Patsene Dashiell, the Sequim School District’s Director of Communications, received honors in four categories from the Washington School Public Relations Association’s 2015-2016 Publications and Electronic Media Awards competition earlier this year.

WSPRA, a professional organization that works to promote communication in public school districts across Washington, honored award winners at its spring conference held in Leavenworth on May 1-2.

In the category of Print Newsletter: External or Internal, Dashiell received an award of merit for the July 2015 and January 2016 community newsletters.

“The honor from this award is shared with my extraordinary contributing writers,” Dashiell said. “The information featured in our community newsletters includes insightfully written articles,” she said, from Sequim School board president Beverly Horan, Sequim schools superintendent Gary Neal, assistant superintendent Dr. Ann Renker and Brian Lewis, director of Business and Operations.

“Sequim Middle School teacher Shannon Paselk and community member Jeanne Martin also served as guest authors in the July 2015 issue, each sharing their unique perspective on volunteer programs within the school district,” Dashiell said.

In the category of Photography, Dashiell earned an Award of Merit for four photos: Greywolf Elementary Family Math Night, Sequim High School AP Art Door, Sequim High School Floral Arrangement Class and Sequim High School Van De Wege Advisor of the Year.

Dashiell also received an honorable mention in the category of Special Publications for the fall 2015 Kids Today Back to School guide and an honorable mention in the category of Video/Audio Programs for a 2015 Recruiting video.

“I’m particularly proud of this last award, as this is a very competitive category,” Dashiell said. “I owe this to John Gussman, who I partnered with on the 2015 project, and just recently to make an updated version. John has amazing skills in the areas of photography and videography.”

Each year, WSPRA offers five scholarships to members to attend the NSPRA seminar. Dashiell applied for and was awarded one of those scholarships and attended the national event in Chicago from July 17-20.

“Needless to say, I (was) very excited to be representing our district,” Dashiell said.