Cal Poly Public Affairs Advisory Council

The Cal Poly Public Affairs Office is fortunate to have the advice and guidance of its own Public Affairs Advisory Council. The volunteer council includes alumni and friends prominent in the fields of public relations, publishing, marketing and university relations. The group currently meets once each year to advise the director and staff. Members are asked to give feedback and guidance periodically throughout the year as needed.

The 2007 Cal Poly Public Affairs Advisory Council

Julia Aguilar
San Luis Personnel Services
Julie Aguilar has been co-owner of San Luis Personnel Services since 1991. She has been actively involved in the management of the company since September 2004, after she retired as general manager of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Before retiring, she spent 17 years with the E.W. Scripps Company during her 22-year newspaper career.

She was the publisher of The Tribune from 1990-1998 when it was the Telegram-Tribune and owned by Scripps. She has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. 

Colleen Bentley, Director of Special Projects
CSU Chancellor’s Office
Colleen Bentley is the director of special projects for The California State University Office of the Chancellor. Prior to that appointment, she spent 10 years as the director of public affairs for the Chancellor’s Office. She has been with the Chancellor’s Office since 1990, previously serving as the media relations manager. As public affairs director, she focused on external communications, primarily on media relations and public relations.

She was the chief spokesperson for the Chancellor and the CSU Board of Trustees, and she worked closely with the 23 CSU campus presidents. In her new position, she works with the Chancellor and CSU presidents on special projects. Previously, she was the associate director of public information for the University of California, Irvine. Prior to that, she was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Her bachelor’s degree is from California State University, Long Beach, and she did her graduate work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Marty Claus, Consultant
Leading Edge Associates
Marty Claus is a consultant specializing in training and communications for Leading Edge Associates, a management consulting firm based in San Jose. Marty retired from Knight Ridder, where she was vice president of news from 1993 until 2000. She joined Knight Ridder in 1977 at the Detroit Free Press, where she held various editing positions from 1977 to 1992, including managing editor of business and features.

From 1970 to 1977, she held various writing and editing jobs at the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, a Gannett newspaper. She served as a juror for the 1994 and 1995 Pulitzer prizes and is among the 10 journalists initially inducted into the Features Hall of Fame, established in 1997 by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. She serves on the Advisory Board for Opinion Studies, a public-opinion research firm in San Luis Obispo. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University Honors College.

Tim Dougherty, Communications Manager
Music Academy of the West
Tim Dougherty is the communications manager for the Music Academy of the West, one of nation’s premier training grounds for pre-professional musicians. Previously, he held management and senior editing positions at Latin Business Magazine and Hispanic Business Magazine, in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, respectively, before serving as interim publications coordinator in the Public Affairs Office at Cal Poly. He has also served as a publicist and senior editor in the Office of Public Affairs at the University of California, Santa Barbara and worked as an editor and reporter at several Southern California daily and weekly newspapers.  Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Santa Barbara and is working on a master’s in humanities at Cal State, Dominguez Hills.

Mary Gresch, Consultant
Mary Gresch is a national leader in brand marketing, communication strategy, and creative development for colleges and universities. The former associate vice president for strategic communications and marketing at Washington State University, she serves as a consultant to universities nationally on brand strategy, campaign communications, and integrated marketing communications.

At WSU, Gresch led the University’s highly effective and nationally recognized brand development and integrated marketing efforts for seven years. She was promoted to that position after serving as director of communications for the WSU Foundation, where she led the award-winning Campaign WSU communications and creative strategy. Her 20-year career has included all aspects of leadership and management in brand development and communications, including working with institutional leadership on brand strategy, from research through positioning; message development, execution, and integration; developing institutional marketing and campaign communication plans; staff development; organizational structure; creative strategy and execution in all media; media relations; advertising and media placements, and budget management. An active member of CASE, Mary’s strategic and creative work has won numerous awards. She has presented at CASE conferences regionally and nationally -- as well as at various colleges and universities -- on brand marketing, campaign communications, crisis communications, and on messaging and writing for development – the core of her career, which began with a degree in journalism from Cal Poly and writing for newspapers and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as a development coordinator.

