MEMBER SPOTLIGHT | AUGUST 2001

MEET LISA HOLMES: Entrepreneur, new mother and
new AWC board member

Two years ago, Lisa Holmes and her husband John Vincent launched Yulan Studio, a new media venture that assists clients with website design, interactive media and print production. Before starting their own business, they'd co-founded a new media group for HNTB where Lisa was corporate art director and John was communications director.

It was the couple's interest in Asian culture and gardening that prompted them to name their company Yulan, a Chinese word meaning a variety of magnolia trees. Yulan Studio is based in their rural home near Bonner Springs, Kan., where they live with their 12-year-old daughter Lisa (her given name), whom they adopted last year.

Lisa was introduced to AWC when she and John were invited to participate in the "Dot-Com" conference last February. As a new AWC member, Lisa agreed to lend her expertise to redesign the chapter's website and to create an online newsletter. Lisa, who represents New Media on the AWC Board of Directors, will work with Mary Pitchford (internal communications) and Kelly Yagel (external communications) to increase the organization's visibility.
Look for the Yulan Studio website at www.yulanstudio.com.

 

DENVER'S LOSS IS KC'S GAIN: Zann Gaugh brings experience to membership recruitment

Last year, Zann Gaugh took a breather from her high-profile career in Denver to attend her high school reunion in Des Moines. It was there she reconnected with Jeff Griswold, a classmate she'd first met in fifth grade when the two sat across the aisle from each other on the school bus.

When Jeff's company transferred him to the Kansas City area, Zann came for a visit and liked what she saw. She resigned her job in academia working with college-level multimedia technology programs, packed up and moved east. She rented an apartment in Lee's Summit, began a job search and transferred her membership to the AWC Kansas City chapter.

Zann's professional career began at the Federal Home Loan Banking System in Des Moines after graduating from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls where she'd earned degrees in communications and education.
She was content to remain in Iowa until a headhunter came calling and offered her a job with The Public Service Company of Colorado at its new technology training center in Denver. To keep abreast of evolving communications technology, Zann went to school at night while working during the day. With the help of grants from the U.S. Department of Labor and Education and the Getty Foundation, Zann completed requirements for a Ph.D. in multimedia technology awarded by the University of Colorado at Fort Collins.

Membership in AWC followed her from Des Moines where she was newsletter editor and membership chairman, to Denver where she lent her talent to special programs, to Kasnas City where she accepted the job of membership chairman. She will also serve as a resource for new media programs. Zann's career is on hold while she explores vocational opportunities.

"I'm volunteering in the membershp and development department at the Nelson Gallery," Zann said. "It would be great if my volunteer job evolved into a permanent one where I could indulge my two loves: communications and the arts."

When she's not spending time with Jeff, or volunteering at the gallery or studying the job market, Zann is teaching herself to play guitar. "My grandfather was a musician. When he died, I inherited his collection of musical instruments. Once I master the guitar, I may take up the mandolin."

 

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT... Meet Pris Owings-Chansky

A career begun back in the '50s at Council Grove High School and fine-tuned at the William White School of Journalism at The University of Kansas, prepared Priscilla Chansky for a full-service communications experience in public relations, association management and newspaper publishing.

Pris' knack for being in the right place at the right time has enhanced both her professional and personal life. She hadn't considered journalism as a profession until her senior year in high school when the yearbook editor became pregnant and left school.

"I became editor by default," Pris said, modestly. "My advisor was an enthusiastic first-year teacher who'd edited the Royal Purple yearbook at Kansas State. She took us to Manhattan and introduced us to the K-State journalism faculty including the legendary Chief Medlin. I was hooked."

But Pris, a Morris County farm girl, didn't hightail it to K-State. Instead, she enrolled at KU where she shared living expenses with an aunt and a cousin who were renting a house off-campus. Four years later on a Monday in early June, she graduated from the J-School. The following day, she moved into an apartment at 4004 Bell Street in Kansas City. And on Wednesday she began her journalism career in the Information Department at the KU Medical Center (around the corner from her apartment).

For 17 years, she worked under the tutelage of Helen Sims, longtime AWC member. After Helen's retirement, Pris left the Med Center to work for Lois Wolfe, another AWC member, in her association management firm and became the executive director of the National Federation of Press Women.
In 1968 during her term as president of AWC, Pris delivered William Russell Owings III. Baby Rusty cooperated by timing his arrival between meetings, allowing his mother to carry out her leadership duties with perfect attendance.
In the '80s, Pris initiated another career change when she and Bobbie Polk founded The Typesetter in Blue Springs. Later, the two entrepreneurs bought The Villager, a weekly newspaper that served Grain Valley, Buckner and Fort Osage.

Bobbie did production work, Pris wrote articles, sold ads and took pictures. It was hard work, but rewarding ... until family tragedy struck. Bobbie's father and Pris' husband Bill were both diagnosed with cancer. The two women were the primary caregivers, so they closed up shop. It would be two years before they found a buyer for the newspaper.

After her husband died, Pris received a call from Bill Chansky, a man she'd first met 25 years earlier at the Med Center. "He asked me to the Golden Ox to celebrate my birthday," Pris recalled. "I asked my son if I should accept and he said, 'Well, it's cool with me if it's cool with you.'"

Once again the timing was right. This year the Chankys celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, and Pris became a first-time grandmother to little Liam, born to Rusty and Rochelle. Rusty, an architect, is one of 18 finalists out of 300 entries in the Kansas City design project proposed to beautify the areas of Berkley Riverfront Park, Quality Hill and Inner City viaduct.

A 40-year AWC member, Pris continues to contribute her talents to the organization, most recently as chapter newsletter editor. For the past year, she's served as public relations director for Comprehensive Mental Health for Eastern Jackson County, a job that entails a 50-mile daily round trip from her home in southern Overland Park.

When asked if she minded the long commute, Pris, who always sees the "glass half-full," laughed, "I drive 15 miles less each day than when I worked in an office near the airport as executive director of United Federation of Doll Clubs." It must have been Pris who coined the phrase, "Been there, done that."