Rachel Ezekiel-Fishbein is the Owner of Making Headlines, the PR consultancy she founded. She has been a member of PPRA for one year.

Twitter Handle: @makingheadlines

Facebook Handle: @RachelEzekiel-Fishbein

LinkedIn Page: www.linkedin.com/in/rachelezekielfishbein/

Rachel Ezekiel-Fishbein is an award-winning communication strategist, who has been called a ‘social media guru’ by The Philadelphia Inquirer. She founded her PR consultancy, Making Headlines, the year her first child was born to provide more balance than agency life in the mid-1990s afforded. Rachel’s son and the Internet grew up together, providing her with a way to forge a new path in PR. She serves clients in myriad industries and has expertise in healthcare, women’s health, education, Jewish communal life, retail and nonprofit. Her former and current clients include Penn Medicine, WXPN, American Heart Association, Jewish Family & Children’s Services, Wawa and Philadelphia Futures. Rachel’s mother was a Holocaust survivor who dedicated her life to social justice. She learned to be an adept advocate like her when her son was diagnosed with multiple disabilities as a young child. He and Rachel helped found the Cheltenham Special Needs Advocacy Group to help other special needs parents in their community navigate the school system. She sits on the marketing committee of the National Museum of American Jewish History and the PR committee of the Anti-Defamation League’s Philadelphia Chapter. She has volunteered with and advised CeaseFire PA, MANNA, Mission Kids, PhilAbundance, Share Our Strength and the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation. Rachel also helps train aspiring PR professionals at Temple University’s Klein College of Media & Communication, where she spent last year as a visiting professor.

Who are your clients and/or what are you working on right now?

I try to keep half of my client load nonprofit at all times. Right now, my clients include: Cambridge Innovation Center, Philadelphia’s largest co-working and shared lab space, which builds innovation communities for biotech startups and VCs ; LiveWellFoundation, which provides the only free, peer-led support groups for depression in the nation; and Ellen Fischer, an attorney/advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, who is working to change policy around transgender name change

What is your favorite part of your job?

The way it’s always changing.

What was your latest & greatest accomplishment at your job?

Most recently, the launch of my new website, http://www.makingheadlinespr.com to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my business. I love the way the site tells my story and captures my values.

What one piece of advice would you give to your fellow PR pros? 

Our ability to communicate and persuade comes with huge responsibility. Right now, the worst advice you can give any client is to jump onto a social justice bandwagon without serious thought about whether it matches their values, as well as their historical behavior. The perfect example is BLM. I watched a local fashion retailer get shredded for blacking out its IG feed because its previous treatment of Black employees and customers didn’t match the values it was were purporting. While this may be inconvenient: Mission-driven communication must begin with mission-driven behavior.

What book or movie could you read/watch again and again? 

The American President. I love Aaron Sorkin and this movie was basically the precursor to The West Wing. !

What is your favorite spot in Philly (museum, park, store, etc.)? 

Valley Green. If you ever need to find peace, head over to any trail there–even better, bring your dog–and just start walking.

If you weren’t in PR, what profession do you see yourself in and why?

Wow, that’s a hard one. I’ve got about three non-fiction books half written in my head. I also plan on getting my yoga teaching certification in the next two years. And speaking of teaching, I love my teaching at Temple, so teaching full-time would be on the table. Then again, we really need more disability advocates to help families fight for what their children deserve. But sometimes I think I’d really just like to open a sweet little lifestyle shop that sells a meticulously-curated mix of everything I love.

Favorite Philly Food? 

The grilled squid at Dimitris. Can you believe it closed?