Melissa Connerton brings to her role at CooperKatz & Company a strong background in leading communications initiatives for business-to-business, consumer products, healthcare and non-profit organizations. As a vice president / director, client services, she currently leads the account team supporting Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She also heads strategic planning and execution for the agency’s higher education clients which have included Grinnell College, Northern Arizona University, Johnson & Wales University and Sarah Lawrence College.
During her tenure at CooperKatz, she has led highly-effective communications programs across several diverse industries. Prior clients have included national tax preparation firm Jackson Hewitt Tax Service; wireless provider Virgin Mobile USA; the Association of National Advertisers (ANA); national quick service restaurant chain, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen; online advertising network and technology provider, Collective; digital publishing media venture Next Issue Media; the Advertising Research Foundation; global email marketing provider Emailvision; the healthcare division of Tefen USA, an international management consulting firm; and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.
Prior to joining CooperKatz, Melissa served as senior account executive at CKPR, where she played a key role on the GlaxoSmithKline and MeadWestvaco account teams. Before that, she worked as senior publicist for the 92nd Street Y, a renowned Manhattan institution specializing in arts, culture and community programming. During her tenure there, she generated local, national and international print, broadcast and online media coverage for the center’s lectures, dance performances, parenting programs and more.
Earlier in her career, Melissa worked for Middleberg & Associates and for the academic journals division of Blackwell Publishing (now Wiley-Blackwell).
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Smith College and a Master of Arts in English from Boston College.