Grace Leong’s Golden Call for Communicators to Rise Above the Myths
Grace Leong with 2025 PRSA Chair Ray Day, APR, and Stagwell vice chair, and Allison Worldwide executive chair.
What you will learn from this article:
How Grace T. Leong’s Gold Anvil acceptance speech redefines the role of public relations as a moral responsibility rooted in truth and empathy.
Why communicators must combat disinformation by elevating clarity and integrity over “spin” and myth.
How mentorship, gratitude, and purpose continue to shape the next generation of PR leaders and strengthen the profession’s foundation of trust.
At the PRSA ICON 2025 Conference in Washington, D.C., Grace T. Leong, MBA, APR, Fellow PRSA, and CEO of HUNTER, received the PRSA Gold Anvil Award — the organization’s highest individual honor recognizing lifetime achievement in public relations and extraordinary contributions to the profession.
Leong, a 37-year PRSA member, began her career as a PRSSA student and Gold Key recipient in 1988. Standing on the ICON stage nearly four decades later, she reflected on a full-circle moment. “I began as a PRSSA student honored to receive the Gold Key Award in 1988,” she said. “To be standing here decades later receiving PRSA’s Gold Anvil feels profoundly full circle.”
In her acceptance speech, Leong opened with a tribute to baseball legend Lou Gehrig, saying, “Today, I feel like the luckiest woman in public relations.” That phrase — both humble and deeply human — captured the spirit of her message: gratitude, purpose, and the enduring value of communication grounded in truth.
She shared that she feels “lucky to have found a calling that lets me use creative ideas, insights, words, and images to solve problems, overcome challenges, and bring people together.” Leong credited her mentors, notably Barbara Hunter, who “gave me my first job, and truly, my life’s purpose,” teaching her that “integrity and dedication aren’t optional in our work — they’re everything.”
Her remarks reflected a career built not only on professional excellence but also on mentorship and community. She expressed thanks to her colleagues at HUNTER — “who built a culture where we earn attention for clients while caring harder for the people and clients we serve” — and to her family, “my constant source of love and support.”
But Leong’s speech transcended personal gratitude. It became a rallying cry for the entire communications field. “We live in a time when truth is being twisted, when myths move faster than facts, and when trust feels fragile,” she said. Quoting President John F. Kennedy, she reminded attendees that “the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie that is deliberate and dishonest, but the myth that is persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”
Leong urged her peers to meet that challenge head-on. “Our challenge is to use our voices not for spin, but for service; to bring clarity where there is confusion; to remind the world that truth, told with empathy and integrity, still has power.”
Her closing words served as a beacon for communicators navigating today’s turbulent information landscape: “May we continue to use this incredible profession to elevate truth above myth and ensure that the next generation of communicators carries that torch even higher.”
Leong’s speech is a timely reminder that public relations must reclaim its role as a force for clarity, trust, and truth. Her message reframes communication as civic responsibility — not just storytelling but service. For communicators, the takeaway is clear: in a world of disinformation, empathy and integrity are not optional tools; they are the foundation of leadership.
