Shirley Barr, Houston-based accredited public relations counselor, has worked with Houston, regional and national media for a diversified client base including Aetna Health Plans, American Express, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, California Pizza Kitchen, Chrysler Corp., Nalco Chemical, NKK, Japan's second largest steel manufacturer; TIRR (The Institute for Research & Rehabilitation), The Smithsonian Institute, and several prominent law firms.
Her clients have appeared on Larry King Live, CNN, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News and in every major Texas city on television news. They have been featured in AP and UPI wire stories, NEWSWEEK, FORBES, US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, USA TODAY, THE NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, DALLAS MORNING NEWS and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Ms. Barr has prepared clients for crisis with industry and topic-specific media training utilizing mock print and broadcast interviews to hone message points and provide a comfort-level for spotlight situations. She helps executives get in step with the media, cooperating with deadlines and being responsive. At the same time, Barr is guiding clients to appear in the most positive light with well-developed mission statements that can be reduced to sound bites for television news.
Barr's strategy is to provide media with creative ideas and professionally-written background materials that can result in major features in print and broadcast. However, her success is not measured by clippings, but in reaching client objectives. Those might be:
Achieving name recognition through a planned program of education & information
Developing awareness campaigns to change attitudes and actions
Creating one-on-one selling situations
Reaching target markets by crafting and communicating programs in formats they accept
The evaluation of Ms. Barr's programs frequently is marked in terms of passage or defeat of legislation; broadening the referral base of professional organizations; unit of sales; student and teacher recruitment and retention, or achieving similarly well-defined objectives.
A journalism graduate from the University of North Texas, Barr is a member of the Public Relations Society of America's Counselors Academy and has won numerous awards from her peers including PRSA Excaliber Awards and IABC Awards of Excellence for media relations and marketing communications.
Before establishing her own firm in late 1991, she was senior vice president of Churchill Group, one of Houston's largest public relations firms.
Philip Taggart, APR
Philip Taggart, Houston-based director and senior consultant for Shirleybarr Public Relations, has specialized in investor relations activities since 1964. He is the co-author of the book Taking Your Company Public, and has provided communications services for 61 initial public offerings, more than 200 other new issues, 210 mergers and acquisitions, 3,500 analyst meetings and the annual and quarterly reports for 75 of the corporate clients he has represented in the last 25 years. A distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa, he also has been a university instructor in investor relations at the University of Houston main campus and Clear Lake Campus.
Rickie Rosenberg, APR
Rosenberg, Houston-based senior associate, has worked on behalf of international, national and local clients since 1971. Her clients have included Aetna Health Plans, Exxon, General Electric, Greater Houston Builders Association, Hermann Hospital, Houston Chronicle, St Luke's Hospital, Texas Instruments, Uncle Ben's Rice and a mayoral candidate.
Rosenberg's senior counseling, crisis and media training background have prepared many executives to handle difficult situations and deliver their key messages to the public. She was called in as a full-time consultant by Exxon Company, U.S.A. to provide turnaround public affairs counsel and crisis communications on the Valdez oil spill when the company was finally ready to repair its reputation here and abroad. At Hermann, she improved the hospital's image following a major scandal and during the finalization of an indigent care agreement with the Texas Attorney General.
Rosenberg is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America. She has a bachelor of journalism degree, with a specialization in public relations, from the University of Texas at Austin.
Although Houston-based, Shirleybarr Public Relations has PR associates in every major city in Texas, in Atlanta, Chicago and New York City. For more information, email Shirley@shirleybarrpr.com or call 713-622-4747.
Shirleybarr Public Relations | 770 S. Post Oak Lane | Suite 690 | Houston, TX 77056