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Staff Biographies
Allison Conyers, Account Associate
Elaine Elinson, Senior Communications Counselor
Larissa Etwaroo, Marketing Intern
Gwen McKinney, President and Founder
Jazmen Miller, Public Relations Coordinator
Richard C. Montgomery, Art Director/Multimedia Design Specialist
In addition, McKinney & Associates employs
a number of long- and short-term consultants.
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Allison Conyers, Account Associate, develops and supports communications campaigns and conducts media outreach to support nonprofit organizations. She possesses a special passion for promoting issues attacking racial inequality and poverty, and for empowering low- to moderate-income communities.
Prior to joining McKinney and Associates, Allison was the media relations associate for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, responsible for creating media strategy and establishing relationships with national, regional and local print and broadcast media. During the 2004 elections, Allison served as a spokesperson for ACORN, the country's largest organization of low- to moderate-income people, working for social justice and stronger communities. She also worked as its Communications Coordinator, responsible for media relations, training and writing collateral materials for the organization.
Allison has worked with several community newspapers in Washington, DC and her hometown of Williamsburg, VA, and served as online editor and lifestyle columnist for the District Chronicles. She received a degree in Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations from Howard University.
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Elaine Elinson is a Senior Communications Counselor who teams with the McKinney staff to assure that social justice campaigns win value-added communications assets beginning with strategic planning phase. She works closely with the firm's senior staff to assist in drawing the arc of public education campaigns grounded in sustained and tested communications tactics.
Based in San Francisco, Elaine brings more than three decades of experience to the firm. She has served as the Public Information Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California where she directed media and publicity campaigns on a wide variety of issues, including race and the death penalty, juvenile justice, reproductive rights, language rights, immigrants' rights, racial profiling and the right to dissent. She has worked on national media campaigns and is a consultant for the Institute for Journalism Justice at Stanford University .
Elinson is the author and/or editor of several popular ACLU publications, including We Have Rights Too…But What are They?. As exquisite in the genre of fiction as she is in news writing, Elaine is currently working on her first novel.
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Larissa Etwaroo is a Marketing Intern, responsible for research and development of marketing initiatives at McKinney and Associates. Prior to joining McKPR, Larissa worked on an advertising campaign for the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Reston, Virginia. She recently served as the liaison between Howard University and Habitat for Humanity-Prince George's County.
Larissa has been a member of the American Advertising Federation, and has written articles for both the Howard Hilltop and District Chronicles newspapers. She has worked as a mentor for Gage-Eckington Elementary School in the District and occasionally participates in Food and Friends activities, an organization that prepares meals for terminally ill patients in the District.
Larissa graduated from the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University, where she studied Advertising and Public Relations. She plans on becoming an accredited public relations specialist in the future.
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Gwen
McKinney, President and Founder, 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.
Enjoying a communications career that spans three decades, Gwen's genesis goes to the Philadelphia Tribune, where the budding reporter earned awards for her advocacy journalism. She served as a correspondent covering Congress and national policy for several weekly newspapers across the country. Her syndicated columns were distributed by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the umbrella organization for the nation's black press, and she has been published in Essence, Black Enterprise and other monthly publications. Her last position outside the firm was serving as press secretary during the first campaign of DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Gwen has commanded a wide range of successful communications campaigns, demanding respect and contacts with the media elite, other communications professionals and public policy opinion leaders. She has vast experience as a communications trainer, mentor and lecturer. She has earned a national reputation for her effectiveness in promoting equal employment, fair housing, public health, environmental justice, voter education, women's rights and reproductive health. Gwen serves as a trusted advisor to many of the nation's most influential civil rights leaders.
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Jazmen Miller, Public Relations Coordinator, is responsible for media tracking, pitching, and generating and updating press contact lists. She also assists in the support and effective functioning of all of the firm's publicity campaigns.
A recent graduate of North Carolina A& T University, Jazmen served as the university's first chapter president of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). She was also a committee member of the student chapter of National Association of Black Journalists and a contributing writer to The Register, the campus newspaper.
Prior to joining McKinney & Associates, Jazmen interned for the public relations department on her campus, where she supported staff with planning and implementation of special events, campus and community outreach projects.
Jazmen is a 2006 graduate from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations.
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Richard C. Montgomery, Art Director and Multimedia Design Specialist, heads McKinney & Associates 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 and 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 recent work with the firm has included Public Broadcasting Corporation program promotion, a branding campaign for the National Institutes of Health hypertension awareness campaign, and visual collateral for Firelight Media's documentary on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education 50th anniversary. Other projects of a national scope included the design and development of the Federal Drunk Driving Awareness Campaign for the National Highway and Transportation Department, the National Campaign for the Department of Health and Human Services Teenage Drinking Prevention Program, and the Honda Motor Company's National Seat Belt Safety Initiative.
Richard is a graduate of Howard University with a professional degree in architecture.
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