know, people are so distracted. They're on their phones, they're on their earbuds, they're busy, or they're thinking about what's the next thing that they need to do? And it's just so important that we just keep reminding people the importance of not being distracted, of paying attention, of to the lights, to the to the signage that we're saying because we want everyone to be safe. So I'm really excited about that, that particular campaign, and you'll see more about that as well in coming days. Exciting. Well,

Veronica Sopher:

we'll know. We'll know Ramona Cameron was on it and we were how, how can people connect with you? I know it's important for members to get to know one another, so if someone wants to reach out and connect, are you on LinkedIn? What's the best way to reach you?

Ramona:

I'm on LinkedIn. I follow all of our social media, and I would love for everyone to just take the time to follow Houston Metro on all of our social media formats. We have the platforms. We have Instagram and Instagram Espanol. We have our YouTube, our Twitter and our Facebook accounts, and also, if someone would like to contact me, I'd be glad to provide you with that information. I am a long time member of prsa, so that you can always reach out through our membership to get in contact with me as well. But I am definitely available, accessible, and looking forward to hearing from you, you know, contact me if you, if you have an idea, you know you're passing by and you saw a bus or one of our trains, and you, you have an idea, something that you think could be improved upon, or you have a question that doesn't make sense, I am your go to person regarding Metro, all things Metro, Houston, Metro, I'll be glad to assist you with that.

Veronica Sopher:

That's awesome. All right, you heard it here. Reach out to Ramona. She's all things Metro, we love when members engage with each other and really make a difference. Ramona, thank you so much for being on prsa. It was wonderful having you.

Ramona:

Thank you, my pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me. I look forward to however further I can serve our community, and I just thank you so much for the opportunity.

Veronica Sopher:

You bet all right, well, that wraps up this episode of PR. Say, Please connect with Veronica on social media, follow Metro on all of their channels. It's so important to support what's happening in our community. We are blessed to live here in Houston and have a great network of communication professionals ready to step up and support one another. So I will go ahead and wrap up this episode of prsa. Be sure to hit subscribe if you are listening on the podcast and drop comments in the comment section on Facebook or YouTube if you are watching us there, alright, we'll catch you next time you.