Gwen McKinney
President

President and Founder, Gwen is responsible for translating the vision of public relations with a conscience into a sustained, bold and tested suite of communications services and activities. She pursues the highest tenets of a boutique public relations firm by assuring that each client wins the maximum assets and deliverables uniquely tailored to their communications needs. Gwen blends strategic savvy with an unparalleled commitment to social justice and public policy for change.

She began her career in communications as a reporter with the Philadelphia Tribune. She went on to become a correspondent in Washington covering Congress and National policy for several newspapers.

Gwen has written for Essence and Black Enterprise, the nation's preeminent magazines targeting African-Americans. In addition to her syndicated columns were distributed by the National Newspaper Publishers Association--the umbrella organization for the nation's black press. From a career in journalism, Gwen made the transition to national public policy advocacy. The wide range of successful communications campaigns she has planned and executed includes voter education and participation, affirmative action, women's rights and reproductive health. An astute strategic planner, Gwen serves as a trusted advisor to many of the nation's most influential civil rights leaders.

Dewanna Planter
General Manager

Dewanna is responsible for managing and implementing the effective daily operations of McKinney & Associates. She assists the President in developing systems and functions to administer client services, marketing, personnel and finance. 

Dewanna found that McKinney's mission in practicing "public relations with a conscience" with a focus on social justice causes and issues was a mission and passion that she enthusiastically shared.  Before joining the McKinney team, Dewanna was responsible for the administrative, analytical and technical responsibilities essential to Holland & Knight's full-time pro bono practice, the Community Services Team (CST), and its effective commitment to providing pro bono legal services for the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in our society. During her tenure as CST Administrator, Holland & Knight’s pro bono program was regularly lauded by firm management as one of the most well-managed practice groups of the international law firm. Dewanna received her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

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Donna Lewis Johnson
Senior Account Associate

Donna is responsible for providing strategic counsel to a number of national and regional clients, managing the development and rollout of communications strategies, and contributing to the firm’s growth through marketing efforts. Donna leads the firm’s strategic communications services to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Human Capital Portfolio. Working closely with the portfolio’s senior communications and program officers, Donna adds value to a multi-tiered campaign involving media outreach, video production and onsite logistics support.  Donna has over 15 years experience in the public relations industry.

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Ryan Duncan
New Media / Public Relations Coordinator

Ryan serves McKinney & Associates in the development and vision behind McKinney & Associates newly designed website, he also serves as the company webmaster, providing management, postings and updates on a daily basis. He is at the forefront of the firm’s Internet outreach plans, supporting planning and implementation of campaigns targeting online media and bloggers through ongoing media monitoring, outreach and specialized campaigns. From Facebook to MySpace, Twitter to YouTube, Listserves to LinkedIn, Intranets to Extranets -- Ryan remains focused on the rapidly changing and growing world of New Media to service McKPR and its clients.  Ryan is a 2006 graduate of Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communications. 

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Nicole Hayes

Account Associate

Nicole provides communications services to McKinney & Associates and brings a strong background in consumer and social marketing outreach, partnership development and media relations.  She has a proven record of delivering beyond her client’s goals and objectives. Many of her communications strategies were cultivated during her work with international public relations agency, Fleishman Hillard Inc., in Washington, D.C., where she developed and implemented strategies and media relations outreach for large consumer and government clients. Some of her clients included the Department of the Army, Department of Homeland Security, AARP, D.C. Commission for the Arts and Humanities and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

 With these career skills serving as a foundation, Nicole wanted a career that supported her core belief that “the best investment one can make is in people.” She left Fleishman-Hillard to begin her own media relations consultancy, Pieces of Life, based in Washington, D.C. to serve small businesses owners and non-profit organizations.  She has joined the McKinney team as an associate committed to the mission that drives McKinney and its core clients. Working with McKinney and as a consultant, she has secured interviews in national media, regional press, blogs and African American and Latino media.  A few include CNBC’s former entrepreneur program The Big Idea, for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), BlackEnterprise.com, Essence.com, TheGrio.com, The Bev Smith Show, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and mainstream outlets such as CNN American Morning, American Prospect and Politico, to name a few.   

A Kansas native, Nicole has a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. 

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Shawntay Warren

Public Relations Account Associate

Shawntay is responsible for coordinating and executing communications efforts on behalf of McKinney & Associates clients, drawing upon her unique experiences in both network television and the nonprofit sectors. Shawntay works closely with staff to develop and support communications strategies, media campaigns and special events that promote and enhance the firm’s clients and related policy issues.

