Once-youngest-ever White House political appointee. Fearless Tweeter. Really crappy telemarketer.
I offer strategic communications, branding, and advocacy counsel to companies, national non-profits, advocacy organizations, celebrity foundations, and everything in between.
I bring nearly 30 years of communications leadership and hands-on strategic and tactical experience to my work in public affairs, media relations, speechwriting and message development, research and strategy, events, employee communications, corporate philanthropic program development, social media, and grassroots outreach and advocacy. Current and past clients appear in the Clients section of this site.
My media outreach work for clients has appeared in national print and broadcast media outlets including the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, E!, OWN, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, The View, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Food & Wine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, and nearly all major wire services and major-market print and broadcast media.
I am an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the graduate school for public relations and journalism. I have taught Public Relations Writing, The Power of Opinion, and now currently teach the award-winning Personal Branding.
Prior to starting my company in 2001, I served as corporate spokesperson for MCI and Fannie Mae, ran international PR for Discovery Channel, did cause marketing at Cone for General Mills, NIH, and the Department of Labor. I also wrote speeches for a President and First Lady.
In addition to my PR and public affairs work, I maintain an additional career in food and pop culture media, contributing to The Washington Post, Saveur, MarthaStewart.com, The Cooking Channel, and Washingtonian, among others. I authored Mike Isabella's Crazy Good Italian (DaCapo; 2012), and once shot a pilot for a TV show in which I bought and broke down a pig's head and made a delicious, refined dinner from it. I wrote the award-winning FrenchLaundryAtHome.com and AlineaAtHome.com.
I served as Vice Chairman of the board of directors for the Celiac Disease Foundation, and hosted popular public affairs radio segments across the Clear Channel network in Washington and Baltimore. I am a native of the Pennsylvania Dutch country (Mt. Wolf, PA; pop. 800), but have called Washington, DC home since frosted jeans and big, permed hair graced the cover of Vogue.