Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolanda Mccutchen
Hi Yolanda, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My upbringing formulated my interest in media. In my home we had several magazine subscriptions and the local newspaper. I grew up reading them all. My father was an avid watcher of the local and national news. I began watching the news with him and then sometimes he would ask me to watch the news and tell him about if he wasn’t home. As a farmer he was always interested in the weather forecast but he’d ask me questions about the stories too, what did you see, were there pictures of the suspect or not, how did they describe the person. These were my first lessons in media literacy. I always loved writing. When I was in seventh grade, I wrote a story about events at my school Battery Park Elementary in Nesmith, SC. My oldest brother was friends with the publisher of a local Black newspaper called The Voice. He gave my article to his friend, and it was published in the newspaper! That was my first byline! I knew then that I wanted to become a journalist. I wanted tell stories and I also wanted to travel the world like the reporters I saw on TV news in different locations. I continued to write stories for The Voice until is ceased publication. During this same time period I was also introduced to public relations. One of the speakers at career day was the PR representative for the school district. Her job of promoting the district seemed interesting to me and I liked that she said writing was important in her field.
However, I was fully focused on journalism. During high school I wrote a column for The Weekly Observer. The newspaper had a news column for the high schools in the area. This was my first paid journalism job. The editor in chief wrote me a recommendation letter that I used in college applications. I studied broadcast journalism at Hampton University where I worked on the campus news broadcast. After learning more about the career path of reporters started in small markets and working to move up it made me less interested. After growing up in a small rural area I wanted to straight to a big city after graduation. I always loved visiting my family in New York and Washington, D.C. I had the opportunity to be an intern at CBS News Productions in New York the summer following my junior year of high school. I learned about being a network news producer. This renewed my interest in journalism and gave me a new goal. The opportunity at CBS led to an opportunity to intern with the network at the Democratic National Convention on location in Chicago. From that internship I met the executive producer of CBS This Morning which led to another internship before I graduated college. I was selected for the NBC News Associates Program and assigned to work in the Washington bureau. There I had the opportunity to field produce for Nightly News, MSNBC and Today. I was assigned to Dateline for the last few months of the program. When the program ended I was hired as an assistant producer at NBC News. During my nine years at Dateline I produced stories and contributed to several additional NBC programs including Insider Reports, Channel One News, Today and Your Total Health. For my journalistic work I have been honored with the Edward R. Murrow, Clarion, Gracie and National Headliner awards. In 2000, I was an RTNDF Fellow in the German Study Program, for American Journalists. This opportunity allowed me to travel to several cities in Germany, to Brussels and the Czech Republic to study media and meet with European journalists.
As much as I loved working in news, I pursued and earned a masters in news media studies from American University with the intent to transition out of the network and become a college professor. While I was in gradutate school I began to be approached to work on PR projects. People wanted to know how to connect with reporters or help with writing online content. I realized then that I could also be a consultant. I completed grad school in spring 2009 I became an instructor at Claflin University in fall 2009. This move brought me back to South Carolin. I spent four years there teaching PR classes, magazine writing, documentary producing all while continuing to work as a consultant. As a consultant I worked with a range of nonprofit and commercial clients, including realtors and developers. My areas of expertise were social media management, media relations, communications strategy and media training. I returned Washington, D.C. in 2013 to become an Assistant Professor at Howard University. At Howard I taught broadcast journalism classes. In 2014, she was selected for the Back in the Newsroom Fellowship by the International Center for Journalists and was assigned to The Washington Post. When I came to Howard and I continued my work as a consultant. The social media work I was doing for one of my clients caught the attention of executive director of the DC Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA). My client had a relationship with the agency. They were looking for a PR Manager. I applied for the position and joined DCHFA in 2015. Currently I am the Vice President of Public Relations at DCHFA. During my almost 10 years at the agency I’ve lead its rebranding and social media expansion. For my work at DCHFA, I have has been awarded the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for best PR/Marketing Campaign-Government in 2019 and 2020 and Magazine Specialty in 2022. Additionally, I received the 2018 Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals MarCom Awards – Platinum Award in Strategic in Communications and Media Relations/Publicity and Gold Award in Print Media.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been of connectivity. All of my experiences have led and prepared me for the next experience. Even when situations were not ideal, I focused on what were the positives and the lessons that could be drawn from these experiences. Relationship building has been so key to my career trajectory. Even the relationships that were difficult taught me valuable lessons.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m known for being a great networker. However, networking does not come naturally to me. I believe in organic relationships and utilizing the resources that are around me. I had no intention of becoming a consultant or pursuing a career path in public relations. However, my network came to me and they showed me that I had the skills to create another career path. My active relationships extend all the way back to childhood. I’m very proud of my resourcefulness. If I do not have the answer, I know who does or how to get it. I am known and love being a connector.
I am extremely proud that I contribute to the mission of an agency whose impact that I can see daily when I pass new and rehabilitated housing throughout D.C. My job is to ensure that the message that there are resources and options for people across the income spectrum to obtain housing in the city.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
In 2021 I was selected to serve on the Executive Board of the Washington Association of Black Journalists (WABJ) as an At-Large Board member. During my tenure on the board which ended in 2024, I served as co-chair of the WABJ Special Honors and Scholarship Gala. I am a member of Women of Color in Community Development (WCCD) where I chaired the Communications Committee. In 2021 I was invited to join WCCD’s Board of Directors where I served through 2024. From 2005-2008 Ms. McCutchen served on the Board of Directors of the Ithemba Foundation, as the Director of Public Relations. Ithemba is a U.S. based nonprofit that funds educational programs for disadvantaged youth in South Africa. In this capacity Ms. McCutchen wrote all of the foundation’s internal and external communications including its online content. She traveled to Cape Town to assess the organization’s programs. Joining the board of Ithemba in this role is one of those first opportunities that was presented to me that informed me that I I had the skills to be successful in PR.
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