The Office of Public Relations at Portland Community College amplifies PCC’s story by creating engaging content for diverse audiences across multiple platforms. Through media relations, strategic communications and collaborations with local and national outlets, the team enhances PCC’s visibility, supports key initiatives and promotes the value of community colleges through Op-Eds, advertorials, and college-wide communications.
Mylan Rakich, a cherished Portland Community College art instructor, passed away at 56, leaving behind a profound artistic legacy. Colleagues are fundraising to install his sculpture at PCC’s Carolyn Moore House, benefiting his sons’ education. A retrospective exhibit honoring his influential steel sculptures will be held at Rock Creek Campus.
Portland Community College has launched a revamped one-year Eye Technician Certificate Program to better meet healthcare demands and student needs. Replacing a two-year degree, the new format offers faster, cost-effective training with early clinical experience. The inaugural 18-student cohort began this winter, with strong industry support and promising career prospects.
The college’s Cascade Festival of African Films celebrated its 35th anniversary with over 20 films from 14 countries, running Jan. 31–March 1. Free and volunteer-run, the festival highlights African voices through storytelling, music, and art, with special events including Women Filmmaker Week, family activities, and guest director Moussa Sène Absa.
Featured Campaigns
This academic year, professionals in the Office of Public Relations will complete hundreds of projects in support of college initiatives and priorities. Part of the team’s work includes overseeing communications campaigns that highlight important projects and work at PCC. Below are the campaigns for 2024-25.
The campaign’s aim is to highlight the work, people and events to celebrate black history at PCC and its community. We developed an editorial by President Bennings, staff and alum profiles, CFAF and special event PR, and business stories. In total, we produced seven stories and press releases that were shared with the media, our website and social media. As a result, we earned 17 local and national media stories. See the results [pdf].
Highlighted four stories of Latino alums, students and staff that represented the power of PCC and the success this community has with the college. This resulted in nearly 1,700 views, two local media stories and 3,000 engagements on X.com. See the results [pdf].
Positioning PCC as a leader in advanced manufacturing and semiconductor training by increasing awareness of PCC’s accessibility, affordability and support services in the field. Produced more than 20 stories and over 40 social media posts. See the results.[pdf]
Showcase the top students planning to graduate next June, 2025. This series of stories feature our soon-to-be graduates and their degrees, skills and variety of backgrounds and talents. Campaign is currently underway.
PCC’s alums are making a difference in the community. These series of articles and media spotlight the ways these grads give back and support the greater Portland area. Campaign is currently underway.
This campaign occurred in February. Results coming soon!
Media Relations
PCC’s Office of Public Relations is in charge of coordinating all official media outreach for the college. The team serves as the point of contact for all members of the media as well as any PCC employees wishing to promote their accomplishments, special projects or programs.
Data for this page is managed by the Public Relations Team with assistance from marketing and Web Team. Definitions are common across the public relations and analytics community. Questions about this data? Contact jghill@pcc.edu [opens in new window]
Three primary content vehicles are used by the Office of Public Relations for storytelling and news publishing on the pcc.edu domain.
PCC News – We deliver timely, trustworthy news to connect you to the impact that Portland Community College has on your life, your community and your world. PCC News offers exclusive coverage of developments on and around our campuses, programs or initiatives, local and regional issues, and honors and accomplishments. Includes content published at https://www.pcc.edu/news/.
Featured Stories – Stories reflect the strengths and vitality of PCC. This content emphasizes student success, faculty excellence and other aspects of the PCC Panther experience that appeal to future students and other key audiences. For all of our features and posts, we use WordPress.
Panther Pride – Published four times a year in partnership with the PCC Foundation, the Panther Pride e-Newsletter helps you stay up to date on college news, events, people, fundraising opportunities, and more. To sign up visit, https://www.pcc.edu/foundation/what-we-do/alumni/panther-pride-newsletter/
PCC uses Meltwater to track media placements across news sites and social media. Media placements include online newspaper outlets, television and radio.
Media placement – An article, as defined by the Meltwater platform: a piece of published content that contains a headline, content and a publish date.
National distribution outlets – News outlets that have a national, rather than local distribution. For our purposes, national distribution outlets are limited to those based in the United States and do not include international outlets.
Portland Community College uses Google Analytics to track web traffic and behaviors across the pcc.edu domain.
User – An individual person browsing your website (technically, a unique browser cookie). Each user can visit your website multiple times, for example, 1 user could create 3 sessions on your website, with each session containing multiple pageviews.
Unique Pageviews – Counts a page once even if it was viewed multiple times within a single session. For example, if someone landed on your homepage, then viewed the ‘about us’ page and then navigated back to your homepage, the homepage would have 1 unique pageview (even though the page was viewed twice during the session).
Devices & Platform – This refers to what kind of device a user was on when accessing our content. We also track how they got to the story, such as via social media, website or other.
Beloved Art Instructor Remembered
A New Vision for Eye Tech Program
Film Festival Celebrates 35th Year