Janelle Guthrie, APR, Fellow PRSA

Director
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Janelle Guthrie, APR, Fellow PRSA, leads a small team of communications professionals and provides strategic communications leadership as Vice President – Communications for the Building Industry Association of Washington. Throughout her career, she has served in executive leadership and communications roles for Washington Attorneys General Rob McKenna and Bob Ferguson; Microsoft, Washington’s Senate Republican Caucus and two state agencies. A long-time member of the PRSA Public Affairs & Government Professional Interest Section, she served as PIO for the Department of Corrections’ Emergency Operations Center during the pandemic, co-managed national communications for the historic national mortgage settlement and led communications for Attorney General McKenna’s Pillars of Hope campaign to fight human trafficking. 

Guthrie has previously served as a member of the PRSA PAG Section Executive Committee, the College of Fellows leadership team and the Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS).  A lifelong PRSA evangelist, Guthrie has also served in numerous roles at the local and district level, including Chapter President, North Pacific District Chair, and District Council Chair. She was inducted into the PRSA College of Fellows in 2017 and won the Lloyd. B. Dennis Distinguished Service Award for national public affairs excellence that same year. Locally, she was named PRSA Puget Sound Chapter PR Professional of the Year in 2018 and won the Hugh Smith Community Service Award in 2019. 

A graduate of Washington State University with a double major in communications and political science, Guthrie lives with her husband in Tumwater, Washington.