Your Message Media | Who We Are

Who We Are

JEFF GILLENKIRK, Co-Founder of Your Message Media, was a speechwriter and communications strategist for New York Governor Mario Cuomo, New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and other major political figures, CEOs and heads of non-profit organizations. He has been a news writer for KTVU-Channel 2’s Ten O’clock News (SF Bay Area), a magazine and newspaper writer for The Nation, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other publications, and founding editor of Working Assets’ pioneering online newsmagazine, News Bytes. A graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he brings more than three decades of experience as a media strategist and expert writer to a wide variety of clients and causes, providing a full-range of communications services including analysis of your organization’s media capacity, goals and needs, strategic media planning, spokesperson training, and preparation of deliverables such as press advisories and releases, reports, brochures and web site content. He is currently engaged three days a week as a communications strategist for First5 Alameda County, in addition to continuing responsibilities for YMM.

KATIE KLEINSASSER, Co-Founder and President of Your Message Media, recently completed twenty-three years at Public Media Center in San Francisco, where she served as Senior Vice President and managed many of the agency’s major national accounts for public health, women’s health and advocacy, and consumer education clients. Her extensive work has included management, creative development and implementation of campaigns for Planned Parenthood, Catholics for Choice, The California Wellness Foundation’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, The California Endowment’s Healthy Eating, Active Communities Initiative, the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program, Community Action to Fight Asthma, and many others. Her expertise includes capacity assessment, strategic planning, market research, branding, message development, budget planning, paid advertising, media placement, copywriting and supervision of design and production. As Senior V.P. for PMC she co-created the nationally recognized “Planning is Power” campaign for Planned Parenthood of New York City, focusing on the positive elements of sex education and family planning in the empowerment of women and youth. Prior to joining PMC in 1985, she was an account executive at Grey Advertising in San Francisco.

In addition to our principal partners, Your Message Media includes a team of talented and experienced graphic designers, a media planner and buyer, a marketing strategist, and a new media-online specialist.

Stephen King, former Planning Director at the Washington D.C.-based direct marketing firm of Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co., has worked with hundreds of non-profits and NGOs, state and federal political campaigns, and companies large and small. He founded Analytix, a provider of advanced analytics for direct marketing; Web and digital services firm Isis Systems Group, and Whoop, a mobile applications platform technology. His strategic guidance in integrating Web, email, mobile, social networking and user-created content with traditional channels like print and direct mail helps clients maximize return on their communications efforts.

Arno Ghelfi is a Swiss made, Swiss born, Swiss grown and Swiss educated Art Director and Graphic Designer. After relocating to San Francisco, Arno was the Art Director for major international business publications before launching his own design studio. He also has put his graphic design skills toward socially conscious projects published in AdBusters Magazine and has collaborated on various projects with local musician and activist Michael Franti from Spearhead. His studio, l’atelier starno, is working with clients located throughout the U.S., Europe, and India, creating quality print and online graphic design for companies of all sizes and clients of all backgrounds.

Laurie Smith is a graphic designer and principal partner of Kajun Design, an award winning graphic design studio with more than eighteen years of experience in all phases of print design. Her background has been mainly in editorial design and she has been the creative director and principal designer on many distinctive projects for a wide range of clients, mostly non-profit organizations. Her personal and business focus continues to be on using her creative skills to work around social change, environmental and political issues. Before joining Kajun Design, Laurie was Senior Art Director at Public Media Center, a public interest ad agency. She has a B.F.A. in design from the University of Colorado.

Birgit Wick received her master’s degree in visual communication and graphic design in Germany where, in 1990, she co-founded one of the first ecological design studios, ZACK Agency. In 1998 she moved to the Bay Area and opened Wick Design Studio, which specializes in the design of quality print materials and corporate identities for companies and organizations in the fields of health and ecology.

Anne Morse has been a media planner and buyer for more than 25 years. Her background includes working in San Francisco agencies such as Foote Cone Belding and Mindshare, the buying service for J Walter Thompson. She has planned and/or bought virtually every type of media, including broadcast TV and radio, cable TV, print, outdoor, transit, and alternative media such as online. She has planned and/or purchased media for a wide variety of clients, with a particular emphasis on retail. Clients for whom she has bought and/or purchased media include: NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Planned Parenthood, Proposition 188 (anti-tobacco initiative), San Francisco PUC, Greenpeace, San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco Giants, and the California Nurses Association.

Jennifer Elias works with non-profits and businesses to develop marketing and business development strategies. She has extensive experience working with public health community-based organizations and national advocacy groups, particularly focused on youth sexual health. She has worked with Planned Parenthood NYC, Exhale, Kaiser Family Foundation, Population Services International, The California Wellness Foundation, San Francisco Conservation Corps and others. In addition, she co-founded and directed an educational publishing company and has a Master of Public Health degree. Her expertise includes market research, message development, business planning, and product editorial and design development.