President
'Mary Fifield is a former producer…and before that a most highly regarded director of information for ABC News…'
—The Washington Post
Ms. Fifield, a former journalist, has a wide-ranging background in
politics, government, and public relations. She has produced headline
programming for the major American television networks, including 20/20
and World News Tonight for ABC News, Nightwatch with Charlie Rose for
CBS News, and Nightly News for NBC. She also was producer of CBS’s
award-winning public affairs program, Face the Nation.
Following network assignments in Washington D.C., Manhattan, and
Houston, Ms. Fifield spent three years in Rome, where she was a producer
for CNN’s Headline News. She has extensive working relationships with
broadcast and print journalists and commentators nationally. She was a
recipient of a Publicity Club of New England Bell Ringer award for her
innovative efforts at organizational identity building.
Ms. Fifield began her career in political communications as a press aide
in the presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern. She was also
press secretary to Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Thomas P. O’Neill
III during his successful bid for office, and to Massachusetts Governor
Michael Dukakis upon his election to office. Subsequently, she was
assistant press secretary to presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.
She was Director of Public Relations for Roone Arledge and the newly
re-vamped ABC News, where she devised and oversaw public introduction of
such programs as World News Tonight, 20/20, Nightline, and This Week
With David Brinkley. She then was a network news producer for a decade,
shaping programming for many of the shows she had earlier publicized.
After serving as Director of Marketing and External Affairs for Boston’s
Artery Business Committee (an organization of the city’s top 50 CEOs),
Ms. Fifield joined ML Strategies, the public policy subsidiary of Mintz,
Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., where she developed and
managed crisis communications strategies for that firm’s clients. She
also directed the successful “Yes On 5” Initiative Petition Campaign,
which eliminated Massachusetts’ antiquated Blue Laws governing retail
openings and closings.
Ms. Fifield formed Mary Fifield Associates late in 1995.
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Principal
Ms. Kastelnik has spent 25 years in the fields of media and public
relations.
Since 1997, she has specialized in assisting large corporations and
not-for-profits with sensitive public affairs issues that require
careful positioning and advocacy.
She has helped real estate developers, design and construction
companies, pharmaceutical firms, health care companies, trade
organizations, government organizations, institutions of higher learning
and candidates for public office, from local seats to the Presidency.
She has managed crisis communications work for clients in both the
public and private sectors.
From 1991 to 1996, Ms. Kastelnik was Bechtel Corporation's Director of
Communications for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, the largest single
works project in the United States. At the Artery Project, she managed
an annual budget of $1.2 million, and directed public information, media
relations, and business outreach and community relations.
During her tenure, the project was profiled nationally in such
publications as The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, and
the Los Angeles Times, as well as on National Public Radio and in
numerous technical journals including the preeminent Engineering News
Record. Ms. Kastelnik also coordinated the development of the Artery
Project's $2 million advertising campaign, which included radio,
television, newspaper and outdoor advertising.
Earlier, Ms. Kastelnik was the New England news producer for ABC News'
"World News Tonight," in which capacity she was responsible for covering
breaking news stories and features in the region.
She has served as press secretary for many campaigns locally and
nationally, including the 1976 Carter-Mondale campaign, and was
communications director for President Jimmy Carter's Commission on
Neighborhoods.
Principal
Joanna Peters is a Principal of Mary Fifield Associates based in New York. She brings a proven track record as a global strategic thinker to build outs and turnarounds. Using her law degree and business expertise, she has originated strategic businesses with an investor focus and created an institutional standard for cross border and emerging markets transactions.
Ms. Peters has built and undertaken workarounds in the emerging markets (India, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) for leading diversified financial institutions including Citigroup, ABN and AMEX. She has driven rollups in Asia and the United States and has acted as advisor and interim COO on new private equity ventures in the offshore oil and gas sectors. Her other activities include strategic positioning, acquisition due diligence, development of new distribution capabilities via strategic alliances and open architecture platforms for investment firms and offshore institutional investors.
She has specialized expertise in advising firms on a wide spectrum of business management matters including strategic positioning, investor relations, all aspects of fiduciary responsibility and best practices in corporate governance, and operational efficiencies leading to improved performance.
Her focus is firms looking to reach the next level of institutional and business readiness as well as firms looking to reconfigure their business structure. Country start ups and turnarounds have all called for extensive governance re-design in both the domestic and international contexts. Joanna is experienced with Fortune 100 boards as well as governance for entrepreneurial ventures.
