Melanie Doyle, a 2010 graduate of North Oconee High School, has been chosen as a spring 2013 Yarbrough-Grady intern for the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. 

The Yarbrough-Grady internship program gives students the opportunity to work both with Jackson Spalding, a marketing and communications firm and Grady’s public relations firm of record, and leadership within the Grady College. The interns will be able to apply the communications and relationship management skills studied in class to promote Grady and its works to a broader audience.

Doyle, born and raised in Athens, is a public relations major who has previously worked with the Office of Special Events at the University of Georgia and St. Mary’s Hospital, where she was a volunteer assistant to the director of the Intermediate Care Unit.

"I am honored and privileged to be selected as one of the Yarbrough-Grady interns," Doyle said. "This is an amazing opportunity to advance my knowledge and experience in the field of public relations."

Now in its second semester, the Yarbrough-Grady internship program has already produced big results for the college.

“Yarbrough-Grady interns provide an insight and perspective to the partnership that helps Grady better understand its student audience,” said Brian Brodrick, director of Jackson Spalding Athens. “We’ve seen an increase in social media activity since the interns have taken an interest in increasing Grady’s communication through Facebook and Twitter, and they have provided creative ideas to grow the Grady brand among all stakeholders.”

Graduating from the University of Georgia in 1959, Yarbrough has been named one of PR Week’s 100 Most Influential Public Relations Practitioners of the 20th Century and is a member of the Georgia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s Hall of Fame. Yarbrough has served as the vice president of BellSouth Corporation, the managing director of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and president of the National Alumni Association. His syndicated newspaper column won the Georgia Press Association’s Best Humor Column award in 2011 and currently reaches more than 1.3 million readers in the state of Georgia.

Jackson Spalding is a fully integrated marketing and communications firm with its corporate headquarters in Atlanta, as well as satellite offices in Athens, Ga., and Dallas, Texas. The firm has extensive personal and professional ties to the Grady College and UGA, and the Yarbrough-Grady interns will spend a portion of their time working in the Athens office.

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