Q&A with Nancy Castles: Public Relations Director at Los Angeles World Airports (LAX) First in a series.

Robert Gagnier: How long have you been in your current role at LAX?

Nancy Castles: I have been the Los Angeles International Public Relations Director since 1995. This week I will be celebrating my 21st anniversary on the job.

RG: When did you realize the world of public relations was a field you wanted to go into?

NC: I lived in Inglewood and so I went to Crozier Middle School where I was both the school newspaper editor and the year book editor. Eventually I would go on to graduate from Inglewood High where again I was the year book and school newspaper editor. And so I knew early on that I wanted to go into journalism. I had a great mentor as early as middle school with a teacher named Miss Shockland. When in college I started off as a journalism major at UCLA; but during the middle of my years there, the journalism program was discontinued, and so I ended up graduating as a English literature major.

RG: What organizations did you intern with after you finished college?

NC: I went on to do two summer internships. One was with the U.S. Information agency in Washington DC. The USIA had the "Voice of America" where I interned in their public information office as well as in their news department for the Asia Pacific Region. I was also a reporter for the Asian Pacific wire service that went directly from the USIA headquarters to the various embassy's in the Asian Pacific, so I had a byline there covering all sorts of general news related to Asia Pacific matters within the U.S. Government. I covered congressional and senate hearings as well as cultural exchange programs with various southeast Asian nations.

RG:What nations ultimately received the wire stories that you wrote?

NC: The wire stories I wrote went to the U.S. Embassy's and Public Affairs Officers all the way to China; Taiwan, Korea, Japan, on down to Australia and Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. After I did those internships; I applied to be a diplomat, and went on to do two tours of duty. The first was in the Philippines and the second in Dakar, Senegal. The USIA performs as the public affairs officers and the cultural affairs officers at all of the U.S. Embassy and US consulates overseas.

RG: Does the USIA still exist?

NC: Yes they do! You don't hear about them too much because its charter is to promote the U.S. to overseas countries. They do that via their radio branch, the "Voice of America". Their charter is to promote the U.S. in overseas countries from a cultural, educational, political and even trends standpoint. I think one of the most impressive ones that really stuck in my mind was when I was in Dakar, Senegal. At that point in time the original 12 part series of the television series Roots was canned; put on film, and shipped to the U.S. Information and Cultural Affairs Center overseas. It was incredible to see the level of interest all the way from government officials to supreme court justices in Senegal wanting to come to our auditorium to see the entire series. It was standing room only...it was tremendous to see the impact that that series of movies had to that particular audience especially since Senegal is where the story of Roots originated.

RG: In your current role at LAX, have you witnessed or had to deal with any tragic events such as a plane crashing?

NC: I have been really fortunate (and I'll knock on wood here) that in the 21 years that I have been at LAX, I have not experienced an actual crash on the airfield. There was the incident back in 1991 involving the Sky West and US aircraft crash which resulting in fatalities. There were others as well, but I have been really fortunate in that I have yet to experience any type of crash. But we train for one every month through our emergency response training.

RG: In what capacity do you communicate with the air traffic controllers at LAX?

NC: It would come from the operation side of things. There are no public information officers in the air traffic control towers. However, there is a regional public information officer for the FAA. So we work PIO to PIO in order to insure that we are in sync; that our messages are coordinated, and that one organization is not speaking on behalf of another. It's what the NTSB always advises the airports; airlines, air traffic controllers, and other aviation entities to do what they call, “stay in your own lanes”. It is important that we coordinate and get our information synchronized so we can present accurate information in as timely a manner as possible both directly to passengers; as well as to the media who play a huge part in helping us get our messages out there.

RG: In your current role, are you or members of your team always on call?

NC: We operate on a rotational basis, so each public information officer rotates an entire week onto our off-hours or 24-7 duty. During the day your staff will obviously be able to help respond to many inquires but during off hours or weekends we have a rotational roster. The PIOs serve that for one week; and yes we are on call not only at 2:30am in the morning, but also at midnight right after you just went to bed! But have our contacts that we need to know and reach in order to get that information that the media is asking for. As the public relations director; and my boss who is the managing director of media and public relations, we both are are basically on call 24-7.

RG: When you can get away from LAX, what are some of your hobbies and passions that help you escape for a while?

NC: It is very important to turn off all the telephones, i-pads and laptops. I find that the best way for me to do that is to leave the country, travel, and become a tourist! I enjoy getting away to go camping and hiking. It's interesting that while we are still in the country a lot of these state and national parks contain canyon like areas where there are no cell signals. I also enjoy doing Ta Chi to help slow my mind down a bit. I have a 19 yr old daughter who is attending Colorado State University right now, so I have to keep an eye on her as well.

RG: What is your relationship between your office and LAX PD?

NC: Well as the LAX Public Information Officers we are the face and the voice of Los Angeles International Airport and Los Angeles World Airports, the airport authority that owns and operates LAX, Van Nuys Airport and Ontario International Airport. After 9-1-1; the whole issue of security at the airports, the intense scrutiny as well as the new rules that were being admitted through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at the time, resulted in the creation of an airport police division public information officer. And so for the past ten years or so we have had an airport police public information officer, or PIO who we interact with. When that person is out of the office or away from work; we will step in and take on the role we initially played, speaking for the entire airport as well as the police division. We speak with them; whether that be the watch commander, chief, or executive public director for safety and emergency response-on the daily basis.

RG: When a high profile individual such as the President is coming in to LAX, does your office work with his team in any capacity?

NC: We would be in the planning meetings with the secret service and our airport dignitary protection unit. When any dignitary including the POTUS; or President of the United States comes in, the White House Press Office will often open all the arrivals and departures to the media. The media that comes on to airfield to photograph the arrivals will have to come through our public relations office in order to get the proper permits to get onto the airfield. They will then be escorted by the airport police; so we do deal with the White House Press office whenever the Vice President, President, or First Lady comes in.