Zuraidah Hoffman
The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network
Success at FAAN was never an excuse for Founder and CEO Anne Munoz-Furlong to sit down for long. In October 2005, this well established mission-oriented organization led an effort to bring 70 children from 30 states to Washington DC. These junior ambassadors met and lobbied their representatives in Congress to advocate for Federal funding for food allergy research and to express their support for the “Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act.” Without a PR executive on staff, I was asked to fill this recent gap and organize a PR and media relations blitz.
With less than 2 weeks to understand the issues, I received the fire hose treatment and was ready. I contacted many members of the media nationwide, wrote and distributed a press release, and mediated a number of interviews. On game day, I put on a “FAAN STAFF” badge on Capitol Hill, worked hard to remember names and faces, learned quickly who the players are within FAAN and the food allergy community, and seamlessly became a team member. I had a blast.
After this event, I continued to support the staff at FAAN with PR/communications activities, which included re-establishing their PR engine, daily interactions with members of the media, setting up interviews for Anne, crafting messages related to sensitive issues, and helping Anne satisfy requirements for FAAN board members. My final task was to help FAAN find a full time staff member to keep the PR engine humming. Did I work myself out of a client? Yes. Did I do the right thing? Yes!
