Lea-Ann Germinder, APR

Lea-Ann Germinder, APR, Fellow PRSA is a 28-year veteran of the agency business who has created award-winning campaigns in several industry categories for national brands. She began her marcom career at a sales promotion agency with incentive company E.F. MacDonald, now Carlson, working on such brands as AT&T, Northwest Airlines, and First Bank Systems. Later agency work included campaigns for clients as diverse as Sprint, Bo Jackson for Cramer Products, and Hill's Pet Nutrition. For the past 14 years she has focused on national brands in animal health. Now celebrating the 10th anniversary of her own firm, Germinder & Associates, Inc., Germinder and her firm have created over 100 campaigns and programs in animal health. With offices based in New York and Kansas City, she and her team provide strategic counsel and execute successful campaigns for national companies and organizations.

Germinder is a well-known speaker on marketing and public relations issues in animal health at veterinary conferences and international forums including the Veterinary Medicines Summit in Nice, France. Her special areas of interest are internet communications and partnership programs. Germinder was an early proponent of the power of the Internet for public relations, beginning work in this area in 1995 with one of the first niche pet web sites, www.petdental.com. She launched www.goodnewsforpets.com in 2000 and is now editor and publisher of several sponsored pet Web sites including www.goodnewsforpets.com and www.catwellness.org. Her firm frequently conducts social media campaigns related to these sites and client initiatives.

She and her team are presently work with Pfizer Animal Health's Revolution brand as their public relations agency. Her agency is also the managing agency for CATalyst, partnering Pfizer with the American Association of Feline Practitioners on CATalyst to champion the cat. Other campaigns include working with Pfizer Animal Health (U.S.), the American Heartworm Society, and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) on a new campaign, "KNOW Heartworms," to educate veterinarians and pet owners about feline heartworm disease. She also created "Healthy Cats for Life," for Fort Dodge Animal Health and the AAFP, as well as her best-known program, "Pets Need Dental Care, Too!" launched on behalf of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Dental Society and Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc.

Germinder was recently accepted into the prestigious Public Relations Society of America College of Fellows. She was named a finalist in the 2008 Enterprising Women of the Year by Enterprising Women magazine and now serves on that publication’s advisory board. In 2007, the Kansas City office was named one of the top ten PR firms in Kansas City. In 2006, she was named to the top 25 "Women Who Mean Business" in Kansas City by the Kansas City Business Journal. She and her team have won dozens of awards, including the AAHA Gold Key Award and the Public Relations Society of America's Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, one of the highest national public relations awards.

Germinder is a member of the Women President's Organization (WPO) for women-owned companies with over $1million in annual sales, is professionally accredited in public relations (APR) and a member of the Public Relations Society of America. She is a past-president of the Kansas City chapter of PRSA, past-Midwest district chair and also holds memberships in the PRSA Counselor's Academy and the Healthcare and the International Sections. She is also a member of the Association of Veterinary Practice Management Consultants. She serves as publicity chair for the Cat Writers' Association and is a member of the Dog Writers Association of America. Germinder graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Dayton, Ohio. She and her husband have three children, and a cat named Cocoa. She now splits her time between Kansas City, Missouri and Tenafly, New Jersey.

To contact Lea-Ann Germinder, APR, Fellow PRSA, email her at lgerminder@germinder.com.