Eduflack is written by Patrick Riccards. Patrick is the CEO of Exemplar Strategic Communications, a consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning, public affairs, and advocacy in the education space.
Patrick is the founder of Educommunicators (www.educommunicators.com), a social network for education communications professionals.
Comments? Questions? Rants? Contact Patrick at eduflack@eduflack.com Or follow his news updates on Twitter @Eduflack
With more than 15 years of strategic communications experience, Patrick Riccards has spent the past 10 years helping not-for-profits, policy groups, government agencies, and companies develop and implement successful advocacy and public engagement campaigns in the education field.
Patrick currently serves as CEO of Exemplar Strategic Communications (www.exemplarpr.com), a consulting company focusing on providing research-based communications and advocacy solutions in the education space.
Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and director of the K-16 education communications practice for Lipman Hearne, Inc., the nation’s premier marketing communications company serving the
not-for-profit sector. He also has held positions as Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Positioning for a global education company and as Vice President and Practice Group Director for
Widmeyer Communications, one of Washington, DC’s largest independent public affairs agencies.
Patrick has worked on education reform communications and advocacy with a wide range of organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute for Literacy, National Governors Association, New Leaders for New Schools, American Federation of Teachers, Pennsylvania Department of Education, Virginia Department of Education, and dozens more.
As senior counsel to the National Reading Panel (NRP) from 1998 through 2001, he helped shepherd the development of the research cornerstone of NCLB’s reading initiative. With the NRP, Patrick
oversaw all media relations, editorial projects, relationship and partnership development, and public events for the congressionally mandated panel. In addition to masterminding the Panel’s national
town hall meeting tour and conducting all qualitative research over the Panel’s two-year term, he led the development of the Panel’s Summary Report, Report of the Subgroups, and Video Report.
From 2002 through 2005, Patrick served as project director for the Partnership for Reading, a federal inter-agency initiative designed to raise public awareness for scientifically-based reading
instruction under NCLB. In addition to securing millions of dollars of earned media focused on scientifically based reading research, he also developed and managed the Partnership’s Advisory Group, a
national board of education organizations, business organizations, and government agencies.
Earlier in his career, Patrick held senior communications positions on Capitol Hill, running media offices for U.S. Senators Robert C. Byrd (WV) and Bill Bradley (NJ) and U.S. Representative John
Olver (MA).
He recently founded Educommunicators (www.educommunicators.com), an online community designed to promote and share best practices in education communications.
Patrick has been recognized by PRWeek and PR News magazines as one of the top professionals in his field, and his integrated communications campaigns have been honored by the International
Association of Business Communicators, Public Relations Society of America, and Philips Business Information, among others.
He is a contributing author of Why Kids Can’t Read: Challenging the Status Quo in Education, published in 2006 by Rowman Littlefield Education and edited by Reid Lyon and Phyllis Blaunstein. A
Virginia Press Association Award-winning columnist, his ghost-written work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and Education
Week, among others.
Patrick earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, with a double major in Government and Rhetoric and Communication Studies.
Disclaimer
All of the entries on Eduflack are the opinion of the author.