Tara Hazarian, Public Affairs Manager
Port of Tacoma, Washington
Tara Hazarian is the public affairs manager for the Port of Tacoma, Wash. Hazarian focuses on several key areas of Port communications, including economic development, transportation and environmental issues. Before joining the Port of Tacoma, Hazarian was an associate with EnviroIssues, providing community outreach, facilitation and strategic communications consulting for clients such as the Washington Department of Transportation, Pierce County and Sound Transit. Prior EnviroIssues, she led community outreach, media relations, publications, public presentations and special events for the City of Tacoma's major projects, including the $94 million Superfund cleanup of the Thea Foss Waterway. She also supervised the city's six-member Environmental Services Communications and Education Team.

Earlier, Hazarian headed her own successful marketing communications business with an emphasis on strategic writing and Web-based communications. Her clients included the City of Tacoma, Regence BlueShield, the Port of Tacoma, Pierce Transit, Metro Parks of Tacoma, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. She began her career as a journalist with The Telegram-Tribune in San Luis Obispo, after graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism from Cal Poly.

Terry Lightfoot, Public Affairs director
Kaiser Permanente - Central Valley
Terry Lightfoot has nearly 15 years of experience in journalism and public affairs. He currently serves as the public affairs director for Kaiser Permanente in the Central Valley, which consists of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, where he oversees media relations, community and government relations, corporate communications and community benefit programs. He has also served as the senior media relations representative for Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California Regional Office, where he coordinated and implemented the media relations strategy involving workforce development, labor relations and bargaining.

In addition to his work with Kaiser, Lightfoot has worked as the director of media relations and public affairs for Catholic Healthcare West in their corporate headquarters in San Francisco. Prior to entering the health care communications field, he served as the director of outreach communications at the University of California Office of the President. Lightfoot began his career in journalism as a reporter and editor for the Modesto Bee from 1990 to1995. He covered higher education and local and state politics. He graduated from Cal Poly with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Brigid McGrath Massie
Business Consultant, Author, Speaker

The parent of two recent Cal Poly graduates, Brigid McGrath Massie is an award-winning business consultant, author and professional speaker. She has delivered thousands of keynote speeches at management seminars throughout the United States, focusing on enhancing personal effectiveness, leadership skills, management abilities, sales skills and customer service. Brigid’s achievements earned her the first-ever designation as Business Woman of the Year from the Salinas Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Athena Award for Outstanding Women in Business from the Oldsmobile Corporation. She was also named One of the Five Women In Northern California Who Make a Difference.  She has taught many courses at colleges and universities and holds both a master's degree of business administration and a master's degree in social work. Brigid is the author of two nationally distributed books, “What Do They Say When You Leave the Room” and “Selling for People Who Hate to Sell.” Currently, she is working on her third book whose working title is “Island of Excellence.”

Alison McNeill, Associate
FutureWorks
Alison McNeill is an associate at FutureWorks, a San-Jose-based public relations firm that specializes in high-tech start-up companies. She reports for two video blogs -- PR2.0 and bub.blicio.us -- covering Web 2.0 events as well as technology in the Bay Area and beyond. Her freelance work includes serving as celebrity editor for a Denver beauty magazine and promoting high profile clients including Hooman Khalili, a DJ for San Francisco's No. 1 morning radio show. She graduated from Cal Poly in 2006 with a degree in journalism and an emphasis on broadcasting. While attending Cal Poly, she completed an internship at KCOY-TV in Santa Maria, reported for CPTV, provided voice talent for Cal Poly public service announcements, and reported on Cal Poly events for 1440 AM KHUL.

Jill Perry, Media Relations Director
California Institute of Technology
As media relations director for the private, prestigious California Institute of Technology, Perry manages a staff of five. Her office has been responsible for 6,559 national and international media placements over the past year. During her tenure as media relations director, she has spearheaded an award-winning $500,000 video project with 30 interviews, hosted an award-winning “Earthquakes 101” program to teach journalists about earthquakes and held numerous press conferences.

