Craig McDaniel, APR

McDaniel Marketing Communications

P.O. Box 191411

Dallas, TX 75219

214-914-4261

CraigMcDanielAPR@gmail.com

Craig McDaniel, APR, has built a 25-year career in public relations and journalism, developing creative programs to help corporations, nonprofits and government agencies achieve their business and service goals.

Before becoming an independent practitioner he managed account teams at one of the Southwest’s largest full-service public relations agencies, focusing on clients in hospitality, healthcare, finance, architecture, construction, real estate, technology, luxury retail and wholesale distribution. Cool in a crisis, he has handled communications responsibilities during natural disasters, hostile business events, humanitarian relief, air crashes, fatal workplace accidents and the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Craig is a decorated veteran, attending U.S. Air Force pilot training and serving as a public affairs officer in the United States and on assignment in Europe and the Middle East. He was the public affairs advisor at the Canadian Consulate General in Dallas dealing with the pre-NAFTA bilateral free-trade agreement and issues ranging from energy, foreign investment and natural resources to the environment, tourism and immigration.

He had worldwide responsibilities as marketing and communications director of Young Presidents’ Organization, an international educational organization of chief executive officers. He was an editor at the Dallas Times Herald and other newspapers, and is one of only 5,000 accredited public relations professionals, a designation earned from the Public Relations Society of America in 1990.

Leadership in neighborhoods and on city of Dallas advisory boards for housing finance and the arts lead to Craig’s service for two terms (1993-1997) on the Dallas City Council where he was chairman of the council’s Legislative Affairs Committee and its Arts, Education and Libraries Committee. He was active on other committees dealing with transportation, telecommunications, finance, and women and minority owned business. He represented Dallas on the Regional Transportation Council and at the National League of Cities and Texas Municipal League.

Craig serves on the boards the Dallas Parks Foundation, Oak Lawn Library Friends and VA Medical Center of North Texas (advisory board). He was formerly a director for the Resource Center of Dallas – the largest AIDS service organization in the state – the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Theater Center and the Downtown Improvement District.

He earned political science and journalism degrees from the University of Arkansas, and is a graduate of the Defense Information School.

Creative Approaches –– Good Works

• Craig developed a catchy idea that helped Canyon Café restaurants gain recognition and goodwill in new markets. With money raised at openings and working with organizations that serve at-risk youth, hundreds of children participated in the company’s “Canyon Kid’s” program. Groups of mostly inner-city youths experienced the Grand Canyon, where they attended a weeklong environmental education camp tailored for them. The restaurant company also invested in capital projects at the national park through a nonprofit “friends of” foundation.

• Craig was the account supervisor for “Shots Across Texas,” the Texas Department of Health’s childhood immunization public awareness campaign that helped raise significantly the state’s dead-last rank (even below Uganda’s) in immunization rates to 39th in the United States.

• He orchestrated the simultaneous release in Dallas and Washington of an important study sponsored by the Partnership for Arts, Culture and Education that demonstrated improved academic achievement among students whose teachers used the arts as teaching methods for traditional classroom subjects.

• Aviation consultants were impressed with his plan to gain city and federal approval of the Love Field Master Plan. The airport’s future had been a contentious issue for more than 20 years, yet representatives from industry, government and the surrounding neighborhoods finally hammered out a compromise. Using briefings, media materials, including Op/Ed placements, the plan was welcomed as a solution to a long-simmering problem and became policy.

• Cookie Bouquet Company’s public relations problem is that its periods are when media coverage might be expected, Valentine’s Day for example, and staff and shop owners aren’t available for interviews. With a little homework Craig discovered a virtually unknown holiday – TV Weatherperson's Day – which is during a normally slow time for the cookie company. Franchisees delivered baskets of cookies to television weathercasters across America. The client got more than 80 on-air thank you segments, many from local TV celebrities stuffing their mouths with Cookie Bouquet cookies.

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