Laura Barnard, who assumed her position as the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s new director of strategic communications on June 19, said that she could see as soon as she came for an employment interview that “[the federation] is a workplace that is full of very talented, very passionate people.
“And I could see they are very bright. There was a high level of intellectual give and take and I was very drawn to that,” she said in a recent interview in her office on the second floor of the Evan & Marion Helfaer Community Services Building.
Barnard said she is excited to “tell the story of the federation to the community. I want people to know who [the federation is] and the wonderful things we’ve done. I’d like to strengthen the federation’s identity in the minds and hearts” of the community, she said.
While she thinks there are great pieces among the federation’s communications, she wants to “pull together a broad strategic approach” to its message.
The strategic communication director is responsible for the development and execution of the federation’s position in the Milwaukee community. To that end, she maintains all communication from the federation into the community. She also oversees The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
Born and raised in suburban Boston, Barnard earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, both in classical languages.
She taught Greek and Latin at several universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University, while raising two daughters. And then she decided she wanted a change to “something a little more fast paced.”
Thinking that public relations, communication and marketing might fit the bill, Barnard took a position as director of marketing for Covenant Healthcare in 1991, where she continued until this spring.
Barnard lives in Whitefish Bay with her husband Mark.
Rhonda Plotkin also joined the federation staff in June. Plotkin took over as director of the federation-administered Community Capital Campaign, from Norman Olshansky of the Ostroff Group.
The position entails managing the public phase of the campaign, which was launched last month.
Plotkin, a Milwaukee native whose career has taken her from media sales to non-profit development for WUWM, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said she is excited to take on this challenge.
“My heart is really in this organization. I really believe in the mission and the leadership,” she said. Plotkin said she feels she is coming home, in a sense, as her first professional job after graduating from UW-Madison was at The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
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