Kelliann Amico, Apr, Fellow Prsa Email & Phone Number

Portland, Oregon, United States

As a seasoned PR pro, I provide the strategic insight needed to help you tell your story just right. I guide you through the steps necessary to successfully create, rebuild, improve, or change your organization’s public image and brand. Depending upon the objective, your communication strategy may unfold as a community event, an employee initiative, or strategically earned media - the possibilities are endless.I lead a talented team of five employees and subcontractors at my boutique agency, Amico, where we conceptualize and implement multi-faceted strategic communication programs for a variety of organizations in several different industries. Current work emphasizes complex regional planning, built environments, energy, professional services, mental health and addiction services and education.My areas of emphasis are strategic positioning and messaging, strategic planning, media relations, media training, community engagement, crisis communication and issues management. My team members round out services with strategic digital content, paid and organic social media, branding, design and advertising. I originally started my business as a subcontractor to highly revered firms in Portland, then over time I cultivated a steady roster of direct clients. I have also partnered with other strategists over the years.

As a press lead, I anticipated and addressed all of the needs of the media outlets covering a specific campaign stop. This included the press traveling with Secretary Clinton, as well as local jurisdiction press. Given the fast-paced nature of campaign work, I also scouted site venues and helped build out events in a very quick period of time - the 24 hours prior to the campaign stop were frequently when most of the details were confirmed.

As press lead, I served as an advance team contact for press inquiries pertaining to Presidential and First Lady visits throughout the world. I prepared event sites to accommodate domestic and international media, as well as the White House press corps and media pool. The job involved messaging, media outreach, writing and directing television advertisements, designing event sites and press areas for maximum visual impact and access, location logistics for the press filing center and White House press office, coordinating and training local volunteers to assist with media credentials, event coordination, and crowd building.

I managed the public relations division of this revered regional agency founded in 1910 by Joseph Gerber in Portland, Oregon. I provided client service, new business development and mentorship and training of emerging public relations professionals. My primary areas of focus included strategic planning, media relations, special events and crisis communication. Many of the clients were consumer brands such as Thriftway Stores, Sunshine Dairy and Franz Bakery.When Gerber was acquired by Gard Communications in 1997, I left the firm and Gard retained me in an Of Counsel capacity (for two decades), which provided an invaluable springboard to launch my own practice.

I provided strategic public relations counsel and developed new business in the Bellevue, Washington, office of this top Seattle-based firm founded by Jay Rockey in 1962. My primary areas of focus included strategic planning, media relations, community engagement, special events and crisis communication.I worked with a leading regional general contractor and several developers, including one that helped shape the waterfront in Kirkland, Washington. I also supported hometown favorite, Seattle Mariners, with special events coordination and media relations during the Ken Griffey Jr. homerun streak and for the introduction of the legendary Lou Piniella as the team’s new manager. My first experience with crisis communication was with this firm; I served on a team of two managing the aftermath of the United Airlines Flight 232 crash in Sioux City, Iowa.

At this Portland, Oregon, firm founded by Harry Turtledove in 1942, I provided strategic communication planning, content development, special events and media relations for a handful of franchise management organizations in the hospitality and trucking industries. It was here where I had my introduction to pro bono agency work as a member of the team that supported a state-funded AIDS prevention campaign. I also completed the research and drafted preliminary language for a bill designating the hazelnut as the official nut for the State of Oregon.

While still attending the University of Portland, I convinced Jaime Leopold, president, to let me create the public relations function at this Portland, Oregon, boutique agency. I helped plan and implement promotions and special events and provided media relations for a variety of clients. This included the popular natural foods grocer, Nature’s Fresh Northwest, which opened its Beaverton, Oregon, store to great fanfare that I helped generate.

Raring to get my career started, I seized this opportunity to help coordinate this much-revered telethon. I wrote program copy and speeches, and generated earned media. Over the course of that summer I also singlehandedly ate an entire crate of Red Delicious apples kept in the office closet. (I was still in college, after all...)

Produced two five-minute investigative stories: Relief at Last? and Regards to the Broadway (a glorious theatre that operated in downtown Portland from 1926 to 1988).

Bachelor Of Arts, Communications And Drama

Education record