Howlett, E. Roxie

E. Roxie Howlett, head of Howlett & Gaines Public Relations of Portland, Oregon, has been a leader in public service to society for the field of public relations. A fellow of PRSA, M.S., and C.H.E., she received the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Paul M. Lund Public Service Award in 1992. Lund challenged the field of public relations to change the human condition by becoming agents of understanding between institutions and society. Howlett illustrated this ideal through “exemplary dedication to the community of the San Francisco Bay area on a volunteer as well as professional basis” (“To Business Desk,” 1985, p. 1).

Howlett has volunteered her services to such organizations as the American Lung Association of San Francisco, the Commonwealth Club of California, the Assistance League of San Mateo County, the National Assistance League, and the San Francisco School of the Arts Foundation.

Howlett & Gaines, Portland, Oregon, was located in the San Francisco area from 1968 to 1989. Prior to forming this agency, Howlett was western manager, Home and Fashion Division for Infoplan, the public relations arm of McCann-Erickson, Inc. from 1962 to 1968. She was the first non-owner to run the San Francisco office of Infoplan.

Howlett worked as an account representative for Lee & Associates Public Relations, Los Angeles, [Page 397]California (1958–1968), was assistant food editor for the Los Angeles Times, and was Director of Women's Programs at KPOJ, Portland, Oregon.

Howlett has been a leader in the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). She has served on the IPRA Council and coordinated IPRA interests with the PRSA International Section. In 1991, she reviewed the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations diploma, creating regulations and a syllabus for the Professional Diploma in Public Relations.

Howlett has held many leadership positions in the local, state, and national levels of the Public Relations Society of America, receiving national presidential citations for “meritorious service to the PRSA Counselors Section.”

In 1983 Howlett became the first woman president of the Public Relations Round Table of San Francisco, formed in 1939 and said to be the oldest public relations organization in the United States.

She was one of the first female members of the Commonwealth Club of California, a leading public affairs forum and the oldest and largest such forum with more than 20,000 members in the United States. Howlett served as secretary and board of governors member for the Commonwealth Club, helping receive visiting U.S. presidents, vice presidents, congressional leaders, world political personalities, authors, researchers, and environmentalists.

Howlett's other professional activities include leadership roles in the American Home Economics Association, the Oregon Home Economics Association, the Oregon State University College of Home Economics and Education Alumni Association, Kappa Omicron Nu, the International Federation for Home Economics, the California Home Economics Association, and the San Jose State University Public Relations Degree Advisory Board.

Other community service activities have included service for Volunteers of America, Oregon, Inc.; the American Lung Association of Oregon; the American Lung Association of California (she was the second woman to serve as its president in 1984 and 1985); and the national American Lung Association.

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