Ms. Peters is a Best Practice Industry Speaker here and abroad. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Princeton Committee on Foreign Relations. She is a Senior Member of Arab Bankers Association (ABANA) and Membership Co Chair of the Asia Hands Group. She is a Co Founder of the Peer Advisory Councils of 100 Women in Hedge Funds where she also served as Mentoring Chair. Prior to that time, she served four years on the Board of a New York City magnet school, Stuyvesant High School. Joanna is admitted to the Bar in Australia as well as in New York.
Senior Associate, Strategic
Marketing
Ms. Bailey has an extensive career embracing strategic consulting and
direct management in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She was a
consultant for McKinsey & Company in its New York office and in several
locations in Latin America for five years, advising clients in a variety
of industries on matters of organization and strategy.
She subsequently served in several management positions with the Times
Mirror Company, working as Operations Director and General Manager in
several of that organization's cable-television subsidiaries.
Following this period in the private sector, Ms. Bailey moved to the
not-for-profit sector, where she was General Manager for the Handel &
Haydn Society, responsible for the overall functioning of this premier
early music organization, as well as for its marketing. In addition, she
served as President of the Boston Arts Marketing Alliance.
She provides writing, media, marketing and strategic consulting services
to corporate, political, and not-for-profit clients.
Senior Associate, New York
John Goodman has more than 30 years of diverse experience in both
television and public relations, including the production and promotion
of ABC's "Good Morning America" and CBS "This Morning," and promotion
for ABC's historic mini-series "Roots" and the debut of ABC's "World
News Tonight."
Mr. Goodman has worked for Stern & Company, a New York media/investment
relations firm and Primetime Publicity and Media in San Francisco. He
was a Senior Vice President and National Media Director at Edelman
Worldwide and placed over 250 stories about Edelman clients on
television. He's done public relations work for United Jewish Appeal,
The Mexico Ministry of Tourism, Weight Watchers, Hertz , Fuji Film,
Opryland, and British Airways. He's media trained executives from CEOs
to astronauts, and he has handled publicity for numerous books.
Mr. Goodman was a Senior Producer at CBS "This Morning," an Associate
Producer and Producer at ABC's "Good Morning America," Press
Representative for ABC's "World News Tonight" and the "ABC Evening News
with Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters." He was involved in the
creation and debut of World News Tonight in July 1978 with three anchors
in three cities (Frank Reynolds in Washington, Peter Jennings in London
and Max Robinson in Chicago).
Before joining ABC, Mr. Goodman was a freelance sportswriter for The New
York Times, an Assistant Sports Editor at The Patent Trader in Mt. Kisco,
N.Y., and the Sports Director at WVIP Radio. He began his career at the
Ossining (NY) Citizen Register. He is a graduate of Emerson College.
Senior Associate, San Francisco
Carol Edgar has worked as a communications professional for more than 20 years. She has conducted media relations campaigns for the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, the U.S. Ambassador to Austria, the Women & Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Arts International, The White House Project, and the Committee of 100, a national, non-aligned organization of leading Chinese Americans.
Coverage for these and other clients has appeared in all major U.S. media, including the three broadcast networks, CNN, and print media including the New York Times, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek. Related corporate communications projects for clients have including writing and editing of speeches, brochures, newsletters, annual reports, video and numerous other communications media. Ms. Edgar’s approach to communications enables non-profit organizations to extend and enhance their own work and that of their grantees.
A native of Dallas, Ms. Edgar began her career as a producer, reporter, and interviewer for public radio stations and NPR. She then joined the public-relations subsidiary of Grey Advertising in New York, where she became a vice-president. At Grey, she specialized in government and non-profit accounts, including the U.S Department of the Treasury and the Vote America Foundation. Her work on behalf of the Treasury Department garnered the highest accolade in public relations: the Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America.
Ms. Edgar then launched her own Manhattan-based practice focusing on public affairs for government and non-profit clients, based Manhattan. Now in San Francisco, she represents Mary Fifield Associates on a variety of client matters. She was part of MFA's Bell ringer award-winning team.
Senior Associate, Design
Nancy Korman has three decades of experience as a writer and creator of
promotional materials. She has produced brochures, direct mail packages,
posters and annual reports for corporations, charities and agencies.
As a member of the faculty of the Radcliffe Seminars, she has taught
“Developing Materials for Fund Raising and Public Relations,” a course
which focused on developing collateral materials for both communications
and fund raising. Ms. Korman taught “Nuts and Bolts of Political
Campaigns” at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University and has also been a visiting scholar at
the School of Communications at Boston University.
