Q & A with Platinum Star Award Winner Kristin Zastoupil Forney ISD Executive Director of Marketing & Communications by Tracie Seed
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s an educational communications professional for 17 years, with 14 in K-12 schools, Kristin Zastoupil has been the executive director of marketing & communications with Forney ISD for almost two years. This year, she and her team, TSPRA members Dana Curry, Larry Coker and Bubba Willis, created a campaign “Forney Family,” which won them the Platinum Star Award at this year’s conference. After her team’s win, we had a chat with Zastoupil to learn more about her process and any tips she might have.
chance for my family to move to a great district and raise my kids, and it was actually closer to our extended family. Forney Family was born, and I took the idea to my team at Forney ISD. They brainstormed and expanded beyond just the idea to an incredible unity campaign. The district was about to release its core values, and this tied in beautifully with relationships first at the heart of our district values. Q: How long did the process take from A to Z? Who else was a part of your team?
A:The idea started in late June, and we kicked the campaign off in early August with the start of school. It keeps growing, so it’s still going from June 2018. Our communications team, who are also TSPRA members-Larry, Dana and BubbaA: It was a 2 a.m. wake-me-from sleep pitched the idea to our leadership team, and it brainstorm. When I first took the position in was embraced by the entire district. Our first Forney, being a two-high-school town, we step was internal PR by getting staff to embrace knew we needed a campaign to bring our the idea. We’re the largest employer in the community together. I kept asking myself county, and I’m a huge advocate for internal PR what brought me to Forney, and it was first. Dana then shared with our new community family. A sense of family that the partnership groups, pastors and principals, district and my coworkers provided, a PTO presidents, service organizations, retired Q: How did you come up with the concept for your piece and why did you produce it?
14 Summer 2020 | www.TSPRA.org
