Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet
Tourism, Arts and Heritage Secretary Marcheta Sparrow Honored as Communicator of the Year

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Oct. 17) – Tourism, Arts and Heritage Secretary Marcheta Sparrow has received the 2012 Communicator of the Year Award from the Public Relations Society of America’s Bluegrass Chapter and the International Association of Business Communicators of Kentucky.

The award was presented Tuesday night during the 30th Annual Landmarks of Excellence Awards Dinner at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

“I am honored to receive this award on behalf of my excellent communications staff throughout the agencies of at the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet who work hard every day to make sure our story gets told with the very highest level of integrity,” Sparrow said.

The Communicator of the Year Award honors a local individual who is not a communications professional by trade, but has demonstrated skills that have positively influenced the community or significantly raised awareness of an issue. 

Sparrow was selected for “demonstrating an ability to consistently communicate successfully, building community consensus, developing positive relationships over an extended period of time, demonstrating a strong code of ethics, and employing sound communications objectives and philosophy in order to advance the quality of Kentucky’s quality of life in the travel, tourism, arts and cultural arena,” according to an announcement from the two sponsoring groups.

"Each year our committee reviews a number of candidates throughout the community for this award," said Misty Cruse, president of PRSA's Bluegrass Chapter. "It's always an honor to acknowledge that one individual who stands out among the others and really get to know them and hear what drives their passion and success for their career.  Marcheta Sparrow's commitment and enthusiasm is an inspiration."

"It is an honor for both IABC and PRSA to recognize someone of the caliber of Marcheta Sparrow," said Robert Hadley, president of IABC-KY. "Her outstanding record of achievements underscores the high value provided by communications programs to both government and business."

Sparrow’s more than 30 years in Kentucky’s travel and tourism industry has led the growth of Kentucky’s travel and tourism industry so that it now has an economic impact of more than $11.7 billion each year in Kentucky. In addition, nearly 170,000 Kentucky jobs are supported by tourism.  Sparrow has also successfully led an initiative to launch Kentucky as an “adventure tourism” destination, along with enhancing the state’s reputation internationally for her work on the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games held in Lexington. 

Sparrow, who lives in Harrodsburg, has served as the secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet since December 2007 and was previously president and CEO of the Kentucky Tourism Council.

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