I joined CBWS in August 2012. I sell/buy residential property in West Michigan.

Private four-year liberal arts college located in Western Michigan.Director of College Relations Served on president's cabinet, providing public relations counsel to top administrators.Managed internal/external communications, ensuring effective organization-wide communications for 300 employees via self-managed Intranet & email channels.Developed strategic direction for four-person department [Desktop Publishing, Publications/Printing & Web] that included managing budgets, supervising writers and coordinating campus photography with an emphasis on excellent customer service. Coordinated college advertising/marketing activities, including ad development and placement. Successfully supervised Web site development, ensuring regular content updates that brought thousands of prospective students and their parents to view the college web site.Capitalized on news media background to develop/maintain proactive relationships with print/ broadcast media, ensuring access, and timely response to requests, promoting relevant story ideas that increased college visibility and maintained a viable media resource.Led all college re-branding initiatives (logo, colors, tags, signage, marketing materials and web), re-energizing college marketing efforts that resulted in consistency, greater visibility, increased prospect contacts and increased enrollments.Successfully designed and developed semi-annual publication, Aquinas magazine, with a distribution of over 21,000 that has resulted in greater outreach opportunities and reader surveys that rated the publication excellent in content and design. Updated the Crisis Response Plan by writing/improving communication procedures in existing plan.Actively planned and executed college-related events and scripted talking points for speakers.

Communications/Public Relations Consultant

$280 million auto supply manufacturer located in West Michigan.Director of Corporate CommunicationsProvided communications/public relations counsel to corporate executives, managed all communications, served as spokesperson on company related issues and represented the company in the community. MARTIN M. FAHEY, JR., APRCoordinated corporate-wide communications to 1,800 employees at 13 facilities.Developed strategic initiatives that successfully changed a negative perception within the community about the company as a result of its environmental problems. Proactively worked with broadcast/print journalists, achieving a nearly 300% increase in positive news stories that helped re-establish a more favorable image as a result of those stories about the company and its community philanthropy.Directed corporate philanthropy initiatives by managing a $250K budget that included researching requests and developing recommendations on grants that had a positive impact on health and education within the greater Grand Rapids community. Developed/supervised monthly employee newsletter and managed visitor facility tours.Directed corporation's annual United Way campaigns that yielded average annual increases of 5%.Researched and involved with the design and implementation of the new corporate A/V Training and Teleconferencing Center.

Broadcast journalist (reporter/anchor) for WZZM TV (Ch.13), ABC-affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Responsibilities were news development in areas covering police & courts, politics, education, city government & general assignment.