The Heritage region can be extra proud this year that two of the organization's three new Fellows are longstanding members from our region. Let's congratulate Lee Hornick from the New York chapter, Brenda Siler from the DC Metro chapter and Cindy Schmieg, ABC*, from the Minnesota chapter!

 The IABC Fellows designation is the highest honor the organization confers upon its members and is awarded to communication professionals for exceptional leadership and service to IABC. 

"This year’s esteemed honorees exemplify the highest standards of our profession," said IABC Chair Dianne Chase in announcing the honors. "We applaud our IABC Fellows for the positive impact they’ve made through their professional and personal contributions and achievement. ... Our global community is better because of their leadership and dedication to excellence in professional communication, and to our IABC. They drive communication as a force for good in business and society, and for that we are immensely grateful. They are an inspiration to us all." 

The Fellows Awards were bestowed during IABC World Conference in Washington, D.C. June 11-14, 2017. 
Left to right: Brenda Siler, Lee Hornick and Cindy Schmieg.

• Outstanding contributions to the organizational communication field and profession
• Their body of work and career achievement
• Authorship, speaking and lecturing
• The impact they’ve had on IABC, whether global or specific to a region

Cindy Schmieg, ABC 

Cindy Schmieg ABC, is an award-winning strategic communicator. With 30+ years of corporate, agency, and consulting practice, Cindy now teaches online within the Communications Master Degree program at Southern New Hampshire University and face-to-face at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. She has served IABC as a director on the International Executive Board; member of the Career Roadmap committee; Pacific Plains Region director, and IABC Minnesota president. She has earned numerous IABC Quill awards—Bronze, Silver and Gold—and today serves as vice chair of IABC 2017 Gold Quill Awards and on the content team for IABC Minnesota’s annual Convergence Summit. 

Lee Hornick 

Lee Hornick is president at Business Communications Worldwide, Inc., a training and development firm. Concurrently, Lee is the program director for The Conference Board, where he has served for the past 27 years. He has produced hundreds of events on corporate communication management, marketing and branding. Prior to this, he served as a corporate communication executive for the J.C. Penney Company and as a script editor for two award winning soap opera TV shows—As the World Turns and Another World. Lee currently serves on the executive board of the American Marketing Association in New York and oversees programming and sponsorship. Lee has a long history with IABC, including serving as chapter president of New York IABC, regional director and a board member for the IABC Research Foundation. In 2014, he was the program advisory chair for IABC World Conference in Toronto. Lee received the IABC Chairman’s Award in 1994 and the IABC Research Foundation Friends Award in 1998. 

Brenda C. Siler 

Brenda C. Siler is a communications/marketing/branding professional who has worked with national associations and nonprofits. AARP, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Council on Competitiveness, the American Red Cross, United Way, and UNCF—the United Negro College Fund. At UNCF, she oversaw the rebranding of America’s largest minority scholarship fund maintaining its iconic tagline "a mind is a terrible thing to waste". Siler also has worked on projects with the Afro American Newspapers, the Washington Teachers’ Union, the Council of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), Reach for College!, and National Center for Learning Disabilities. She managed publicity for a client who was a contestant on the Food Channel’s "Cupcake Wars." Siler is on the Board of Advisors of and a frequent contributor for PRNews. Most recently she presented on the topic "Twitter Tactics that Build Relationships with Journalists" at the PRNews National Media Relations Conference. She also wrote a PRNews column on the same topic. Siler was IABC chairman during the 1998 - 99 board year and was the first person of color to serve in that leadership role.

*ABC – Accredited Business Communicator