San Diego Chapter

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AFP San Diego Chapter
Workshop and Lunch Meeting
Friday, May 6, 2005

WORKSHOP (8:30 – 11:00am)

Before Your Donors Run Away:
Using Communications to Create Trust in a Crisis
Gayle Falkenthal, President, Falcon Valley Group
Cathy Sang, Development & Communications Consultant

Learn from two of San Diego’s leading crisis communications pro’s how you, as a development professional, can proactively use communications to have a positive effect on potential crisis situations in your organization. Discover how you can protect and maintain critical relationships for your organization by carefully defining and planning for a variety of potential crises. Examine the wide variety of tools and tactics available to help you turn around negative situations.

LUNCH PROGRAM -- PANEL DISCUSSION (11:30 – 1:30pm)
Get to Know Us Before You Need Us: Working with the Media
Dorrine Mendoza, KNSD Ch. 7
J. Stryker Meyer, North County Times
Robert Hawkins, SignOnSanDiego.com
Wendy Urushima-Simmons, News10
Moderator: Gayle Falkenthal, President, Falcon Valley Group

The media can be your friend or your worst nightmare during a crisis. Learn from some of San Diego’s leading journalists what you can do today to help your organization have a successful partnership with them.

BIOS

Gayle Falkenthal
A veteran communicator with two decades of experience, Gayle Falkenthal established her reputation as a top communications professional first as a broadcast editor and producer, then moved into the field of public relations.

Gayle established her own public relations consulting practice, the Falcon Valley Group, in 2004. Prior to that, Gayle worked as Director of Communications for the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross and Director of Public Affairs for the San Diego County District Attorney’s office. She’s also worked with the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, San Diego County Water Authority, and served as press secretary to then-City Councilmember Dick Murphy, now Mayor of San Diego.

Prior to her career in public relations, Gayle was an award-winning broadcast news and talk show producer, writer and editor with KOGO-AM Radio, KPBS Radio, and KFMB Channel 8. She holds a master’s degree in mass communication and a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications & film, both from San Diego State University.

Gayle is the past president and current board member of the San Diego Press Club, the largest professional association for communicators in San Diego; a board member of the Public Relations Society of America (San Diego Chapter); Vice President of the KCR Radio Alumni Association at San Diego State University; and serves as a volunteer public relations representative for the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to breaking the epidemic of youth violence.

Cathy Sang
Cathy Sang is a freelance consultant who offers a unique combination of development and communications expertise to her various clients. A former corporate communications executive with Fortune 100 companies such as Texas Instruments and EDS, over the past few years she has immersed herself in nonprofit development in San Diego. While with both Texas Instruments and EDS, Cathy spent a number of years responsible for crisis communications, handling a variety of situations, including the sudden death of a CEO, fires, shootings, plant closures and executive management changes. Currently, she is a consultant with the NTC Foundation, assisting with all aspects of fundraising for the organization’s $125 million campaign to establish NTC Promenade: a new arts, culture, science and technology center in Point Loma. Cathy has earned a Certificate in Fund Raising from UCSD Extension and serves on the boards of the San Diego Council of the Navy League (Vice President Development and Communications) and the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Communications Chair). For a number of years, she has served as the lead volunteer spokesperson during disasters for the American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter, and co-led the Chapter’s communications response during the October 2003 wildfires.

Dorrine Mendoza
Dorrine Mendoza has been News Director for KNSD Ch. 7 in San Diego since 2000, responsible for assigning daily news coverage and handling logistics of up to 12 news crews at this NBC owned and operated station. In addition to planning and executing coverage for major stories and events, she gathers and researches story ideas through beat calls and monitoring of fire/police radios, wire services, newspapers and magazines. Prior to joining KNSD, Dorrine has been a journalist covering a wide variety of beats with The Daily Californian, The Arizona Daily Sun, The San Diego-Union Tribune and The North County Entertainer. She earned a degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

J. Stryker Meyer
John Stryker Meyer is Community News Editor and Columnist with the North County Times, which he joined in 1993. Prior to that, he spent almost twenty years as a journalist with the San Diego Union Tribune, the San Diego Union, and the Trenton Times. A graduate of Trenton State College, he and his family live in Oceanside.

Robert Hawkins
Robert J. Hawkins is a morning news editor for SignonSanDiego.com, working with a team of eight veteran journalists. Starting as an entertainment editor, he moved to hard news to assist the staff in covering the September 11th terrorist attacks. He also manages a pair of special projects producers who maintain editorial content on specialized topics such as Eldercare, Homes, Travel and Communities. In his 30-year journalism career, he has written for such papers as the weekly Narragansett (RI) Times, The Day in New London, CT, and The San Diego Tribune. Hawkins graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and urban studies.

Wendy Urushima-Simmons
Wendy Urushima-Simmons is the Community and Media Marketing Manager at 10News. Through her position she is directly involved with marketing, branding, pubic relations and community affairs for the station.

Urushima-Simmons often wears many hats, from planning large-scale station events, to buying outside media during the broadcast “sweeps” months. What she enjoys most about her job however, is her involvement with the community and overseeing all of the station’s community affairs projects such as The Children’s 10Mobile, The 10Leadership Award, 10Toy Drive and First 5 For Kids. She is responsible for spearheading station “Help-A-Thons” which have raised awareness, funds and in-kind donations for various non-profit organizations. She was also a key player in the station’s October 2003 fundraiser, Firestorm Relief 2003, which raised nearly $2.3 million dollars in cash and in-kind donations for victims of San Diego’s wildfires.

Urushima-Simmons currently serves on the scholarship committee for The San Diego Foundation. She is the Past President of the Board for Girls Incorporated of North San Diego County, the Past President of the Board for the Asian Business Association, and currently serves on the Asian Business Association Advisory Board, as well as President of the Board of the Asian Business Association Foundation. She also serves on the Women’s, Samaritan, and Fine Arts Ministries at the Church at Rancho Bernardo. She’s a certified consultant (Trustee Educator) for Trustee Leadership Development, consulting with nonprofit boards across the nation. Urushima-Simmons is a 1998 graduate of LEAD San Diego, an issues-based leadership program for community-oriented individuals in the San Diego region.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Urushima-Simmons attended the University of California at San Diego where she earned a bachelors degree in Communications. Wendy and her daughter Reiko live in North San Diego County.

Chapter Orientation Meeting

Join us at our monthly Chapter Orientation to see what our chapter is all about! After a brief presentation, AFPSD Board Members will answer your questions. The orientation is open to anyone wanting to learn more about our local chapter. This meeting is held just prior to every Chapter Meeting. Please RSVP to the AFPSD office.