Biography

JOAN BRYNA MICHELSON, MBA

JOAN BRYNA MICHELSON, MBA

Communications & Leadership Consultant

 

Joan Bryna Michelson is an award-winning marketing communications counselor, author, public policy advocate, professor, public speaker, and reporter who has generated millions in revenue and image development for top companies and has worked with top news organizations.

As an investigative/consumer news reporter, Ms. Michelson has worked with the best, such as CBS News’ "60 Minutes," ABC News’ "20/20," "PrimeTime Live," and "The Crusaders" and other programs on  NBC, print and local media. Stories in her portfolio include: the hazards of monosodium glutamate ("60 Minutes," Emmy-nominated, one of top five most-requested transcripts), the O.J. Simpson trial and related stories (ABC News and local news), exposing the hazards of the pertussis vaccine and treatments available for troubled kids ("The Crusaders"), and the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning (The Washington Post, “The Crusaders”).

Michelson has written numerous articles on marketing, business, management, economic development, legal and political issues, including a column on leadership for a prominent regional business publication, stories for Life & Style magazine, and an excerpt on women in government leadership for the non-fiction book If Women Ruled the World, published by Inner Ocean Publishing in 2005.

As a marketing maven, Michelson serves as the Marketing Manager of Global Electric Motorcars, a Chrysler company that is the market leader in neighborhood electric vehicles used by residential communities, the government and military, college and corporate campuses, and sports teams, as well as individuals, who have driven 200 million tailpipe emission-free miles over ten years and counting (www.gemcar.com).

She brings to GEM her experience driving the marketing of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority into a new era, as well as extensive experience marketing professional services for American Express, and Deloitte & Touche, a subsidiary of Primerica, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. and launching an international Internet telecommunications start-up in the United States.

Michelson boosted membership, revenue and sponsors for the National Association of Women Business Owners to new levels by reinventing the Women of Distinction Awards, winning professional awards.

An accomplished public speaker, Michelson has conducted leadership training at such esteemed institutions as the National Institutes of Health, and inspired audiences at academic, professional and corporate functions, from award galas to university programs, to chambers of commerce and conferences.

For the 2008 election, Michelson moderated panels on women voters with top national reporters, including Eleanor Clift, Dotty Lynch and Michael Barone and top pollster Celinda Lake, for Women Impacting Public Policy and Executive Women in Government.  She also interviewed David Gergen in front of a sold-out crowd of Executive Women in Government and presented at the Michelson Nobel Centennial with Walter Isaacson, CEO of The Aspen Institute in honor of her great-great uncle, the first American scientist to win the Nobel Prize. For the 2004 election, she produced and hosted a panel with top national reporters David Gergen, Dotty Lynch and Ron Brownstein.

She was also President/Chief Executive Officer of Michelson/Cooper Marketing; Executive Vice President of Olson/Ballard Communications, and a Marketing Consultant at Odney Advertising where she served local, regional and national clients in professional services, healthcare, academia, transportation, tourism, government, advocacy, and the arts with award-winning results.

High-visibility launches and other events Michelson produced include those for USA Today, Diet Coke, Lincoln Continental, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Academy Awards.

            In 2007, Michelson, Odney Advertising and the Devils Lake Regional Airport garnered awards for the airport’s radio advertising campaign. In 2004 and 2003, Michelson and her agency were honored with a Bronze Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators, a Marketing Excellence Award from the American Marketing Association, and the Public Relations Society of America Pinnacle Award for the Women of Distinction Awards 2003.

Michelson has been an Adjunct Professor in the Communications and Journalism Department of Columbia Union College in Maryland and an active board member. Her service includes being the Public Policy Chair for the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) of Southern Nevada, on its National Public Policy Council and National Health Care Task Force, International Group and National Public Policy Awards Committee.

Having also served on the Advisory Board of the UNLV College of Business Marketing Department, Michelson is the past Community Outreach Chair, American Marketing Association Las Vegas chapter, has served on the marketing committee of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Nevada, and as a judge for the International Association of Business Communicators Bronze Quill Awards. She has also served on the boards of Skid Row Development Corporation and CinewomenNY.

            A Bachelor of Arts in English from UCLA (after two years at George Washington University), a Master of Business Administration from Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York and various post-graduate studies, including at Harvard University and The Aspen Institute, round out Ms. Michelson's portrait…..so far.

            As a fun aside, Ms. Michelson is a descendant of Miriam Michelson - a prominent reporter of the suffrage movement, Charles Michelson – Miriam’s brother, a prominent reporter and publicist for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Albert Michelson – Miriam and Charles’ brother and the first American scientist to win the Nobel Prize (1907).

 

Joan Bryna Michelson, 702.806.3690, jbmichelson@hotmail.com, www.joanmichelson.com

 

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