Prior to accepting the Account Associate role at McKPR, Shawntay was the Communications Manager for the American Lung Association of the District of Columbia (ALADC), where she discovered her media relations talent and passion for social equality. In that capacity, Shawntay enjoyed securing earned media opportunities for the organization to promote its free health services that targeted DC residents of low socioeconomic status. Earned media opportunities included The Washington Post, The Washington Informer, FOX 5 News, ABC 7/News 8, and the Steve Harvey Morning Show.

Before ALADC, Shawntay was an Assignment Editor and Producer Assistant for MSNBC Live and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, respectively. Her experience in television afforded her the opportunity to produce and assistant produce several NBC news stories, including breaking news.

Shawntay, a New Jersey native, holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, where she graduated with high honors.

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Sarim Ngo

Public Relations Intern

Sarim works closely with the staff of McKinney & Associates to help provide public relations and administrative support.  She assists with various projects including monitoring media, preparing press kits and handling social media.

Sarim was drawn to McKinney & Associates because she, too, shares the passion of using creative and meaning communications to advance social justice and impact public policy.  Sarim is a recent graduate from the Pennsylvania State University.  She holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Journalism and a minor in International Studies. 

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Richard Montgomery
Art Director and Multimedia Design Specialist

Richard provides leadership to the creative and artistic design team. Richard directs the firm’s conceptual design and development, including computer aided special effects and photo editing, Web site design, corporate marketing and collateral production. He works closely with the strategic planning team to assist in crafting the visual concepts for branding campaigns, corporate identity and logos, brochures and business publications, magazines, newsletters and Internet business development, communication signage and displays, and full service printing.  

Recently expanding into video production, Richard produced a short film, Wardrobe Malfunctions, which earned several prizes, including best short film at the 2005 Cleveland International Film Festival.  His work with McKinney has included design and layout of a report marking the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. release in early April.  He also designed and supervised the print run of Unnatural Causes media collateral and factsheets, produced in both hard copy and online. 

Richard is a graduate of Hampton University with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree.

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Candice Francis

Senior Communications Associate

Candice is a consummate communicator who has held

positions in a number of related disciplines. Candice has been a public and commercial broadcasting producer, a senior level strategic communicator, an advertising department project manager and a literature, writing and communications instructor in higher education. Currently, she manages strategic communications for a public health agency in Oakland, CA and provides consulting services to McKinney & Associates.

Candice also coaches writers who wish to write personal memoirs and works with others to actualize other writing project goals. She recently co-edited a published collection of writings.

Brooklyn-born and raised, Candice currently makes her home in the San Francisco Bay Area with her son, Aman, who is a third year law student. Candice has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and a Master of Arts in Mass Communications from Ohio University, where she was a recipient of a national fellowship awarded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Elaine Elinson
Senior Communications Associate

San Francisco-based Elaine Elinson has worked as a communications strategist for the civil rights community in California for more than two decades.  Her clients include the Equal Justice Society and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, as well as private law firms challenging multinational oil companies and workplace discrimination. At McKinney & Associates, Elaine provides oversight and direction and assists in guiding messaging, staffing and delivery of the firm’s contracted communications services. She is McKinney’s lead on strategic planning and launching of a multi-media campaign on Black Infant Health with partners from the California Department of Maternal Child and Adolescent Health and University of California San Francisco’s Center on Social Disparities in Health.  
 
For over twenty years, Elaine served as the public information director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the editor of the ACLU News.  She directed media and publicity campaigns on a wide variety of issues, including the death penalty, reproductive rights and racial profiling.  In addition, she organized statewide publicity campaigns on ballot initiatives on immigrants’ rights, affirmative action, juvenile justice and the rights of lesbians and gays. 

Elaine has developed and implemented media strategies in local, state and national media markets, targeting outlets and gaining coverage most effective for her clients.  This has ranged from coverage in the New York Times and 60 Minutes for the employment discrimination lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch to placing op-eds on racial profiling in African American and Latino newspapers. She is an experienced media trainer for both clients and lawyers who are facing the cameras and has taught seminars on media advocacy at Stanford Law School, Hastings Law School and U.C. Berkeley School of Journalism.

Elaine has written for numerous California publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Post and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.  She is coauthor of “Wherever There’s a Fight:  How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California,” which was widely acclaimed and awarded a Gold Medal in the 2010 California Book Awards.

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