Helen Beckner

Specialty: Creating and managing long-term communications and public education campaigns; managing grassroots recruitment, education and mobilization efforts including extensive online outreach activities; managing internal and external litigation communications; managing speechwriting and other executive communications relationships

Fields most served: Health care, information technology, civil justice reform.

Interview:

Q: How do you describe to friends what you do at WHWG?
Beckner: I tell them that I develop and execute communications and public relations strategies for a wide range of clients on a variety of issues.

Q: What is most satisfying about your work for your clients?
Beckner: Delivering our clients the results they’re looking for — delivering top-notch services is most satisfying to me.

Q: What kinds of clients do you have and what are they looking for from you?
Beckner: Most of my clients are coalitions, associations and corporations who are interested in building support for major public policy issues. I also work extensively with clients on both internal and external messaging on issues important to them.

Q: What kind of person should work at WHWG?
Beckner: Smart, hard working, results-oriented, detail-oriented, and a strong work ethic.

Q: Do you have a personal measure of success with your clients? What is it?
Beckner: Yes. At the end of a project or assignment, I want to be able to know, without question, that the client would hire us again.

Bio:   Helen Beckner is a widely respected, Washington-based public affairs manager and strategist.

A ten-year veteran of advocacy and lobbying organizations before joining the White House Writers Group in 1996, she was a key player in organizing support for civil justice reform, telecommunications reform and regulatory reform legislation and resistance to the Clinton health care initiative.

In these and other projects, Ms. Beckner has tremendous experience in mobilizing broad-based coalitions of interest groups in Washington, as well as developing and implementing extensive earned media campaigns nationally, and at the state level.

Helen Beckner brings to her Writers Group clients sophistication about the ways of the national political and legislative scene, extensive experience developing messages for key audiences to drive issues, and superb management skills for directing campaigns that shape and move public opinion.

Ms. Beckner has deep familiarity with a wide range of industries including consumer products, telecommunications, automobiles, insurance and investment banking. She has advised attorneys, public relations professionals and senior executives in all these fields.

Helen Beckner is a graduate of the University of Virginia and resides in McLean, Virginia with her husband and her son, Jack.