2008-2009 IABC-LA Board Members

Your IABC-LA board welcome your ideas and suggestions and encourage your participation. Please contact any board member if you have questions, comments or suggestions.

Jamie Lipson
President

Christie Ly
President Elect and Secretary

Michael Ambrozewicz
Immediate Past President
Co-Chair, SUCCESS Award Committee

Linda Kim
Treasurer

Danielle L. Scott
Chair, Website

Helen Porter
Chair, Membership Communications

Debra Meadows
Co-Chair, Holiday Tea Party and June Awards Dinner

Michael Timmerman
Chair, Student Membership

Gay Evison Groomes
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Glendale/Burbank/Pasadena

Gail Herring
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for South Bay/Long Beach

TJ Stevko
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Downtown L.A./Westside
Co-Chair, SUCCESS Award Committee

Paula Cassin
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Thousand Oaks/Woodland Hills
Chair, Sponsorships

Jamie Lipson
President

Jamie Lipson is a freelance writer specializing in employee communications including website and newsletter content. Prior to starting her freelance business, Jamie worked in employee communications for the Transportation Systems division of Honeywell International Inc., a Fortune 100 technology and manufacturing company. She also spent many years in publishing at Primedia and Workforce Magazine.

This is Jamie's fourth year on the IABC-LA Board of Directors. She previously held the positions of Chair, Regional Networking and Events for the South Bay and Long Beach area (2007-2008), VP of Member Involvement( 2004-2005), and VP of Member Services (2004 – 2005).

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Christie Ly
President-Elect and Secretary

Christie Ly is a Manager in the Media practice at Burson-Marsteller Los Angeles and develops and manages programs for clients in a wide variety of industries and issues including real estate, urban development and revitalization, economic development and green technology. Prior to Burson-Marsteller, she worked in the Global Issues group at Ruder Finn, focusing on social, environmental and economic issues in the U.S. and internationally. She managed media relations and high-level press events for clients such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Liz Claiborne's "Love is Not Abuse" awareness campaign, UNA-USA, UN-Habitat, Earth Institute at Columbia University, Global Green and Society of Actuaries.

Prior to Ruder Finn, Christie worked at Travelzoo, an internet media company, as director of public relations and helped build the PR department from the ground up. Her experience also includes working at RLM Public Relations and as a television reporter at the local NBC affiliate in Columbia, Mo. Throughout her career, she has always been a media maven, developing an expertise in crafting story ideas, understanding the media landscape, and securing press coverage for all kinds of clients. She believes that cultivating deep relationships with business, consumer and trade press is key in providing strategic counsel to clients.

Christie also worked on board the M/S Seabourn Sun as the newsletter editor and PR representative of the ship, traveling to more than 50 countries and visiting some of the most spectacular places and events including the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Petra ruins in Jordan, Easter Island, Greenland, the Norwegian fjords, and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Christie has bachelor's degrees in journalism and international business from the University of Missouri. She sits on the Executive Committee of Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Corporate Social Responsibility section and the Los Angeles board of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

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Michael Ambrozewicz
Immediate Past President
la-pastpresident@iabc.com

Michael is a communications specialist at DIRECTV, the leading digital satellite television entertainment service provider in the world with more than 16 million customers. His responsibilities include supporting the company's internal electronic communication channels, corporate citizenship outreach, executive communications, strategic diversity initiatives and miscellaneous employee and corporate communication campaigns.

Michael served two years as President of IABC-LA, bringing to IABC years of experience as a journalist and managing volunteer teams, and an enthusiastic commitment to maximizing for members the value inherent in IABC membership. Outside of work, Michael is involved in the Young Presidential Associates Leadership Council, a board driving the growth of Loyola Marymount University's (LMU) young donor community.

Michael holds a B.B.A with an emphasis in International Business and a B.A. in German Studies from LMU, in addition to being certified by the internationally-recognized Goethe Institute as a fluent speaker of German. He is originally from Sacramento, and has worked, traveled and lived extensively throughout Europe.

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Linda Kim
Treasurer
la-treasurer@iabc.com

Linda has been in communications for more than 15 years and is currently freelancing. She has degrees in journalism and East Asian studies and outside of work, enjoys photography and swimming.

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Danielle L. Scott
Chair, Website
la-webmaster@iabc.com

Danielle is the Associate Editor of the Graziadio Business Report, the business faculty research publication of Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management. She works with authors to help them develop their ideas and answer the tough questions and takes charge of all PR and marketing initiatives. Danielle also enjoys freelance editing and consulting projects and has worked on a number of upcoming business titles for Berrett-Koehler Publications, Inc.

