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My insights, expertise and passions reflect a career that has encompassed both broadcasting and public relations. I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the most innovative brands and people in the U.S., and have also been an award-winning, major market and nationally-syndicated radio host.
Since mid-2015, I have served WXPN-FM, the nationally-recognized leader in adult alternative radio and the member-supported, public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, as an independent contractor handling its public relations. As a former staff member and longtime member of the station, I love promoting its many unique initiatives, special events and conferences, expansion, and award-winning programming throughout its extensive listening area and at a national level. I have also represented AquaCamel, Inc., and its unique water-conserving planters to multiple target audiences in major markets and nationwide.
I left integrated Philadelphia agency LevLane in July 2015, after three years as its PR Director, to work independently with small businesses and non-profits who need my broad expertise and willingness to help them grow. While with LevLane, I created and executed PR campaigns that helped exceed sales, attendance and/or media exposure goals for clients including EnergyWorks, West Chester University, 11 U.S. regions of Massage Envy Spas, Beneficial Bank and its foundation, Provident Bank and its foundation, Reliance Standard Life Insurance, WXPN-FM, Pennsylvania General Store, Rydal Park senior living community (Rydal, PA), Ventana by Buckner senior living community (Dallas, TX), and many others. I was awarded two PRSA Philadelphia Chapter Pepperpot Awards for innovative and effective client projects: One in 2012 for Beneficial Bank’s School Challenge, and one in 2014 for the Rydal Park Lively Fall Speaker Series.
Previously, as Drummer PR, LLC (2007-2012), I managed PR for internet and terrestrial broadcasters (RadioIO.com, Shovio.com, syndicated radio host Bubba the Love Sponge), Pennsylvania General Store (Philadelphia and nationwide), Doctor’s Express urgent care franchises (Central NJ), Rock & Roll After School (suburban Philadelphia), recyclers ViaTek Solutions (Atlanta, GA) and Pasco Iron and Metal (Tampa, FL area), and many authors, filmmakers, musicians, and nonprofit organizations. In joining Sirius Satellite Radio (now SiriusXM Radio) as Senior Manager of Feature Content in 2001, a year before its launch, I created special programming and hosted a daily program for The Spectrum adult alternative music channel. As the company grew, I transitioned to Director of Public Relations to help communicate the service’s groundbreaking programming, much of which was produced by such prominent content partners as Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, the Metropolitan Opera, the Sinatra Estate, Eminem, Tony Hawk, Steven Van Zandt and Elvis Presley Enterprises, among many others. I left Sirius in 2007, when the long commute became no longer tenable.
Before Sirius called me away from it, I had helped form Q Records, a former division of QVC, Inc., where I developed and promoted new music and video recordings and collections in several genres - classic country music, American standards, jazz, Broadway musicals and classic hits – that were also distributed by WEA. Building the label and working at QVC was an enormously gratifying experience, as I had the unique opportunity to work closely with such legendary music producers as Dick Clark, Joel Dorn, and Jason Miles, and to secure GRAMMY® nominations for two Broadway cast albums, Footloose and The Music Man.
Before Q Records, I had been a full-time on-air host at WMMR-FM and WXPN-FM in Philadelphia, and prior to those, I was the first PR Director for the New Jersey State Aquarium (now called Adventure Aquarium) in Camden, NJ. As it was being built, I developed key resources and contacts, established procedures and hired staff, gave presentations that promoted the new institution to community groups, and placed stories that helped launch the nation's newest aquatic attraction, and propel the revitalization of the Camden waterfront.
My first job after arriving in Philadelphia from New England in early 1990 was as Account Executive for the PR agency Resnick Communications. Working directly under longtime Philly PR maven Phoebe Resnick, I promoted some exceptional local and national cultural and consumer goods clients, including Thomas Moser Cabinetmakers, Moderne Gallery, and Pennsylvania General Store, among others.
Before arriving in Philly, I worked at the Waterbury, Vermont headquarters for Ben & Jerry’s Homemade., Inc., where my rock music knowledge and radio background were tapped to help launch the company’s historic Cherry Garcia® flavor in 1987. As PR Manager, I also communicated the company’s commitment to social responsibility along with its many unique flavors and projects, and assisted in securing its sponsorship of the annual Newport Folk Festival. Working with two of the most notable and creative entrepreneurs in history left a lasting mark upon me, particularly their commitment to social responsibility, known widely today as CSR (corporate social responsibility).
I started my dual PR-radio career during college, when I was on-air host and PR & Fundraising Director for the University of Vermont’s WRUV-FM in Burlington. I then briefly hosted mornings at English-language KLOV/Paris, France while living there before returning to Vermont to be Evening Host and Promotion Director at WIZN/Burlington. Then it was on to WHEB/Portsmouth to host mornings and serve as Promotion Director, before relocating to Philadelphia, where I worked as a radio host from 1992 through 2001:
-At public radio station WXPN-FM (1992-1995), I hosted afternoons, interviewed artists, and created and hosted the weekly Funky Friday show that remains a station staple today. As PR Director, I edited newsletters and developed promotions and special events that demonstrated the station’s commitment to its listeners, members, and the local and national music communities, and cultivated new supporters.
-For heritage rock station WMMR (1995-1997), I hosted morning drive, which involved interviewing many musicians, athletes and community leaders along with visiting celebrities, and hosted remote station events, before becoming ill with meningitis and gaining a co-host. Concurrently, I also wrote and hosted on-camera weekend entertainment reports for KYW-TV 3 (CBS), and replaced artist Todd Rundgren as host of the weekly adult alternative radio program The Difference, syndicated nationwide by United Stations.
I had started a radio station in my public high school in Rochester, NY before attending Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications for two years, and obtained my bachelor of arts degree in mass communications in 1983 from the University of Vermont. Two days after I graduated, I started my first full-time job, as Editorial Assistant with the University’s Office of Public Relations, where I’d had a rewarding internship. For this and other reasons, I love sharing my knowledge and experience with local high school and college classes, and have also spoken at GRAMMY® Career Day, SXSW and other gatherings. I’ve been honored with various radio/broadcasting awards, and a Silver Medal from New York Festivals in 2003 for co-writing the Sirius national radio special, 9-11: The Healing of America.
My personal passions and pastimes are reading, gardening, cooking, music, hiking with my husband and our dog, and enjoying my drummer husband’s many live performances.
