BIO

Laura Hernandez Aplin is founder of LHA Public Relations serving as a PR/marketing strategist. For almost 20 years, she has developed an extensive public relations career through her experiences at corporations and public relations agencies in San Antonio, Dallas and Los Angeles. 

Her expertise ranges from providing strategic communications with consumer media on a local and national level to working directly with clients on key strategies for cable, finance/banking, hospitality/tourism and food industry sectors. She has worked with different agencies on behalf of their clients including MarketVision, KGB Texas and Dublin & Associates working with the Balcones Heights Convention and Visitors Bureau promoting the Balcones Heights Jazz Festival.  

Her past and current work include representing Brackenridge Park Conservancy; The Magik Theatre; San Antonio Symphony; OPERA San Antonio; Arts San Antonio; Time Warner Cable; Frost Bank; Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa in Bastrop, Texas; Campbell Soup Company’s Pace Foods and the Kellogg Company. She also served as hotel spokesperson, marketing, media and social media relations liaison for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.’s premiere Texas resort The Westin La Cantera Hill Country Resort in San Antonio, now La Cantera Hill Country Resort.  At the time, she reported directly to the general manager and worked with all departments to spearhead their communications and marketing plans from start to finish and to work on the company’s philanthropy efforts. 

As a social media relations liaison, she monitored the Westin’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest sites. She also responded to both positive and negative guest feedback on behalf of the resort via Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor, in a timely manner and worked with vendors and support staff to manage the company’s collateral materials and website.

Hernandez Aplin is an active member in the community. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s San Antonio chapter and was co-chair of the organization’s annual Del Oro Awards Dinner from 2011-2015. She blogs and also engages with a network of SA bloggers and proactively participates and organizes blogger events and promotional efforts throughout San Antonio on behalf of her clients. In Los Angeles, she was a board member of the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) from 2001-2004 and served as co-chair for its PRemio Awards & Scholarship Dinner fundraising $60,000 in scholarships for Latino students wanting to pursue a degree in communications. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism.