Alan Zagier Email & Phone Number

Fort Myers, Florida, United States

Provide public relations counsel to dozens of clients in sectors ranging from education and healthcare to nonprofits and small businesses, including crisis communications and media training. Develop key messages and talking points for clients, draft and pitch news releases, contributed articles, guest opinions, media advisories, blogs, awards submissions and other editorial content. Coordinate media tours, news conferences, grand openings and other media-focused events. Priority Marketing's portfolio of public relations services including copywriting, media pitching, communications strategy, speech development, crisis communications, media training, event promotion and more.

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Oversaw the full CPS portfolio of clients while also leading and executing community engagement projects and driving comprehensive media and digital communications campaigns. Advise, strategize, analyze - and write, write, write!

St. Louis, Missouri

Lead writer/editor for national political consulting firm with a home state focus. Clients included Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley start-ups, federal government agencies, trade industry associations, education and philanthropic nonprofits, and the winning campaigns to expand Medicaid in Missouri (2020) and legalize adult-use marijuana (2022). Public policy, government affairs, campaign and communications strategist on projects promoting nationwide entrepreneurial investment, federal and state flood-control policy, education reform and state and local initiative petition ballot measures. Direct campaigns, businesses and coalitions in developing and delivering their messages.

Rolla, Missouri

Managed all marketing and communications, from external outreach and event planning to social media and website content, for the College of Engineering and Computing at Missouri S&T, one of the nation's oldest technological universities. Lead science, technology and engineering research news writer in the university's 20-person Department of Marketing and Communications. Actively collaborated with students, faculty, professional staff, deans, department chairs and other top administrators. Member of Dean's Leadership Cabinet. Received MBA and graduate certificate in management and leadership.

St. Louis, Missouri

Held a number of positions with the world's oldest and largest news organization,including national higher education reporter with a focus on the college sports accountability beat while based in Columbia, Missouri. Later covered breaking news and high-end enterprise in St. Louis, the state’s largest city, for regional, national and global audiences in print, online, TV, radio and all other gadgets. Named AP Kansas-Missouri staffer of the year in 2013 for legal affairs coverage. First AP reporter on the scene of the Ferguson police shooting. Appointed southern Illinois correspondent in February 2015. Won 2015 Missouri Bar Excellence in Legal Journalism Award for sustained coverage of a wrongful murder conviction, leading to release of inmate serving life in prison.

St. Louis, Missouri

Report on major court verdicts and settlements as freelancer for a statewide legal trade publication. Longer assignments include August 2014 cover story on possible wrongful conviction of a rural Missouri woman that led to quick legal action by Saint Louis University-based clemency coalition.

Columbia, Missouri

Taught introductory and advanced reporting and news writing as a visiting professor and Knight fellow in the nation’s oldest journalism school. I spent the majority of my time as the health, science and environment editor at the Columbia Missourian, the j-school’s learning lab, daily community newspaper. At the Missourian, I helped lead an effort to reinvent the Sunday newspaper with bold approaches that included an emphasis on narrative, long-form storytelling. Returned to the university as an adjunct journalism professor in August 2010.

Boston, Massachusetts

Covered Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and the greater Midwest for paper’s national desk, working nights and weekends. While in Florida, I covered Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Gulf of Mexico coastal communities. Notable efforts included enterprise pieces on Everglades restoration, historical preservation in Biscayne Bay, a Catholic Church schism in St. Louis and an effort to build a $180 million rain forest in Iowa.

Marco Island, Florida

Joined paper as an editor/reporter in a three-person bureau covering a Southwest Florida resort city with its own zoned daily edition. Helped broaden daily coverage of growth, real estate, crime and the environment while simultaneously setting a tougher standard of accountability for the island’s public officials. When the daily purchased the competing Marco Island Eagle weekly from The New York Times Co., I helped manage the merger of two editorial staffs and spent seven months leading a dozen newsroom employees as Eagle city editor while continuing to run the island’s daily news operation. In May 2002 I was promoted to senior writer in Naples, with an emphasis on aging, growth, enterprise and investigative coverage, maintaining supervisory responsibility as a floating editor on the city desk. Notable efforts included an investigation of area priests involved in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and an 18-month team project outlining the declining health of the Gulf of Mexico that won several statewide and national awards.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Covered higher education in the flagship university town of Chapel Hill for the state’s top newspaper, consistently leading the pack in a four-paper market with stories ranging from budget woes and the chancellor’s sudden death to news features on cutting edge research and eccentric professors. Previous beats included city and county government, cops and general assignment in the Durham newsroom. Assisted sports desk with coverage of multiple ACC and NCAA basketball tournaments and U.S. Open golf.

Durham, North Carolina

City hall and general assignment reporter for a family-owned newspaper in a competitive, two-paper market. Started job as a post-graduate intern; hired full-time four weeks later. Repeated scoops on city housing scandals and political beat led to hiring by larger competitor in Raleigh. Helped cover Duke basketball during 1994 season, including ACC and NCAA tournaments.

College Park, Maryland

Assisted writers with research, verified facts and edited stories at monthly trade magazine while completing graduate school.

Washington, D.C.

Beats included Maryland congressional offices, U.S. Supreme Court and federal agencies for a university-sponsored wire service used by 11 daily and seven weekly newspapers whose clients grew to include The Washington Post, The (Baltimore) Sun and the McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Alexandria, Virginia

Taught government, politics and civics to high school students visiting the nation’s capital.

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Journalism

Master Of Business Administration - Mba

Graduate Certificate, Management And Leadership

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Government And Politics