Danielle Brigida
Digital Marketing Manager
National Wildlife Federation
Headquarters - Reston, VA
brigidad@nwf.org
Danielle Brigida works as the Digital Marketing Manager for the National Wildlife Federation. She actively engages a wide range of constituents using a mixture of online tools and social networking sites. An early adopter of social media with creative, engaging campaigns, Danielle has been recognized as: 10 Green Women We Love by Greenopia; one of the 75 Environmentalists to follow by Mashable; Top 50 green people to follow on Twitter by Greenopolis; A featured Changemaker by Change.org; A Measurement Maven of the Month by Katie Paine.
Danielle is a sought after speaker with speaking roles at South by Southwest (SXSW), Nonprofit Technology Conference, Netroots Nation, and IPR Measurement Summit conferences and conducting social media webinars for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, Bizsummit, TechSoup and Fundraising Success Magazine. Additionally, Danielle has been interviewed about her social media successes by USA Today, The Nonprofit Times, Fast Company, Washington Post, Mashable, GreenTalk Radio, Fundraising Success Magazine, Beth's Blog and several other popular blogs.
By tracking emerging trends and measuring impact, she consistently finds the most effective ways to drive traffic to NWF's campaigns.
Danielle graduated from Christopher Newport University with a B.A. in Technical Writing with minors in Biology and Communications.
Jessica A. Faller
Public Affairs Specialist
United States Navy
jessica.faller@navy.mil
Jessica Faller is the daughter of a Naval officer and was raised in various cities across the United States. She attended The Pennsylvania State University and graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Faller began her career at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., supporting the senior White House correspondent. Following her tenure at ABC News, she worked for The Advisory Board Company, where she focused on marketing and business development for healthcare corporations.
In March 2010, Faller accepted a position as a public affairs specialist with the Navy Office of Information. During her time in Navy public affairs, she has fulfilled assignments with Defense Media Activity, Navy Visual News Service, Navy Office of Community Outreach, and a special assignment with the public affairs staff for the chief of naval operations.
She completed the Public Affairs Qualification Course at Defense Information School in Fort Meade, Md. in March 2011. She is currently supporting the emerging media and communication integration department at the Navy Office of Information in Washington, where she is focused on aligning the Navy’s voice using social media.
Her awards and recognition include a Letter of Commendation from Defense Media Activity, Anacostia (June 2010) and the Gannett Foundation National Multimedia Award (May 2008).
Jayson Jackson
Associate Director, Online Communications
Penn State Alumni Association
Jackson, a 1999 Penn State graduate, joined the Penn State Alumni Association in March 2005. Since joining the Strategic Communications staff, he has focused on enhancing the Alumni Association's online presence to facilitate connections with alums and promote events and activities. With the constant technology changes, Jackson and his team of two are able to adapt to keep the Alumni Association current with new and existing mediums through research and experimentation. The online team works daily with the website, social media and broadcast e-mails to help alumni stay connected to each other and the University.
Jackson was a student-athlete at Penn State. He was a member of Penn State’s varsity track and field and cross country teams and was named co-captain of both squads as a senior. He also is a founding partner of Diversity in Aquatics, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose goal is to decrease the rate of drowning worldwide by helping to create, promote and support programs in the US and abroad.
Jeffrey Kirchick
Universities & Independent Schools Specialist
SCVNGR
Twitter: @jeffreykirchick
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkirchick
Website: http://www.scvngr.com
Jeff Kirchick is a universitites and independent schools specialist at SCVNGR, a Google-funded, geo-social networking and gaming platform in Cambridge, Mass. In his role at SCVNGR, Kirchick works with the company's 350+ university clients to develop location-based games and mobile strategies with SCVNGR's platform. He is responsible for bringing new clients to the platform and helping to fuel brand, nonprofit and media partnerships to generate buzz and attention toward what universities can do with SCVNGR.
A graduate of The Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, Mass, Kirchick also saw opportunities for SCVNGR at independent schools and created a new vertical, immediately recruiting schools such as Phillips Exeter Academy, Phillips Academy-Andover, The Roxbury Latin School, Noble & Greenough School, and others to adopt the platform for recruiting, fundraising and other purposes.
He graduated from Princeton University in June 2010 with a bachelor's degree in English and certificates in creative writing and French.
Lt. Lesley Lykins
United States Navy
Director, Emerging Media Integration
lesley.lykins@navy.mil
Lieutenant Lesley Lykins was raised on a farm in Minerva, Ohio, and chose to follow her father’s lead by serving in the United States Navy. She was commissioned as an officer in the Navy in 2001 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at Boston University.
