Scottish novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, said, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
Psychologists refer to this as the “helper’s high,” meaning those who spread joy mirror that happiness and promote a community of support and encouragement. And Renée Jones, MAS+, has cultivated quite a community.
For the woman who signs her emails with “Be Happy,” there is no greater gift than to lift up others, extend a helping hand and cheerfully give back to her industry and community.
Since 1983, when Jones took on her first volunteer roles with the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary and the Department of Veterans Affairs, two organizations closest to her heart, she has been (and in some cases, still is) a hands-on volunteer for nine organizations in her home state of North Carolina. In addition to the DAVA and DVA, she is mail call coordinator for Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area and active in Wilmington Central Rotary and Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. She’s also a past volunteer for Wilmington Women of Purpose and several other organizations.
Renée Jones, MAS+
Founder/CEO, A Creative Touch
“As a founding member of Wilmington Women of Purpose, she helped raise $24,800 to support five local nonprofits, demonstrating her ability to bring people together for meaningful impact,” says Mary Jo Tomasini, MAS+, CEO of Competitive Edge, and one of five previous WOA winners who nominated Jones for the honor or wrote letters of support.
When Jones volunteers, it’s not just in name. She’s all in. Every time. Over the years, her work with the DAVA led to increasing responsibility, including heading the 250,000-member organization as national commander.
“Renée is a pillar of civic engagement. Her work continues to open doors and creates opportunities for those most in need,” says nominator Joy Smith, MAS, owner of Joy of Advertising/AIA.
Breaking Into The Industry
Growing up near Charlotte, Jones started her career at a company that produced automotive brakes. The job paired duties as the president’s executive assistant with sales and marketing, including buying the company’s promotional merch. Little did she know another door was about to open.
The owner of the distributor company she bought from repeatedly offered her a job, but Jones declined, concerned that the new job wouldn’t allow her enough time off to volunteer. When the owner promised Jones could write her own ticket on time off, she jumped at the chance.
By summer 2001, she was working full-time at the distributor and preparing to take on the top DAVA volunteer position as national commander. It was imperative she be present at the National Veterans Day Foundation event in Birmingham, Alabama, but in a shocking reversal, her boss denied the time-off request. Jones knew nothing was going to keep her from taking the helm at that event, so she quit, unsure what to do next.
But with pluck and tenacity, she decided to go into business for herself. Jones launched A Creative Touch before end of the year, determined to somehow make enough sales to pay her mortgage each month.
Joy Smith, MAS
Owner, Joy of Advertising/AIA
“I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I figured it out,” she says. In November 2026, the company will celebrate 25 years in business.
Jones began volunteering in the promo industry when she found out involvement in a regional association was required to earn her MAS certification. She had already earned her CAS after hearing her closest competitor brag publicly about being the area’s only certified distributor. Jones wasn’t about to be outdone. After the MAS, her next pursuit was the MAS+. She checked that one off quickly and became the 15th person to earn the top designation.
Over the years, Jones has given her time to the Carolinas Association of Advertising and Marketing Professionals and the PPEF Board of Directors, as well as PPAI’s Board of Directors and the Association’s professional development and certification committees, Women’s Leadership Conference work group, Legislative Education and Action Day and multiple other advisory groups.
Brittany David, MAS, chief revenue officer at SnugZ USA, got to know Jones well when both served on the PPAI Board. “She was always able to juggle her business and professional life with both her industry volunteer work and her local volunteer responsibilities,” David says. “Renée is always willing to lend a hand, a smile and words of motivation and inspiration to uplift and help others.”
Janet McMaster, MAS
Regional Sales VP, Geiger
Asked about the importance of service, Jones reflects on her own experience. “It’s important to know you can make a difference. You don’t have to change the world, just make a difference for one person,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be anything grand or elaborate. Maybe teach someone to read or provide a meal. And no one does it to get anything out of it. You are a better person because you learn things that you would not have learned if you had not given yourself permission to volunteer.”
Jones’ compassion for others doesn’t go unnoticed. “Renée possesses a rare and powerful ability to make people feel seen, valued and inspired,” says Janet McMaster, MAS, regional sales VP at Geiger.
Decades Of Service
Earning PPAI’s 2026 Woman of Achievement Award is the crown on 42 years of volunteer service. Over the decades, Jones has been recognized with multiple honors from the DAVA, awarded the Legion of Honor Bronze Medal from the Chapel of Four Chaplains, was a torch bearer at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Volunteer Service Award and, this past January, received PPAI’s H. Ted Olson Humanitarian Award.
Roni S. Wright, MAS, vice president of The Book Company, says, Jones “exemplifies the very essence of a Woman of Achievement – someone who leads with passion, serves with purpose and inspires those around her.”
When she sees a need, she steps up. In March 2020, when the world began shutting down amid the pandemic, Jones created a place for industry women to stay connected. The result was The LIPP (Ladies in Promotional Products) Café, a biweekly online meetup of peers and competitors that’s still going strong six years later.
“Renée’s leadership was a career lifesaver to many of these sales pros and suppliers, who still participate today, all while juggling her own client challenges,” says Mary Ellen Sokalski, MAS, an industry veteran.
But accolades aren’t what fuels her.
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“Some people need to be told they are a rockstar,” Jones says. “I’m not that kind of person. I don’t know why, but I’m thankful I’m not.” Being sure of herself has led to taking risks and reaping the success that comes with that kind of bold confidence.
Over the next decade, Jones has great expectations for women in the industry. “I want them not to take no for an answer,” she says. “I want them to believe in themselves, to believe they are worthy, awesome, that they can make this industry better, not just sit by and not say anything when something should be said.”
At this point in life, she admits she’s ready to pull back a bit on volunteering but knows she won’t sit idle. “I don’t take time to dream, to think about what is next,” she says. “I don’t have a bucket list. I don’t take time for myself to think about what it would look like to take every Saturday off.”
Jones often recalls her blessings in disguise: the competitor who propelled her toward certification by bragging about her own CAS, and her former boss who wouldn’t grant the promised time off and drove Jones to open her own company. “These are blessings that have led to an awesome life, an awesome business, an awesome husband. I thank God for my life every day,” she says.
Reflecting on the two PPAI awards she’s received this year, Jones is thoughtful: “I am grateful that my competitors thought enough of me to nominate me not for one award but for two awards in this industry. Wow! And not only did they nominate me, but they wrote letters of support. It’s one thing for your best friend or your top supplier to do it, but when your competition says you are worthy – I am grateful. I hope I’m as good as they are.”
Filipski is a freelance writer and former director of publications at PPAI.
