AWC PROCLAIMS LORRAINE HOWELL AS 2009 HEADLINER AWARD RECIPIENT

Alexandria, Va. – Lorraine Howell, media training specialist, top executive coach and author of Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift!, has been named the AWC Headliner Award winner for 2009 by the Association for Women in Communications (AWC).

The AWC Headliner Award recognizes an AWC member who has recent national accomplishments, as well as consistent communications excellence. Established in 1939, the award has been given to more than 200 AWC members. Howell will be presented with the award during the 2009 AWC National Conference at the Headliner Award Luncheon on Sat., Oct. 17, 2009 in Seattle, Wash.

Howell started Media Skills Training (www.mediaskillstraining.com) in 1998 after 12 years as a television news and talk show producer in the San Francisco Bayarea. Currently, she coaches top executives and professionals to speak more effectively to the media and she specializes in message development, presentation skills and crisis communications. Her clients include Starbucks Coffee Company, Microsoft WIO & EIO, REI, Vulcan, Inc., Group Health Cooperative, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, U.S. Small Business Administration, and many more. In October 2008, she returned for the second year to coach the five finalists in the Forbes.com national Boost Your Business Contest in New York City.

Howell’s book, Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift, helps professionals develop a concise, strategic answer to the question, “What do you do?” and engage the listener’s interest in just a few seconds. In June 2008, she received the AWC Seattle Chapter’s annual Georgina MacDougall Davis Founders Award, which was created in 1976 to honor AWC’s founder as well as a member who has consistently exhibited the highest ethics, professional excellence and personal commitment in everything they do.

As the Senior Segment Producer on the top rated news show “Mornings on 2″ at KTVU, the Oakland Fox affiliate, she specialized in booking exclusive, live interviews with top names in the news, public figures and celebrities. At KPIX, the CBS affiliate, she produced live, hour long programs featuring breaking news stories, controversial issues, emerging trends and a long list of celebrities on the number one morning talk show “People Are Talking.” She produced live broadcasts from the White House and from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., from the 1996 Republican & Democratic National Conventions, and from “Camp O.J.” during the Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles.

The Association for Women in Communications is a professional organization that champions the advancement of women across all communications disciplines by recognizing excellence, promoting leadership and positioning its members at the forefront of the evolving communications era. For more information, go to www.womcom.org.