Ms. Korman has a major involvement in the non-profit sector and has a
leadership position in many organizations. She chairs The Massachusetts
Service Alliance, a gubernatorially appointed commission that promotes
community service by granting state and federal funds to local programs
and provides support, education, training and technical assistance to
increase service, across the Commonwealth. She has also served on the
board of America’s Service Commissions, the national organization of
state service commissions.
She founded the first “old girl network” in the Boston area -- The
Women’s Lunch Group has been replicated in over two dozen cities and
several foreign countries. For seven years she wrote a weekly column for
the Boston Herald.
Ms. Korman serves on the Board of the Big Sister Association of Greater
Boston, is the past Vice-President of the Jewish Community Relations
Council, and the past President of the Massachusetts Association of
Jewish Federations.
Senior Associate, Media Production
Sue Rothberg is an award-winning producer with an extensive background
in both traditional and new media. She has worked as a television
journalist, Internet analyst, and Web consultant, and has held numerous
leadership roles throughout her career. Her expertise lies in knowing
how to design communications solutions for varying audiences and present
information through the perfect blending of copy and imagery for
delivery on or offline.
In 2002, she was invited by Fallon Community Health Care (FCHC) to
perform an intensive evaluation and competitive analysis of the firm's
on-line offerings in order to identify strategic opportunities. She
subsequently established best practices for FCHC, recommended key
changes that improved customer relations and decreased costs, and laid
the foundation for a new website that "created a 50% increase in site
traffic and received rave reviews from our members," according to FCHC's
vice president of marketing.
Ms. Rothberg spent 20 years in television news working at some of the
leading CBS, NBC and ABC television stations. During that time, she
produced thousands of stories-from financial, health and consumer news
to hard-hitting investigative reports. In 1999, Sue's experience in
visual communications and information delivery led her from the on-air
to on-line world.
Ms. Rothberg began her Internet career as an e-commerce analyst
evaluating trends in both the retail and dynamic pricing space. She was
frequently interviewed as an expert source by media outlets such as
Business Week, CBS Market Watch, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes,
Fortune, The New York Times, and Investor's Business Daily and appeared
regularly on CNN and CNBC-TV.
Today, Sue helps companies effectively reach their customers both online
and offline through the use of video and Web communications. She manages
large-scale web projects for clients and provides a host of consulting
and creative services.
Senior Associate, Research
Mr. Shiman specializes in all aspects of public opinion and market
research, and is highly skilled in the design, implementation, and
analysis of telephone and mail surveys, focus groups, depth interviews,
and many other research methods. With Opinion Dynamics Corporation, a
national market research firm, he has worked with a wide range of
clients in health care, education, public policy, energy, retail, the
media, and many other areas. With a national research institute, Mr.
Shiman published books on state policies in Minnesota and Michigan.
He has a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University, where he specialized in public opinion
and public policy. He also has a joint degree in politics and psychology
from New York University. He is a member of the American Association of
Public Opinion Researchers (AAPOR).
Senior Associate
Alex Zaroulis is a seasoned communications professional who has over 16 years of experience in public relations and public affairs. She is skilled at managing integrated public relations and public affairs campaigns to get award-winning results for her clients.
Ms. Zaroulis has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors working in politics, public relations and journalism. Previously, she was Account Supervisor for Solomon McCown & Co., where she managed communications and crisis strategy for national and local accounts in the Public Affairs and Consumer divisions. In addition, she has worked as Communications Director for various political campaigns, including serving as Midwest Communications Director for Gore / Lieberman 2000.
Ms. Zaroulis was also a producer for “Monitor Radio,” the broadcast edition of The Christian Science Monitor. She frequently appears on New England Cable News and WGBH-TV, where she comments on a wide range of public policy issues. Alex graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Political Science, and received her Master of Science in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University’s College of Communcation.
Senior Associate
David M. Rosen has more than 35 years of wide-ranging experience in journalism, public relations and public affairs. He has directed the communication offices of four universities and one college, held management positions in federal and state government and counseled public and private organizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government and a master's in journalism from Boston University and has taught at BU's College of Communication and Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Mr. Rosen began his career as a general assignment reporter for The Day newspaper in New London, CT. From there he went to the Boston Herald as a reporter and political writer and to United Press International, where he was a reporter and Massachusetts State House Bureau Chief. During his eight years at the State House, Mr. Rosen was also a contributor to Newsweek magazine and a political commentator on WGBH TV.
