As the founder and principal of Emily Whitfield Communications, Emily has more than 20 years of experience in media relations, strategic planning, issue advocacy, and crisis communications. She has worked with everyone from small nonprofits trying to be heard in a crowded media environment to charitable foundations seeking to boost their grantees’ communications skills, to large nonprofits and PR agencies needing someone to engage top-level journalists about complex and controversial issues.
The “Dot Org” Approach
Emily chose the “.org” designation for her Web site to signal her affinity for the needs of the advocacy community. Emily combines a sophisticated grasp of branding and messaging in today’s complex media environment with an appreciation for what drives nonprofit organizations. “I have never met an advocate who lacked passion for his or her cause,” she says. “But sometimes organizations lack the tools to communicate that passion effectively — to the media, to their funders, and to the world at large. That’s where I can help.”
It helps to be connected, too. Emily has an extensive Rolodex of media contacts, relationships with a wide range of nonprofits, and access to a roster of talented pollsters, web designers, ad agencies, and management consultants to meet your needs.
A Passion for Justice, A Witness to History
Emily worked at the American Civil Liberties Union — the nation’s oldest and largest civil liberties organization — from 1996 to 2007, initially as Deputy Director of Media Relations, and from 1998 onward as Director of Media Relations. In that role, she directed a national team that provided professional support to the ACLU’s leaders, legal department and 50-plus state affiliates. Under Emily’s leadership, the ACLU’s media relations work garnered awards from the Public Relations Society of America and Women Executives in Public Relations.
At ACLU headquarters in New York, Emily was involved in some of the most significant news events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries - from the Supreme Court battle over online free speech to the Columbine massacre to the tragic events of September 11. The issue of U.S. involvement in torture is particularly important to her.
Emily represented the ACLU as a spokesperson at major news conferences and events around the world. She has been interviewed by virtually every major news outlet in the United States, including The New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, Fortune, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and by industry papers such as PR Week. She even had the dubious honor of being mentioned by name in insulting terms (twice) by FOX News’ resident right-wing hypocrite, Bill O’Reilly.
In a personal and professional career highlight, Emily had a small role in a graphic comic by renowned artist and journalist Joe Sacco about two courageous Iraqis who came to Washington to file a torture lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld.
Emily can be seen standing behind Thahe and Sherzad in Lafayette Park, talking on the phone.
Before working for the ACLU, Emily was a senior account executive in the public affairs division of M Booth & Associates, an award-winning PR agency in New York, where her clients included the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Bernard Hodes Advertising (Omnicom) and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
Emily received a bachelor’s degree in journalism (magna cum laude) from New York University. While finishing her degree, she worked full-time as a program assistant at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now known as Human Rights First). She was also an intern for the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and a reporter for FAIR’s magazine, Extra!.
Emily is a native New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn.
