Allison+Partners Names Dawn Wilcox Managing Director, Social Impact

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Allison+Partners announced today that Dawn Wilcox has been named managing director of its social impact practice group. Having been with the agency since 2005, she most recently served as general manager of the agency’s Los Angeles office. In her new role, Wilcox will focus on growing the social impact practice across the agency which includes corporate and not-for-profit clients such as Hasbro, ConAgra Foods, Dermalogica and generationOn, the youth division of Points of Light.

“Allison+Partners’ entrepreneurial business model allows us to build practice groups that both match the passion of our employees and better serve our clients by ensuring dedicated senior team members work directly on their business”

Wilcox has developed social impact programs that have included partnership management, media relations, thought leadership, internal communications and digital strategy for issues such as child abuse prevention, teen pregnancy, literacy, school reform, disability rights, reproductive health, traffic safety and family violence prevention. She and her cross-disciplinary team at Allison+Partners coined and trademarked “Corporate Socialanthropy” to encapsulate the tenets of the social impact practice. The platform provides a more effective approach to working with corporations and their not-for-profit partners to develop campaigns that build brand reputation while also having a positive impact on employees, consumers and the communities in which they do business.

“Having spent the last 18 years working on many memorable campaigns and programs I am excited to be able to focus my passion and expertise in a space that I have long believed is critical to the advancement of our profession,” said Dawn Wilcox. “In public relations we have the opportunity to affect change at a local and a global level, whether that change be in how a not-for-profit interacts with the communities it serves, or in how a corporation engages employees and leverages its products and services to have a positive social impact.”

Over the course of her career Wilcox has worked with hundreds of organizations and speaks at conferences across the country helping companies build Corporate Socialanthropy™ platforms. Recently honored by the Public Relations Society of America for an annual pro-bono event she created to provide not-for-profits with free public relations advice, “Quality Time with PR Minds” has been running for nine years and counting.

"Allison+Partners’ entrepreneurial business model allows us to build practice groups that both match the passion of our employees and better serve our clients by ensuring dedicated senior team members work directly on their business,” said Scott Allison, chairman and CEO of Allison+Partners. “It’s become clear that a social impact practice is a viable expertise for us from a business perspective and also a differentiator when it comes to the recruitment and retention of top talent.”

Prior to joining Allison+Partners Wilcox was a senior vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations and principal of her own firm, Penguin PR. She is accredited in public relations (APR), has served on the board of the Public Relations Society of America Los Angeles and currently serves on the board of Children Mending Hearts.

About Allison+Partners

Allison+Partners, an MDC Partners company, is an international communications firm driven by a collaborative approach to innovation and creativity. The result is freshly imagined, customized approaches that provide concrete, measurable strategies to drive market and executive leadership. Expertise includes consumer PR and marketing, corporate communications, technology and digital media, brand innovation, social impact, public affairs and healthcare. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, London, Beijing, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and Dallas. The company has a 50-state grassroots network and deep affiliations with quality firms worldwide through MDC Partners (NASDAQ: MDCA, Toronto Stock Exchange: MDZ.A), a progressive marketing and communications network, championing the most innovative entrepreneurial talent. Visit us at: www.allisonpr.com, m.allisonpr.com, http://facebook.com/allisonpr, http://twitter.com/allisonpr.