Claudia Brooks D'Avanzo is founder and
president of Creative Communications
Consultants, a marketing communications
and public relations agency started
in 1998 in Atlanta. With 20+ years of
experience, she's designed
award-winning programs in consumer marketing,
healthcare, hospitality,
travel/tourism, sports marketing, retailing,
business-to-business and
not-for-profit. She expanded the firm
in 1999 with Healthcomm, a healthcare
communications practice.
In 2008, as Creative Communications celebrated
its 10th anniversary,
D'Avanzo found herself wanting to do more--and
reach deeper--into the
community. She created Altruistics, a specialized
consulting practice
featuring marketing and management consulting
services for non-profits
offering "community-minded" rates
and select pro bono services. Her
husband, Michael D'Avanzo, an Auburn alumnus
with 20 years' experience in
international management and an M.B.A. from
Georgia State University, is
co-managing the new venture.
From 1992-1998,
D'Avanzo was senior vice president for Fleishman-Hillard
International Communications, part of
Omnicom. There she managed the
consumer marketing and healthcare practices
for the firm's Southeast
headquarters office. She was a senior
account manager for Manning,
Selvage & Lee for seven years prior
to F-H and began her career in public
affairs for Lockheed Martin.
Her expertise
covers strategic planning, program management,
marketing
communications, sales promotions, event
marketing, media relations, social
media campaigns, public education initiatives,
issues/crisis management, and
digital, print, broadcast design/production.
During her career, her work has
been honored with 10 Phoenix Awards from
the Public Relations Society of
America, four Gold/Silver Quill Awards
from the International Association of
Business Communicators and a President's
Citation for Private Sector
Initiatives.
A native of Marietta, Ga., she
received a bachelor's degree in speech
communications and journalism from Auburn
University and earned a master's
degree in English literature from Georgia
State University. She is currently
vice chair of the advisory committee to
Auburn University's Department of
Communication/Journalism and funds the
William T. Brooks Endowed
Scholarship in Public Relations at Auburn.
A horse-lover, skier (snow and water)
and soccer mom, she lives in the Morningside
area of Atlanta with her husband, Mike,
and their two children -- Arielle, a sophomore
at UGA majoring in journalism and public
relations, and Adrian, an 8th grader at
Inman Middle School.
E-mail: davanzo@creativecomminc.com
Nancy McCardel is a communications professional with 20 years of PR experience
in both corporate and agency settings. Her background includes consumer
marketing, employee communications, media relations, crisis communications,
special events and reputation management. McCardel and D'Avanzo have worked
together for more than 10 years. McCardel previously was a vice president
for Fleishman-Hillard International Communications and managed lifestyle
accounts for a wide variety of companies. Prior to joining the agency,
she was employee communications manager for Reynolds Metals Company, managing
communications for 30,000 employees worldwide, and for five years before
that, was the communications manager for Southwire Company. McCardel gained
her first agency experience with Cohn & Wolfe, a division of Burson-Marsteller,
and started her career working for Georgia-Pacific Corp. She is a 1984
graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree from the Grady College
of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her work has won more than 15 national,
state and local PR awards.
Lynn Brockman is a senior consultant to our firm, with close to 35 years’ experience in promotional marketing. She has handled numerous national and regional programs including project management work for The Coca-Cola Company, the Atlanta Cultural Olympiad for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, and global promotions for MasterCard International. Brockman started her career with Six Flags Over Georgia and later became senior vice president of Cohn & Wolfe, part of Burson-Marsteller. She graduated with a degree in marketing from Arkansas State University. An experienced scuba diver, she also owned a scuba diving shop on Grand Cayman Island, BWI, and says she does her best thinking under water.
A media consultant to Creative Communications, Charles Haddad was a journalist for 25 years. He works with us in helping clients to gain a deeper understanding of the media and prepare for media interaction and interviews. Haddad worked as an editor and writer at such news organizations as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Business Week. His coverage of companies included AOL Time Warner, BellSouth, CNN, Federal Express, Turner Broadcasting, UPS and WorldCom. He also wrote a weekly column about Apple and the Mac that became the most popular column at Business Week online. Now a journalism professor at Stony Brook University in New York, Haddad directed the Knight Fellowship at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a program that brings in journalists from around the world to work at the world's premier public health agency. A graduate of Harvard University and Sarah Lawrence College, Haddad has also written three children's novels, all published by Random House.
Jessica Karp graduated from the
University of Central Florida with a B.A.
in digital media with a specialization
in internet and interactive media. After
college she moved to Atlanta where she
has been busy doing web and graphic design.
When Jessica isn't working you’ll
probably find her zipping around in her
beloved Lotus Elise.
Jonathan Blackwell is one of our
go-to design guys. As owner of Graphic
Anthem, he provides a fresh perspective
when it comes to visual
communications for our clients' brands.
He graduated from Mississippi
College in Jackson, Miss., with a B.A. in
graphic design. He was named the
2008 Graphic Designer of the Year by the
American Advertising Federation of Jackson,
Miss. When he's not working (which is rare),
Blackwell can usually be found out running,
cooking, traveling and listening to, watching
and playing his music.
A media consultant to Creative Communications
Consultants, Eileen Drennen is an independent
writer and editor with 27 years of daily
newspaper experience. The last 22 were
at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
where
Drennen oversaw award-winning arts coverage,
managed teams of critics and
reporters and wrote arts and entertainment
features and reviews. She
reported on local communities during the
last three years as one of the
paper's first "mobile journalists" (have
laptop and camera; will travel). This
year she received an MFA in creative writing
from Queens University in
Charlotte, N.C. She has a bachelor's degree
in English Literature/Classics,with a
minor in Spanish, from Florida State University.
Marissa Cherson, assistant account manager, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida with a B.S. in public relations. An Atlanta native, she joined our team in 2007 to launch her PR career and quickly showed us her talents. Cherson previously held internships with Emory Healthcare, Edison Group and SPANX, Inc., where she gained experience in writing, promotions, media relations and event planning. At CCC, she’s a valuable member of our team, handling research, media relations and publicity, logistics planning, promotions, special events and account planning. In her free time, Cherson loves watching the Food Network (and attempting to cook from it), going to Gator games and traveling.
Kaitlyn Ranney, account coordinator, graduated
from Wake Forest University with a B.A.
in communication and minors in film studies
and psychology. A member of Phi Beta Kappa,
she completed part of her studies in Rome,
Italy, and of course is now a lifelong
Demon Deacon fan. Ranney started her career
working in sales and marketing for The
Walt Disney Company at the Walt Disney
World Resort (where she was even called
upon to skipper the Jungle Cruise!) and
later joined the marketing team of an
Atlanta-based hospital. On the weekends
she often works part-time as a brand ambassador
and promotions specialist for a variety
of products and events in the Atlanta
area. This Cleveland native moved to Atlanta
after the ’96 Olympics and loves
her newfound role as a Southerner. In
whatever free time she has, she’s
either riding her horse, Grant, planning
a traveling adventure, hunting down authentic
Italian pizza, going to the movies, or
strolling with her beloved dog, Sophie,
in her neighborhood of Virginia-Highland.
Meet our mascots. These Great Dane friends
occasionally visit the office where
they spend their time sleeping, sniffing,
eating and distracting the interns.
They are also part of our morale enhancement
program, make great watchdogs for those
late work-nights, and help keep any
unruly clients in line.