In 1978, Mr. Rosen started a public relations and public affairs consulting business, representing such clients as the Massachusetts Division of Insurance, the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, the New England Board of Higher Education, the Judge Baker Children's Center, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Pilgrim Health Care, and Hogan & Hartson. From 1979-1980, Mr. Rosen served as Director of Public Relations for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington D.C. He returned the state House in 1989 as chief of Staff to former Lt. Governor Evelyn Murphy.
Mr. Rosen’s career in higher education began in 1980 when he was named Director of Governmental Public Relations at Harvard University. He was later promoted to Associate Vice President for News and Public Relations. Since leaving Harvard in 1985, Mr. Rosen has held positions Associate Vice President for Public Affairs at The University of Chicago, Vice President for Public Affairs at Brandeis University, and Director of Public Relations at Yeshiva University. He is currently Vice President for Public Affairs at Emerson College, where he oversees public relations, branding, media relations, periodicals, the College web site and government and community relations.
Senior Associate, Photojournalism
Over the past 25 years Sarah Putnam’s career as a freelance
photojournalist has taken her on assignment in wide variety of
situations from Palestinian refugee camps, war zones in Eritrea, slums
in Port-au-Prince, and fashion shows in Cuba, to corporate boardrooms,
laboratories and classrooms in the U.S. Her work ranges from
deadline-intensive assignments for periodicals including Fortune,
Forbes, Ms., The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine,
Time, Parenting, Yankee, and Boston Magazine, to multi-year social
documentary projects, independent self-generated stories, and
collaborative projects.
Her commercial work includes a wide range of clients such as Brigham &
Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee, Fidelity, Polaroid, WGBH, Harvard,
Wentworth Institute of Technology, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, COM/Energy,
Thinking Machines, Work/Family Inc. Putnam’s photographs have appeared
in books and exhibitions, including "Horn of Want, Horn of War", a
one-woman show documenting the response of the inhabitants to famine and
war in Eritrea, and "My Mommy Drives A Wheelchair", an extended portrait
of parents with physical disabilities.
In 1989 she was a fellow at the Bunting Institute. She has written
feature stories, interviews, essays, book and photography reviews for
national magazines, newspapers, and arts journals.
Senior Associate, Production
An Emmy-award winning writer and producer for more than two decades, Mr.
Reisman has produced for commercial and public television, corporate
video, theatre and film. His national telecasts include the
Academy-Award nominated “Hollywood On Trial,” a compelling documentary
on the blacklist; “The Other Side of the Moon,” PBS’s 20th anniversary
of the lunar landing; and “PBS’s “AIDS Quarterly with Peter Jennings.”
For Boston’s WGBH-TV, one of PBS’s leading public television affiliates,
Mr. Reisman created “The Big Dig” series, focusing on the nation’s
largest public works project. While at WCVB, Boston’s ABC affiliate, Mr.
Reisman developed the nightly “Chronicle” newsmagazine, and produced a
series of one-hour prime-time specials.
Mr. Reisman recently produced a series of videos for Harvard Business
School, a 50th anniversary video for Brandeis University, and videos for
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the Massachusetts Audubon
Society.
Earlier, Mr. Reisman served as the executive editor of Boston After
Dark, which later became the Boston Phoenix. He has taught at Boston and
Brandeis University, and was President of the Massachusetts Media
Alliance, an association of arts and entertainment professionals.
Senior Associate, Capital
Development
Ms. Huron specializes in organizing new and reorganizing existing
fund-raising departments for rapid growth and expansion. With over 20
years’ experience as a fund-raising professional, Ms. Huron has assisted
a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including human services,
educational, and cultural institutions. She has managed campaigns and
served as development counsel for Emmanuel College, Massachusetts Easter
Seal Society, Boston Center for the Arts, Philadelphia Orchestra
Association, Drexel University, New Jersey Public Television, Handel &
Haydn Society, Boston Lyric Opera, and a number of smaller
organizations.
Ms. Huron’s core competency is major donor solicitation. Her expertise
includes resource analysis, strategic planning, staff recruitment and
leadership training. She has successfully implemented programs for
capital and endowment campaigns, prospect research and cultivation,
planned giving, corporate sponsorship, annual funding, and
grantsmanship. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of
the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.