Previously, Danielle served as Assistant Director of Public Relations and Communications at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, where she was responsible for all marketing, public relations, and communication efforts for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. At Alert Global Media, she was editor for Money Laundering Alert, a financial trade publication on anti-money laundering compliance. She also gave training lectures, and developed conference and seminar content.

Danielle graduated from the University of Miami, with a B.S. in Communication majoring in Journalism and English Literature. Currently, she is pursuing her MBA at Pepperdine's business school. Originally from Trinidad, she lived in Miami for seven years before moving to Los Angeles in 2007. When not working, she is an avid amateur photographer and enjoys writing for her blog.

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Helen Porter
Chair, Member Communications

Helen serves as Manager, Employee Communications at Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Her core responsibilities include management, development, oversight, and content creation for SPE's employee intranet. She has over eight years experience in copywriting, communication and marketing, and has previously worked at Loyola Marymount University, Variety.com, Society for Human Resource Management and Time Inc.

Helen holds an M.A. in communication management from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, and received her B.S. in marketing and international business from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

In addition to serving as a board member for IABC Los Angeles, Helen is an active member of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment; www.capeusa.org) and a volunteer for the Lollipop Theater Network (www.lollipoptheater.org).

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Debra Meadows
Chair, Holiday Tea Party and June Awards Dinner
la-awardsbanquet@iabc.com

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Michael Timmerman
Chair, Student Membership

Michael Timmermann is a communications professional with 25 years of experience. He has held communications positions in a variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and financial services. From 2000-2008, Michael served as Vice President of Communications for Honeywell Transportation Systems, a $5 billion global automotive supplier. He joined Honeywell in 1996 in its Aerospace division. Prior to joining Honeywell, Michael held communications positions at Allergan and City National Bank.

Michael's experience includes the full complement of communications disciplines, including media relations, marketing communications, internal communications, executive speech writing, investor relations and community relations. Michael graduated from UCLA with a degree in Communications Studies and has been a member of IABC since the mid-1980s.

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Gay has been a communications professional for more than 20 years in the fields of medicine, insurance, education and non-profit. She was also a senior communications consultant with both Ketchum Sheppard and Mercer Human Resource Consulting. She moved back to Los Angeles in 2006 to become Director of Field Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility for Transamerica Insurance & Investments in downtown L.A. Gay has been a member of IABC and PRSA in Boston, New York, Washington, and Los Angeles and joined the IABC-LA Board as Chair, Regional Event Planning for Glendale/Burbank/Pasadena.

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T.J. Stevko
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Downtown L.A./Westside
Co-Chair, SUCCESS Award Committee

T.J. recently started at Mercer as a Communications Specialist where he drafts and edits benefit plans and assists with developing communication strategies and work plans. Prior to joining Mercer, he held various communications positions for CaseStack and Vivendi Games. In May of 07, T.J. graduated from The Anneneberg School for Communication at USC with his master's degree in Communication Management.

Now that he is finally out of school, T.J. is looking to become more involved with the IABC-LA community as Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Downtown L.A. and Chair, SUCCESS Award Committee.

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Paula Cassin
Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Thousand Oaks/Woodland Hills
Chair, Sponsorship

Paula is serving her second year on the IABC Board as Chair, Regional Networking & Events for Thousand Oaks/Woodland Hills. Building on fifteen years’ experience in various corporate Marketing and Sales roles, Paula currently is a Director of Cut Through Communications LLC, a technology company entirely focused on corporate communications. Cut Through Communications provides new and powerful ways to get messages to staff using exclusive desktop alert tools which reduce information overload, drive up response rates, and ultimately improve engagement.

Prior to this, Paula’s career spanned many corporate Marketing and Sales roles in computer companies, most recently for Gen-I New Zealand, the leading New Zealand ICT company. Her responsibilities included managing client relationships with companies like L’Oreal, Nestle, Pernod Ricard, Frucor (Danone), and Smith & Smith (Belron). Paula graduated in 1992 from the University of California, Davis, with a degree in International Relations – Commerce and a minor in French.

Paula is passionate about comms (in any medium), coffee, and her children Caleb, Clara and Lily. She’s using her free time right now to attend Open Air Fitness boot camp five days a week and also to get going on her personal blog on ‘compassion and the free market.’

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IABC-LA is governed by a board of volunteers according to IABC bylaws and the chapter's own bylaws. Click here to review bylaws (login required).

The IABC-LA board has put together a strategic plan for 2006-2009. Click here to review the plan (login required).

Thinking about becoming a board member or volunteering?

Contact Jamie at la-president@iabc.com

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