Erin Doherty — Communications Manager
Minneapolis, MN
Communications manager with seven years across agency public relations and in-house corporate communications, accredited by PRSA. Placed 78 stories in a year for an outdoor brand and took its trade-press share of voice from 8% to 17%.
Experience
Communications Manager, Alderpine Outdoors · September 2023 – present
Runs media relations, executive communications and internal comms for an outdoor gear brand of 400 staff.
- Placed 78 stories in 2024, three of them national features that together drove 61,000 site sessions in a single week.
- Led communications on a 9,000-unit stove recall; all 12 outlet enquiries were answered inside four hours and coverage stayed factual.
- Rewrote the executive messaging house and prepared four spokespeople; share of voice in trade press rose from 8% to 17%.
- Started an internal newsletter now read by 84% of staff, retiring an all-hands slide deck that 9% of them opened.
Family caregiving and freelance communications, Career break · June 2022 – August 2023
- Took 14 months to care for a parent after surgery, keeping two retainer clients throughout for launch announcements and executive bylines.
- Earned the Accreditation in Public Relations during the break, passing the panel presentation and examination in one attempt.
Senior Account Executive, Sparrowhill Communications · February 2019 – May 2022
- Ran public relations for six B2B clients, securing 210 placements in three years, 34 of them in national outlets.
- Took a manufacturing client from 4% to 15% share of voice in 18 months with a research report that produced one story a quarter.
- Wrote the crisis playbook the agency now runs as a paid onboarding deliverable; four clients used it live in its first year.
Account Coordinator, Tidewell Public Affairs · June 2017 – January 2019
- Rebuilt media lists of 4,000 journalists around beats rather than outlets, taking pitch-to-placement from 3% to 9%.
- Drafted 60 press releases and the quarterly coverage report across three accounts.
Education
- B.A. Strategic Communication · University of Minnesota Twin Cities · September 2013 – May 2017
Skills
- Media: Media relations, Press materials, Spokesperson training, Editorial pitching, Trade press
- Corporate: Crisis communications, Executive ghostwriting, Internal comms, Issues monitoring, Message houses
- Measurement: Share of voice, Message pull-through, Coverage quality scoring, Muck Rack, Cision
Certifications
- Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) — Public Relations Society of America
