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Ronald Childs
Location: Chicago, IL United States Joined: Jul 19th, 2007 |
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~ Biographical Profile ~
Ronald E. Childs “You were the Doug Williams of the journalism dept.” -- Former Grambling State University professor of journalism, Murray P. Fortner, 2006 Ronald E. Childs is an award-winning writer, editor, public relations practitioner and photographer whose work frequently appears in Black-interest publications throughout the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil and Great Britain. He is also media relations director for Flowers Communications Group, LLC, the premiere African American-owned public relations firm in the Midwest. A well-known advocate and outspoken commentator on Black men’s issues, his articles and essays to date have been published in such respected periodicals as Black Issues In Higher Education, Black Enterprise, The Black Collegian, AOL/BlackVoices.com, EM-EBONY MAN, Jet, UPSCALE, Dollars & Sense, Black Elegance, Minorities and Women In Business, Today’s Black Woman, Just for Black Men, Image, Milestone, Urban Inspired, Urban Life, DAWN and N’Digo, as well as other Black interest magazines, newspapers, web sites and newsletters worldwide. His monthly column, "The Observer," distributed through his own OMEN Syndication, appears in The Chicago Defender, The Michigan Chronicle, The Michigan FrontPage, The Louisiana Weekly, The Chicago Crusader, The Citizen Newspaper Group, The Chicago Independent Bulletin, The Standard Newspaper Group, The Cape Verdean News (Boston, MA), Urban Spectrum magazine (Denver, CO) and monthly in Bahiyah Woman online magazine (www.bwmmag.com). Childs is editor and publisher of Afrique Edenic Journal (www.afriquejournal.com), an Internet newsmagazine serving African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, Briton and Afro-Latino communities. He further is founder and principal of OMEN Communications, the banner under which he consults and performs all of his written and creative work, and is CEO of Élan Model/Talent Management and Casting, Chicago’s only multicultural talent agency committed to defying the limitations of Eurocentric beauty standards. Childs founded and established Élan in 1994. A 1982 graduate of the school of journalism at Grambling State University of Louisiana, Childs previously was a media strategist and senior account executive with Burrell Communications Group, Inc., the nation’s preeminent African American-owned marketing-communications and advertising firm. While there, he serviced blue-chip corporate accounts including Bell Atlantic, Verizon, Coca-Cola USA/Sprite, ExxonMobil, adidas, HBO, McDonald’s, Sears, Kellogg’s, Western Union, the Illinois Lottery, Bacardi/B&B, Quaker Oats and Inner City Entertainment, while also pivotally responsible for the agency’s internal, corporate PR. Notably, he developed the original program concept that today is called McDonald's "365 Black" initiative, and co-developed Habitat for Humanity International’s first-ever diversity program, “Building Upon Diverse Foundations.” Prior to his tenure at Burrell, Childs was a communications specialist, speechwriter and assistant press secretary, respectively, to Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, until the prominent chief executive’s untimely death in 1987. More recently, he was associate editor of Johnson Publishing Company’s EM [EBONY MAN] magazine, at that time the only internationally-circulated lifestyle publication dedicated to the needs, interests and aspirations of African American men. Before affiliating with EM, Childs was assistant director of publicity for Johnson Publishing. In that capacity, he assisted with the national promotion of EBONY, Jet and EM magazines, as well as the company’s Fashion Fair Cosmetics and Supreme Beauty Products divisions, the “EBONY/Jet Showcase” and “American Black Achievement Awards” television productions, the JPC Book Division and its then-three radio stations, WLNR, WJPC and WLOU. Childs is a member of the National and Chicago Associations of Black Journalists, the National and Chicago Black Public Relations Societies, the Publicity Club of Chicago, the national alumni association of Grambling State University. A staunch believer in the spirit of giving back, he serves as a mentor for journalism and public relations students at black colleges, as a volunteer for the Black College Communications Association, the Honda Campus All Star Challenge (an 18-year-old national HBCU academic competition), Literacy Chicago and the Midwest Association for Sickle Cell Anemia. He sits on the boards of City At Peace/Chicago, the Chicago Multicultural Dance Center and is executive vice president of the Black Public Relations Society of Chicago, where he developed and directs the Access mentorship program. -more- -2- Childs is a recipient of the 1991 Award for Outstanding Commentary given by the Chicago Association of Black Journalists, and in 1990 was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Presidential Citation bestowed annually by the National Association for Equal Opportunity In Higher Education. Chicago-based Dollars & Sense magazine named him one of America’s “Best and Brightest Black Business and Professional Men” for 1995, and he received Being Single magazine’s Pinnacle Award in 1997, also feting unheralded Black men of accomplishment. He has been nominated for the 2007 Platinum PR Award, the highest honor given for public relations practitioners in the Midwest, bestowed annually by the Publicity Club of Chicago (PCC). For 2006, Childs was awarded two Golden Trumpet Awards, and one Silver Trumpet, also from the PCC. He was awarded one Golden and three Silver Awards in 2004, plus three Communicator Awards, two Silver Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators and one LACP Magellan Award for media relations excellence the same year. He was named one of the city's "Top 50 Most Eligible Bachelors" by Today's Chicago Woman magazine in 2000, and one of "Chicago's 50 Most Savvy Singles" by the same magazine, for 2006. He will be officially inducted into the Grambling State University Hall of Fame in October, 2007. Born on September 15th, 1959 in Louisiana, Missouri, and reared in Bowling Green, Missouri; Denver, Colorado and in Wheaton, Illinois respectively, he is a Prince Hall Mason, a member of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church, Chicago’s oldest Black congregation, and the single father of one son, Kimani. - ### -
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