Mary Schnack
A specialist in communications for almost 30 years, Mary Schnack is an award-winning writer, reporter, public relations professional and advocate.
Mary started out as a journalist, working for daily newspapers on the police, city hall and medical beats. She has written for major national magazines and newspapers, including Newsweek, McCall’s and the Los Angeles Times. She also was a television field producer and director for Newsweek Video.
Mary moved into public relations at two private, non-profit medical centers in the Los Angeles area. She established a strong public and community relations program, producing all collateral materials, advertising and media outreach. She effectively handled the hospitals’ crisis communications during the 1992 Civic Unrest in Los Angeles and the 1991 U. S. Air crash at Los Angeles International Airport.She assisted and counseled the Seventh-day Adventist Church during the Waco cult standoff and, subsequently, helped the world church establish a crisis communications plan. She went to Africa for ADRA, a humanitarian aid agency, to help with communications during the Rwanda Civil War. After her original experience with ADRA, Mary conducted extensive communication seminars for ADRA’s field offices in Russia, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Guinea, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. She also has worked for other NGOs, including International Medical Corps, World Vision and Vital Voices.
She wrote a crisis communications plan for Reno Air and was interviewed as a crisis communications specialist on CNN after the American Airlines crash in Queens, New York.
Mary gives speeches and conducts communication trainings worldwide, including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Argentina, Ukraine, Switzerland, Egypt, Greece, Brussels, London, and Mexico City. She is articulate, witty and knowledgeable about communications for both business and personal relevance. Her topics are interesting and thought provoking and offer communication and entrepreneurial tips that can be put to immediate use. By peppering her presentations with examples from her personal experiences in such places as Waco, Rwanda, Russia and Los Angeles, Mary offers real world perspective and not just textbook examples from other people’s work.
As owner of a public relations consulting agency, Mary Schnack & Associates represents sophisticated organizations from corporations and small businesses to government agencies and associations and non-profit organizations. They have placed client’s stories in national publications, regional and local newspapers, radio shows and programs, television news programs and internet-based media.
During her almost 20 years as an entrepreneur she has branched out into other projects and businesses, as well. She recently created a partnership in Nairobi, Kenya, to do communications training in Africa, formed Asia Business Connect, Inc. to help businesses who want to do business between the U.S. and Asia and works with entrepreneurs in Iceland to present the global BRANDit workshop.
Mary also started “Up from the Dust: Supporting the global growth of women microenterprises.” She exhibits at various women’s conferences throughout the country, selling items made by women microenterprises in developing countries, including China, Afghanistan, Egypt, Guatemala, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. She is expanding the business into website and home party sales, to help the women secure U.S. retail outlets for the sale of their items.
She has won awards for her writing and public relations work from the Associated Press, International Association of Business Communications; Public Relations Society of America; Iowa Press Association and the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association. Her communications experience also has been recognized by the Arizona Department of Transportation who hired her on an extremely controversial highway project in Northern Arizona and the communications planning and website work won major regional, national and an international award. Mary is the 2011 recipient of the Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) President’s Award, recipient of the 2011 Gutsy Galls Inspire Me Award, and named to the 2011 50 Women of Influence and Power by Minority Enterprise Advocate Magazine. In 2010 Mary received the Enterprising Women of the Year award. She was the recipient of the 2004 U.S. Small Business Administration’s Women in Business Advocate award for the Arizona District and Region IX and in 2008 she was awarded The International Alliance for Women Inaugural World of Difference 100 Awards, Advertising Working Mother of the Year Trailblazer Award and Member of the Year for Women Impacting Public Policy.
Mary’s community involvement has been extensive. She was chair of the Great American Smokeout for the American Cancer Society, Los Angeles, for more than 10 years, and consultant and instructor for the SBA’s Small Business Development Center in West Los Angeles. She was a board member of the Sedona-Oak Creek and Marina del Rey Chambers of Commerce, Sedona Boys and Girls Club, Los Angeles Police Department Pacific Division Community Advisory Board, Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, head coach for the girl’s basketball team at Sedona Red Rock High School, and moderator of the Church of Red Rocks.
On a national and international level, she is co-producer of the Women’s Festivals which began in Santa Barbara, CA and Arizona in 2008 and now are held internationally. She served on NAWBO’s national board of directors and was co-founder of NAWBO’s International Forum. She is a National Founding Partner and on the executive advisory board for Women Impacting Public Policy. She also is a Lifetime Charter Member of Boardroom Bound, a corporate governance and director candidate program, and graduate of their Pipeline seminar. She is a board member and co-chair of the International Committee of ATHENA International board of directors. She is certified as a woman-owned business by the National Women Business Owners Corporation.
Mary received her Bachelor of Science degree from the prestigious University of Iowa School of Journalism.
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