Joanna Hunter Email & Phone Number

Rosemont, Il

Established an efficient and effective operating structure for investor communications and relations to best serve the Chief Executive Officer and the needs of the organization. Centralized communications across the business bringing teams together to work collaboratively toward common goals and strategic priorities. Hire, develop, and mentor communications and relations specialists to serve the needs of both B2B and B2C audiences including mission-critical investors/farmers.➥ Lead the development, evolution, and execution of a unified communications and outreach plan to reach farmer funders and increase awareness of the organization’s results and ensure investor support.➥ Bring together cross-functional teams to make the department vision a reality. Ensure that decisions are aligned with the CEO’s objectives, actions are followed up on, and the organization’s functions are well-prepared prior to leadership meetings and external activities.➥ Lead and monitor projects to secure alignment, ensure actions are followed up on, and the investor relations and outreach team is meeting the objectives of the department and organization.➥ Lead specific communications projects that are of strategic importance for organization. These projects are either not already covered by the existing organization structure, and/or they are cross-functional and require someone to manage and drive them to ensure that stakeholders are focused on a goal. Effectively partner with key stakeholders to proactively develop the strategy and execute initiatives.➥ Generate the strategic approach, talking points, and content themes for the CEO for audience engagement and advancement of priorities. Includes speech writing, presentations, and executive visibility through trade media and other channels.➥ Managed and allocated financial resources of $17M and assets to support the achievement of strategic plans.

Greater Chicago Area

★ Researched, identified, vetted, and communicated vendor recommendations to hospital administrators, facilitating AHA’s signature due diligence process, and fostering operational excellence through the AHA exclusive endorsement. ★➥ Removed silos from the marketing and communications footprint, working from the top down to secure senior-leader buy-in; dramatically changed workflow and dynamics to fuel unprecedented efficiencies, yielding time savings of 5 hours/week per staff member.➥ Increased visibility, elevated credibility, and built brand equity through development of robust marketing, communications, and media campaigns; press releases; direct mail pieces; promotional collateral; multimedia scripts; and trade show assets.➥ Launched the AHA Solutions website re-architecture project, collaborating with a branding agency to map the current and future-state user experience; develop a go-forward plan; and fuel the development of a robust, interactive site yielding double-digit traffic increases.➥ Propelled e-newsletter open rates from 6% to 35% through a comprehensive redesign including streamlined content, a user-friendly layout, and audience segmentation.

Greater Chicago Area

★ Drove the strategic direction for all marketing and communications initiatives focused on engaging B2B accounts, expanding distribution from independent to big-box stores, and promoting the premier Papyrus-Recycled Greetings brand. ★➥ Developed and deployed an enterprise-wide communications plan and strategy to engage a national sales force and create a centralized communications hub to reduce ad hoc efforts. Created structured distribution system delivery information daily at a set time.➥ Played an instrumental role in the integration of Recycled Paper Greetings and Papyrus, developing new communications process to align efforts and capture procedural synergies. Drove short- and long-range strategic planning surrounding brand awareness and migration.➥ Championed the development of the company’s first Intranet site, providing associates and contractors with on-demand access to information on policies, processes, and products. Project resulted in $250,000+ in annual print savings and facilitated “green” initiatives.➥ Conceptualized, designed, and produced awareness-generating campaigns to promote the launch of new collections—The Far Side®, The Argyle Sweater™, and The Onion™—into big-box retailers (Target, Meijer, and Walgreens) fueling 134+ million impressions.

★ Crafted original communications for newsletters, press releases, presentations, and memorandums distributed to internal and external stakeholders including an audience spanning 5K+ retailers nationwide. ★➥ Designed and produced an infomercial from concept to completion, serving as a liaison to the post-production company and overseeing site locations and shooting schedule.➥ Coordinated corporate media interaction, crafted press releases, conducted interviews, and responded to all media inquiries with on-point and brand-centric messages.

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), English/Writing; Journalism Concentration

Leadership Training; Social Media / Digital Communications Training