MEET KATE KNOX 

• 1980  Born in Springfield, Illinois; home of Abraham Lincoln and the state’s capitol.
  
  
• 1981  Participated in very first political campaign – was pushed in a stroller during the Illinois State Fair Parade by grandmother who was running for election.   
  
  
• 1984  Published for the first time in a book for students at her elementary school. Her story was about her mom’s “red clack, clack shoes” (high heels).
  
  
• 1991  Was the best speller in her class and went on to the school competition. Misspelled “balloon” and was mortified. This led to her being obsessed with spelling words correctly.
  
  
• 1993  Joined an after-school club called Problem Solvers where teams were given a problem and had to conduct a 10-step process in order to come up with the best possible solution. Learned at age 13 to think strategically in order to solve problems.
  
  
• 1994  Started at Springfield High School where she joined the volleyball, swimming and diving teams. Joined the Latin Club where she became infatuated with the origin of words.
  
  
• 1995  Elected to Student Council and was head of the Homecoming Planning Committee.  
  
  
• 1997  Worked as an Illinois Senate Page where she learned that she loved campaigns, but not political ones all that much.
  
  
• 1998  Graduated from Springfield High School and moved to the Wild West to attend Arizona State University. “Sign”ed up for sign language class and took the course all four years of college.
  
  
• 1999  Joined Public Relations Student Society of America and was elected secretary and started working on her first non-political campaign that involved raising organ donor awareness.
  
  
• 2000  Accepted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
  
  
• 2001  Secured two internships, one at BJ Communications, Arizona's largest full service public relations and marketing firm, and one at HMA Public Relations.
  
  
• 2002  Graduated from college with a B.A. in Journalism and an emphasis in Public Relations.  Spent the summer traveling Europe and went to Ireland, Spain to run with the bulls, France, Germany, Holland and Italy. Joined CKPR in the fall as an Assistant Account Executive.
  
  
• 2003  Made it a personal goal to secure one media placement a day. Promoted to Account Executive and volunteered to conduct media relations for the Special Olympics of Illinois.
  
  
• 2004  Became CKPR’s resident media expert and was named “The Media Bulldog.”
  
  
• 2005  Nominated for the Young PR Professional of the Year Award.
  
  
• 2006  Turned love of media relations into volunteer work – placing stories in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Red Eye for a private school that needed help raising money for supplies, books and sporting equipment. In October, joined Current as a Senior Account Executive.
  
  
• 2007  Promoted to Account Supervisor and became internship coordinator for the Chicago  office.    
  
  
• 2008  While working on the Subway account, traveled with Subway icon Jared Fogle on his “Tour de Pants” celebrating his 10 year weight loss anniversary. Secured interviews for Jared on “The View,” “Fox & Friends” and “Fox Business.”
  
  
• 2009  Helped launch 250 new products for Frigidaire by coordinating a dishwasher giveaway for an audience of expecting moms on the “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Got married and became Kate Knox.