WKU News

WKU senior Allison O’Brien was selected from a list of applicants to receive the inaugural McKenzi Ann Loid Scholarship for Public Relations. A student in the Mahurin Honors College, O’Brien is a double major in Public Relations and Sociology from Elizabethtown.

The McKenzi Ann Loid Scholarship Fund for Public Relations was established to honor the memory of Bowling Green native McKenzi Ann Loid. A 2012 WKU graduate, Loid passed away on June 27, 2017, as the result of a car accident in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she worked as a public relations manager for the Walsh Group.

Walsh Construction, along with Loid’s family and friends, founded the scholarship in her memory to inspire future public relations majors, according to the Loid family.

“I can only hope to, one day, have the impact and drive that showed in everything McKenzi was involved in,” said O’Brien. “From what I have heard, she was an amazing young woman and a role model to many.”

Loid graduated from Bowling Green High School in 2008. After her graduation from WKU in 2012, Loid worked at Guthrie Mayes Public Relations in Louisville. Loid moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 and began her work with the Walsh Group.

Loid was involved in several charities and organizations in Bowling Green such as Brides Against Breast Cancer, the Alzheimer’s Association, and Hopeline Center for Women and Families.

Contact: Jessica Carver, (270) 745-2342