The accolade came nearly four decades after she won the association’s top student award — the PRSSA Gold Key Award. It has been a “full circle moment,” she said.

“Delaware gave me my start, my purpose and my passion,” Leong said in her acceptance speech. ”I've been so lucky to meet people who have inspired and taught me so much, including my professors, my first boss, Barbara Hunter, and my amazing business partners who helped build HUNTER into the successful agency it is today.”

From undecided to CEO

Leong was undecided about her major when she arrived at UD, thinking she might follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an English teacher.

Then lightning struck sophomore year when she took a public relations class with Priscilla Murphy, a former public relations executive, and a journalism class with the late Chuck Stone, the Pulitzer Prize winning Philadelphia Daily News columnist and co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.  

“The combination of those two and their passion for the ethical practice of communications and bringing people together to solve problems was magical,” Leong said. “I loved going to class. I’d sit in the front. I wanted more homework and more group projects and more readings. In those transformative classroom moments, I knew the field of communication was for me.”

That drive to do more led to the revival of UD’s dormant chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Leong, her roommate Heddy DeMaria and several other PR students spent a year working tirelessly to resuscitate the organization, using their lessons to guide their work. This effort led to networking opportunities with working professionals in multiple fields in Wilmington and Philadelphia that opened doors into the profession. 

Their dedication paid off. The chapter won five national awards the following year at the PRSSA National Convention, including outstanding chapter development and student achievement. Leong also received the Gold Key award. Her first time on a plane was to the conference to accept the awards.

After graduation Leong landed her first job with the legendary leader Barbara Hunter, one of the first women to buy, own and lead a national PR firm. Hunter retired in 1999, and Leong took the reins, becoming CEO of the firm, which is now ranked, by revenue, within the top 50 of PR firms in the United States and is consecutively named a Best Place to Work by PR Week magazine. 

Forever a Blue Hen 

Leong continues to do more for both her profession and for UD. For the fourth year in a row, she and DeMaria are training the next generation of PR professionals as advisors for the UD Bateman Case Study Competition team. Bateman is a national yearlong event hosted by PRSSA where students research, create and execute a public relations campaign for a real-world client. 

“Heddy and I tell them at the beginning of every year that this will be the very best class you take. It'll also be the hardest and you will hate it in January and February when you have to sacrifice your winter session, but it's going to make all the difference for you,’” Leong said. “And every year the team comes back to us in May and agrees with our prediction.”

“Our students grow tremendously over the course of the competition, and Grace’s feedback is a big part of that growth,” said Chanda Gilmore, instructor in the Department of Communication, and the Bateman team faculty adviser. “She motivates them, challenges them and helps them see how to take their ideas to the next level. Her support gives them the confidence to keep pushing forward, and by the end they’re thinking more strategically and producing stronger, more professional work.”

Stella Galli was one of those students.The 2023 graduate was the captain on Leong’s first Bateman team, which received an honorable mention in the national competition. 

“Grace and Heddy really emphasized the importance of backing up every claim with insights,” she said. “That pushed our team to do thorough research and ensure every tactic was truly data-driven and strategic.”

Galli currently works as an account executive at HUNTER in the company’s New York office and is one of several Blue Hens who have been hired either as interns or as full-time employees. 

“UD students are very open to learning,” Leong said. “They come in eyes wide open. They're humble and they really roll up their sleeves and are willing to work. They’re culturally and politically aware. That’s what you need in this business.”

Lifelong learning

With the rise of AI and its “profound impact” on the communications industry, Leong continues to build on the foundation she received during her days as a student. 

“We have turned HUNTER into an AI classroom and every day we are learning a new way to produce more impactful work and operate more efficiently, while still maintaining the human touch that makes our work so unique,” Leong said. “I’m lucky to have learned the fundamentals from remarkable educators at the University of Delaware, and I feel a responsibility to pass on this love of communication to the students I have the chance to mentor and the ambitious professionals I have the privilege to lead at HUNTER.”