Austin's Social Media Club met at Bazaarvoice on 5/18/10 and Dara Quackenbush was one of four speakers on Social Media and Higher Ed. Dara is a strategic communications advisor and founder of Montage Strategic Communications and public relations professor at Texas State University-San Marcos. She works with clients to develop branding, positioning, messaging and strategic communications plans. Dara has more than 15 years of experience in marketing communications, public relations, branding and product positioning and has worked with both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. She began teaching in 2005 and strives to bring real-world experience to the classroom. Dara is one of winners of the 2010 Austin American-Statesman Texas Social Media Awards (that I like to call the "Order of the Plastic Star") and the recipient of the 2010 Mentor Award from the Austin professional chapter of the Association for Women in Communication.