Senior Associate, Major Gifts,
Capital Gifts,
Special Events, Annual Fund
Catherine Clark has more than two decades of experience in “cause,”
arts, legal, and medical non-profit organizations in the United States
and in Great Britain. She has broad experience in administration,
fund-raising, feasibility studies, Board development, solicitor
training, and conference and testimonial-dinner management. A regular
columnist for Boston-area newspapers for six years, she brings
significant writing skills to her development work.
Ms. Clark set up the first formal development office at Waltham Weston
Hospital, and has launched planned giving campaigns for three national
organizations. A staff accountant, she has a broad knowledge of
non-profit administration, tax laws, and the donor stewardship
responsibilities of charitable organizations.
For seven years, she was the full-time development director of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. Her consulting work in
the U.K. included developing the first-ever direct mail program for the
British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War the year they won the Nobel Peace Prize, and managing a
European conference in London for Council for a Livable World. She is
currently the U.S. fund-raising advisor to “Cambridge Quest,” a planned
science museum and conference center in Cambridge, England. She also is
the consultant development director for Greenwood Music Camp and capital
campaign director of Council for a Livable World Education Fund.
A semi-professional musician, she is keenly interested in new music and
in music education. She is development committee chairman of the Boston
Modern Orchestra Project. She was development director and business
manager of the Kodaly Center of America, a music teacher training
organization based in Newton, Massachusetts. She has acted as a mentor
for young orchestral musicians and currently sings with the Cambridge
Madrigal Singers and is violinist with the Ossia Trio.
Senior Associate, Advertising and Media Relations
Ms. DiBona, an award-winning advertising executive, has more than 25
years of advertising experience at local and national advertising
agencies, including BBDO, McCann Erickson, and Kenyon & Eckhardt
/Bozell. Her extensive media planning and buying responsibilities have
included working with such companies as Coca Cola, Southern New England
Telephone Company, Ocean Spray, King Arthur Flour, Mass Mutual Life
Insurance Company, American Express, Sodexho Marriott and Warburg Pincus
Mutual Funds.
Earlier, at The Gillette Company, Ms. DiBona helped establish the
Corporate Advertising Services Division and managed the advertising
firms that placed Gillette’s national media activity for nearly ten
years. She was chosen to attend the Middle Management Program at the
Simmons Graduate School.
She went on to become VP/Media Director at Kenyon & Eckhardt/Bozell,
where she implemented the agency’s national computerization of all
broadcast media activity and later was appointed Senior Account Manager
for the agency’s financial services accounts, including Bank of New
England and Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company. She was named Ad Person
of the Year in 1983 by the Advertising Club of Boston and was elected to
the New England Advertising Hall of fame in 1989.
With her two partners, Ms. DiBona established DiBona, Bornstein &
Random, Inc. in 1989 and was responsible for the agency’s media, account
services and administration functions. DB&R currently employs 26 people
and has capitalized billings of nearly $28 million.
Senior Associate, Investor
Relations
Ms. Gorman has specialized in financial communications and investor and
media relations for more than 20 years. As the senior public affairs
executive for The Stop & Shop Companies, Inc. and Bradlees, Inc., she
was responsible for creating and implementing corporate identity
programs specifically targeted toward the national business press and
Wall Street.
She has devised financial communication strategies for corporations
undertaking initial public offerings as well as rating-agency and credit
facility presentations. She has also traveled domestically and
internationally to orchestrate financial forums.
Associate, Marketing
Mr. Kaplan has developed marketing communications strategies for a wide
variety of sectors for more than 20 years, including retail, education,
professional services, real estate, business-to-business, consumer,
not-for-profit, foodservice, and high tech. Besides developing marketing
strategies, Mr. Kaplan has created and written copy for hundreds of
print, direct mail, radio, and Internet advertising campaigns. He has
directed television commercials, and written, arranged, and conducted
advertising jingles. Mr. Kaplan has conceived and produced dozens of
brochures and other collateral pieces. He coaches sales forces and
internal marketing departments in marketing advancement strategies.
Associate, Event Management
A specialist in high-tech public relations and event, conference and
meeting management, Ms. Kelly was a marketing executive for the Hewlett
Packard Company and for Prime Computer and Datapoint. She has organized
sales seminars, training forums, and product demonstrations. Earlier,
she was responsible for staff management, volunteer recruitment and
fundraising for the American Cancer Society, and was a Director for
Community Boating, Inc. of Boston. She is a Vice President of Public
Relations for Toastmasters’ International and a member of the Publicity
Club of New England.
Strategic
Communications
On message. On target.