Fourth Friday Lecture Series Welcomes Ron Watermon, St. Louis Cardinals VP of Communications

The public is invited to attend Watermon’s Fourth Friday presentation, 10 a.m., Feb. 26, in the Fine Arts Theatre at MAC’s Park Hills campus. A Q&A session will follow. For more information, contact Amy McKenna-Jones, (573) 518-2146 or mjones@MineralArea.edu. The lecture is free and open to the public.

As the Cardinals vice president of communications, Watermon serves as the team's point person on all business and baseball communications. The Cardinals Communications Department oversees the team's media and public relations, including managing credentialing and providing media access to cover the team, issuing press releases, conducting press conferences, publishing the annual media guide, daily game notes, home stand highlights and various other publications. Ron's department also oversees the club's use of social media, manages team photography, and coordinates the team's government and civic affairs.

Watermon joined the Cardinals in September 2001 to help the team secure the necessary political approvals to build a new ballpark in downtown St. Louis. Over the years, Ron has worked on behalf of the team's president on a variety of special projects that cross departments within the Cardinals' organization. His projects have included developing a comprehensive cloud-based digital archive of important team assets, helping coordinate the sale of memorabilia from the old Busch Stadium, lobbying to reform Missouri's ticket resale laws, coordinating the team's full cooperation with Senator Mitchell's Investigation into Performance Enhancing Substances in baseball and leading a front office team to coordinate the various events associated with 2009 All-Star Game. Ron also helped coordinate the "Teams Unite for Joplin" effort in 2011 and led the team's social-media based "Stand for Stan" campaign in 2010 to pay tribute to Stan Musial that culminated in President Obama awarding Musial the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Before joining the Cardinals, Watermon was the legislative aide to St. Louis County Executive Buzz Westfall. As legislative aide, Watermon was responsible for managing legislative affairs for St. Louis County Government, including drafting legislation and coordinating the county's lobbying efforts. He also handled a number of special projects for the county executive, such as opening the county's first shelter for abused women and their children in 1992. Watermon has worked for Fleishman-Hillard, an international public relations firm, and has been involved in a variety of political campaigns during his career.