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Congratulations to McKinney & Associates for Twenty Years of “Public Relations with a Conscience”
NCADP congratulates the public relations firm McKinney & Associates (formerly McKinney & McDowell Associates) on its 20th anniversary. For two decades, the firm has helped give a voice to the concerns of those struggling for social justice, labor, government and international organizations. Understanding the power that media relations can offer to those often left out of political discourse, McKinney & Associates has helped level the playing field for the disenfranchised, the unpopular and those representing minority viewpoints and concerns.
Former journalists Gwen McKinney and Leila McDowell launched McKinney & McDowell Associates in October 1990. Their office was first located in the Gingras Ecumenical Center next to St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Center was also the first home of the newly relocated National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and so the first seeds of collaboration and mutual respect and admiration were formed.
From those early days, the firm grew to become the renowned and respected public relations entity it is today.
McKinney & Associates’ early projects included work with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and promotion of its post-apartheid government under its first black President, Nelson Mandela. It also managed the communications campaign that promoted the first conference by people of color concerning environmental justice, and a campaign supporting a coalition of civil rights organizations for renewal of the federal Civil Rights Act. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and NCADP are among the McKinney & Associates clients who have benefited so greatly from the firm’s talents. McKinney & Associates has a long history and tradition of providing strategic communication work on capital punishment, including countless hours of pro bono service. NCADP honored the firm in 2006 with its Outstanding Public Service Award during its annual Awards Dinner.
In its 20-year existence, McKinney & Associates has remained committed to its mission: To provide the individuals and organizations it serves with competent, comprehensive and creative communications as a tool to engage public opinion and impact on public policy. McKinney & Associates truly exemplifies “Public Relations with a Conscience.” Congratulations and thank you!
