MONTGOMERY – In the midst of her 20th year communicating the message and mission of the Alabama Retail Association, Public Relations Director Nancy King Dennis retires.
“I’m grateful to have been able to tell the courageous and inspiring stories of the Alabamians who get up each day, unlock the doors of a store or restaurant and trust customers will show up,” said Dennis who joined the Alabama Retail Association in late 2005. “After almost two decades with the Alabama Retail Association and 44 years as a professional communicator, I’m leaving work life behind.” Dennis said she plans to spend more quality time with family and friends, continue her volunteer work with the YMCA and “perhaps write the next Great American Novel.”
At Alabama Retail, she served as spokeswoman, webmaster, editor of Alabama Retailer magazine, social media director, Alabama Retailer of the Year and Centennial Retailer of the Year administrator and writer and editor of the Alabama Retail Report, the association’s weekly legislative report.
“Throughout her tenure, Nancy has shared stories of the hard work and success of retailers from every corner of our state with passion and enthusiasm,” said Rick Brown, president of the Alabama Retail Association. “Her service has been invaluable over the past two decades.”
“The Alabama Retail Association and Alabama Retail Comp staffs make work fun,” said Dennis.
Dennis came to Alabama Retail after more than eight years as publication director for the Business Council of Alabama and almost 17 years as a journalist or editor for the Montgomery Advertiser company.
Publications produced by Dennis have earned the highest awards offered by the Public Relations Council of Montgomery, the Public Relations Council of Alabama and the Southern Public Relations Federation. Before entering the public relations field, Dennis also earned many awards including a share of a Pulitzer Prize won by the news staff of the former Alabama Journal. She also served as primary editor for series that won such national awards as Scripps Howard’s Edward J. Meeman Award for environmental reporting, National Headliner Awards, Best of Southern Journalism Awards and the Green Eyeshade Award.
Dennis graduated with honors from Auburn University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations/journalism. She served as a member of the Auburn University Department of Communications and Journalism’s Public Relations Advisory Board from 2009 until this month.
In 2021, the YMCA of Greater Montgomery honored Dennis as its Person of the Year for her unique work with the youth of Montgomery and the state of Alabama. For 40 years, she has served as a member of the YMCA Youth Legislature Board of Directors. Her Y service also includes 35 years as an adviser for the Alabama delegation to the Youth Conference on National Affairs. To Alabama’s almost 1,000 participants in that program during that time, she is affectionally known as “Mama Dennis.” In 2001, she was awarded the Dr. Paul M. Grist Award for Service to the YMCA Youth Conference on National Affairs. In 1993, she received the Meritorious Service Award for adult leadership from the Alabama YMCA Youth Legislature. Throughout her professional career, a condition of her employment was that she had time off for each year’s Youth Legislature and the weeklong Youth Conference on National Affairs.
Dennis was a member of the 1997-1998 class of Leadership Montgomery and was a member of the public relations arm of Envision Montgomery 2020.
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