Prior to joining Caltech in 1999, she served as public relations director of Mount St. Mary’s College from 1996-1999 and as media relations manager at Loyola Marymount University from 1990-1996. She began her career as a journalist, working for the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle, the Camarillo Daily News and the Santa Maria Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Cal Poly and a master's in business administration from Loyola Marymount.

Douglas J. Swanson, Associate Professor
Journalism Department, Cal Poly College of Liberal Arts
Doug Swanson joined Cal Poly in September, 2006 as the Journalism Department’s only full-time faculty member in public relations. Swanson is the faculty advisor to the Cal Poly Public Relations Student Society of America chapter and also is the faculty advisor to Central Coast PRspectives, the student-run public relations firm. From 2000 to 2006, Swanson taught in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.  He was faculty advisor to the UWL PRSSA chapter and was recognized for ‘high merit’ by the department in 2002 and 2003. During his last two years at UW-L, he served as founding director of the university’s Academic Advising Center. The AAC was honored by the Public Relations Society of America (Madison Chapter) for “Best Consumer Campaign Launch and Development” in Wisconsin in 2005.

Swanson previously taught at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he held the endowed chair in journalism and was the student newspaper advisor. He taught speech and broadcast courses at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. and at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M.  He has more than 20 years of professional experience in broadcasting, print journalism, public relations and related fields. He earned his Ed.D at Oklahoma State University in 1999 and his PRSA accreditation in 2003.

Donna J. Taylor, Managing Editor, Kaiser Permanente
Member and Marketing Communications, Oakland
Donna Taylor is the managing editor for Kaiser Permanente’s Member and Marketing Communications Department, based in Oakland. She also oversees the legal and regulatory review team for KP’s Member and Marketing Communications. She has 13 years of experience in health care publishing. She was previously managing editor of California Physician magazine, the California Medical Association’s publication for doctors. Currently, she’s managing editor at Kaiser Permanente’s California region, producing the quarterly Partners in Health member newsletter since 1998. Partners in Health has received awards from the International Association of Business Communicators and the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Cal Poly.

Daryl Teshima, Vice President, Strategic Discovery
Daryl Teshima is an attorney and vice president of Strategic Discovery, a legal technology company that helps law firms and corporations create and implement strategic responses to the challenges of electronic discovery and records retention.  Prior to working in legal technology, Teshima served as editor-in-chief of Law Office Computing and Legal Assistant Today magazines, blending his undergraduate experience in journalism and experience as a practicing lawyer. He also served as the editor of the California State Bar's Bottom Line newsletter and is a monthly technology columnist for "Los Angeles Lawyer" magazine.

He is a recognized speaker and author on legal technology issues. Teshima earned his law degree from USC in 1989 and started his law career with the Los Angeles firm of Richards, Watson, & Gershon, specializing in business and public finance law. Prior to joining Strategic Discovery, he worked as director of practice systems for the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he was responsible for the implementation of the firm’s technology. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Cal Poly and is a former editor of The Mustang Daily. 

Jon Weiner, Executive Director, Public Relations and Marketing
University of Southern California, Health Sciences Campus
Jon Weiner leads the department's media relations team, implementing an aggressive media relations program that raises the visibility of USC Health Sciences programs in the local, regional and national news media. Specific duties involve strategies to keep up with priority news opportunities, tracking media placements and evaluating results, and writing and editing substantive news releases and other materials. Jon handles crisis communications and works with his staff to respond to media calls from reporters looking for health sciences experts. Jon also works with public relations staff at affiliate hospitals, seizing opportunities for effective collaboration. In the absence of the associate vice president, Jon gives direction to departmental staff. Jon joined the HSC Public Relations and Marketing Office in 2000 as media relations manager. In 2003 he was named director, followed by his promotion to executive director in 2005. Jon received his bachelor's degree from UC Davis in international relations and his master’s degree in journalism from USC. Prior to joining the USC staff, Jon worked 10 years in the broadcast news industry as a television news producer and assignment editor for CBS News in Miami and at several CBS affiliates around the country.