Victoria Sánchez De Alba
Sign Up Now for Our April Meeting:
“The Power of You: Paving Your Own PR Path,” with Victoria Sánchez De Alba
What: San Francisco Public Relations Round Table’s Annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon, With Keynote Speaker Victoria Sánchez De Alba
When: Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Where: Golden Gate University, 536 Mission Street, San Francisco, 6th Floor University Center
Time: 11:30 a.m. to noon, networking; noon to 1:30 p.m. lunch and program
We’ve reached out to colleges and universities in and around the Bay Area in search of the best and the brightest among students studying public relations, communications and allied fields. Now you’re invited to join us in April for our annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon, where we will give out $10,000 or more to a select group of students who have excelled in their academics while gaining practical experience, and who are committed to making an impact on the PR field.
Whether you are starting out, starting over or staying the course in your communications career, Victoria Sánchez De Alba, our keynote speaker for the 2019 Scholarship Luncheon, has something to offer you on how to enhance your personal brand and stay relevant while forging forward.
De Alba is a University of San Francisco alum and former national Emmy Award-winning journalist who launched her public relations firm, De Alba Communications, in San Francisco in 2001. She works on social impact campaigns for various sectors to drive public awareness and build brand loyalty in mainstream and ethnic markets. She is acknowledged nationally for her energy, creativity, passion and persistence on best approaches for accessing regional, local, national and international media.
De Alba will speak about her own journey to becoming a journalist and PR pro, and the imperative to always be growing, and will also provide practical advice on how to build more diverse PR organizations and departments.
Backgound
Victoria Sánchez De Alba received her bachelor’s in communications from USF in 1997. Just a few short years after graduation, De Alba found herself working in public and media relations for a leading high tech firm in San Francisco. Unfortunately, this was just in time for the burst of the dot-com bubble, and she was laid off. She freelanced, but couldn’t land a permanent job. In the face of this stagnancy, she forged off on her own, founding De Alba Communications, which works to raise public awareness through strategic media outreach to both general and multicultural markets.
“I created my own pathway,” De Alba said in an interview for USF’s website. “Out of necessity of needing work, I took the entire package of who I was — Mexican American, farmworker, writer, journalist, PR agent — and started out into a new area of PR, which was multicultural PR.”
Prior to working in the PR field, De Alba worked as a TV news producer and investigative reporter for the Center for Investigative Reporting and ABC7 News. She later moved on to work for CBS 13, KOVR TV, in Sacramento.
“This was very stimulating for me,” De Alba said, “as I got to cover stories concerning poor and working class health status disparities in various races and ethnic groups, along with technology, consumer issues, education and politics.”
Which is how, after she left CBS 13, KOVR TV, to explore opportunities in tech firm and was later laid off, she got the inspiration to start her own PR firm focusing on general and multicultural PR.
De Alba is dedicated to helping create a more socially responsible world. She grew up in the “Salad Bowl Capital of the World” — Salinas, California — where she worked summers in the agricultural fields with her family, harvesting produce and fruit. That experience has made her sensitive to issues faced by working families, such as health risks related to pesticides, healthcare access, the need to improve working conditions and other social inequalities.
A fierce advocate of diversity and inclusion, Victoria works tirelessly to increase representation of women and people of color within the public relations field, as well as in local politics. She is active with her alma mater, the University of San Francisco, serving on the Board of Directors of the school’s Women in Leadership & Philanthropy and the Latino Alumni Society. She was recently elected as an Assembly Delegate to the state Democratic Party for District 22 (San Mateo County) after running on a platform that emphasized inclusivity.