She started her career as a surface warfare officer on Spruance Class destroyers based in San Diego, Calif. After three years she transferred to the Public Affairs Community and has served at commands including the Maritime Force Protection Command, now Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, as the strike group public affairs officer for the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group and the deputy public affairs officer at the Navy Office of Information in New York City.
Most recently she has been assigned as the Director of Emerging Media Integration at the Department of the Navy Office of Information and she now spends a great deal of time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites analyzing coverage of the Navy in social media forums as well as advising commands on how best to use social media to connect with their Sailors, families and fans.
She is a wife and the mother of two young children.
Anne Miller
Freelance writer and Front Page producer for Yahoo.com
Miller started in the newspaper business writing obituaries for her local paper at age 17. By 20, she'd sold her first freelance stories to the Washington Jewish Week and UWire, a national news service for college students, and within two years penned stories for the Baltimore Sun from Finland.
After almost a decade of working for daily newspapers in Texas and New York, Anne earned a graduate degree in web-based communications. She spent 18 months with AOL News, learning the intricacies of producing headlines for one of the world's largest Internet portals. In January 2010 she began freelancing full-time. Miller is currently a Front Page producer for Yahoo.com, vetting blogs and news stories, writing headlines, cutting photos, and helping to ensure quality control over an Internet portal that sees more than half-a-billion viewers a month.
Miller's most recent articles have run in The Wall Street Journal's local real estate section, the Smithsonian Magazine online, The Washington Post and the Binghamton University Research Magazine — most of them evolving from cold pitches to unknown editors. Her corporate clients have included the HR arm of the Episcopal Church (web content and information architecture) and Candice Bennett and Associates (monthly newsletter articles and press releases).
Miller lives the writer cliche in a brownstone in Brooklyn, with a dog, a husband and a home office awash in too many story ideas and not enough time.
Stephanie Petulla
Associate Director, athletic communications
Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics
sam252@psu.edu
A communications professional in Division I athletics for more than 10 years, Stephanie Petulla is currently the associate director of athletic communications for Penn State. Petulla is entering her eighth year in a full-time capacity with the department after serving as the assistant director of athletic communications at the University of Maryland.
At Maryland, Petulla worked with the Terrapins’ National Championship women’s lacrosse squad as well as the women’s basketball and men’s soccer teams while also providing support to the 2002 national champion men’s basketball squad. A 1999 Penn State graduate from the College of Communications, Petulla returned to her alma mater in 2003, working with the perennial powerhouse women’s soccer team as well as the softball team before transitioning into a larger role with the department’s digital media efforts. She currently oversees the content efforts for GoPSUsports.com, the Official Athletic Site for Penn State’s Intercollegiate Athletics Department, and also leads the department’s efforts with social media. Currently, the department’s Facebook page has more than 147,500 likes while the main athletics Twitter account has more than 4,800 followers.
Geoff Rushton
Assistant Manager, Penn State Department of Public Information
University Relations
grushton@psu.edu
Geoff Rushton is assistant manager of the news bureau in Penn State’s Department of Public Information, University Relations. He serves as a University spokesman, staff writer for Penn State Live, the University’s official news source, and an editor of Penn State Newswires. He also helps to manage and administer official University-branded social media, particularly on Facebook and Twitter. Rushton’s work with Penn State social media includes the planning and deployment of content across platforms and responding to user questions and comments. Rushton helped launch Penn State's social media presence on Facebook in 2009 and since that time, the site has grown to more than 200,000 fans.
An award-winning freelance writer, he worked as a daily newspaper and magazine reporter and editor before joining Penn State in 2004. He is a 2001 journalism graduate from Penn State’s College of Communications.
Mary Wirth
Director, College Relations and Communications
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences
mfw10@psu.edu
Mary Wirth is currently serving as the director of College Relations and Communications for the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. The office is a component of the dean’s office that manages the college’s relationships and strategic communications with external audiences – with a focus on alumni, industry and legislators as well as future students − and covers all three mission areas of the college including education, research and extension.
The communications component includes a team of designers, writers, editors, photography, web and creative specialists that are responsible for a variety of communication strategies including the college website and social media, Extension and research publications, the college magazine, media releases as well as student recruitment publications and promotional pieces. The group also oversees the college branding efforts.
Wirth played a leadership role in the development and implementation of the college’s Think Again marketing campaign that has contributed to 5 years of significant increases in student enrollment in the college. She also directs the college office of Conferences and Short Courses, a continuing education support unit for the college, and she is the executive director of an agricultural industry advisory/advocacy group that works to develop mutually beneficial relationships with college stakeholders that leads to support for the college.
Before accepting this position Wirth worked in public relations and government affairs at both the state and federal levels on forestry issues for more than a decade, has extensive experience in natural resource issues, and served on both congressional and gubernatorial advisory committees on forestry issues.
She is a graduate of the Penn State College of Ag Sciences.
