Helen Mitternight has been with Vanguard for two years. She manages a government contract to promote children’s mental health and, as Associate Director for Project Management, helps guide Vanguard staff toward best practices in budgeting, managing workloads and timelines, and professional development.
Helen Mitternight, VC Associate Director for Project Management
Vanguard celebrated its 25th anniversary this year; in one word describe:
The PR industry in 1987: Relationship-based (flack to reporter)
The PR industry today: Relationship-based (brand to consumer)
The PR industry in 2037: Relationship-based (Message aggregator to consumer)
In one word describe:
Yourself: Imaginative
Your work style: Extreme laziness alternated with rare bursts of brilliance
Your legacy: Envelope-pushing
Finish the following sentences:
What excites me the most about the future of public relations is … the ability to translate the glut of information into words that make it useful and actionable.
To me, innovation is … something that springs from finding a way around “no.”
I knew I wanted to work in public relations when … I stumbled into it from journalism but found I liked losing the objectivity of a reporter.
The communicator who inspires me is … Will Rogers. He knew that communicating is all about simplicity and storytelling.
My advice for future communicators for social change is … always ask, “Why not?”
If I didn’t work in public relations I would … run an old-fashioned literary salon, dogs welcome.
I want to be remembered at Vanguard for … building a team that is ferocious about quality but doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Most people at Vanguard don’t know this, but I … try to do something that scares and challenges me as often as possible… next week it’s a trapeze lesson!
