Company to Specialise in Media Training, Public Speaking Prep and Media Relations
Today media veteran Cindi Creager and her partner Rainie Cole officially launched CreagerCole Communications, a new company specialising in media training, public speaking preparation and media relations. Creager previously served as GLAAD’s National News Director.
Creager began her tenure at GLAAD in May of 2005, and concluded her service in December 2010. During her GLAAD years she worked tirelessly to elevate the voices of LGBT people and allies across the nation. Most notably she helped:
- Elke Kennedy, whose 20-year-old gay son Sean was brutally murdered in Greenville, South Carolina, tell her story to CNN, contributing to the ultimate passage of an LGBT inclusive federal hate crimes law.
- Anthony Bustos, an Army Sergeant who came out publicly on ABC World News Tonight at great professional risk under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, putting a face to the discriminatory law that was eventually repealed.
- Janice Langbehn, who was turned away at a Miami hospital while her partner Lisa Pond, lay dying. Langbehn’s story in The New York Times prompted the Obama Administration to change federal policy with respect to hospital visitation by same-sex couples. Langbehn also won the Presidential Citizen’s Medal for having the bravery to share her story and provoke change. Langbehn credits Creager for helping her find her voice and articulate it confidently on a national stage.
During her tenure at GLAAD, Creager also led campaigns including: In March of 2006, she persuaded the Associated Press, to restrict use of the offensive and outdated term “homosexual” in coverage of gay and lesbian people, and encourage use of the term “transgender” over other outdated phrases and terms; these changes ensured that thousands of subsequent LGBT related stories and headlines were in line with the most contemporary standards of fairness. In July of 2010, Creager’s work led NBC’s “Today Show” to open its “Modern Wedding Contest” to same-sex couples. She also conducted key diversity meetings with top executives at NBC Universal, CBS Television, and Reuters, which strengthened standards for LGBT related coverage at each of the media conglomerates. In addition, Creager held The New York Times accountable for an offensive article on bisexuality, which led to a high-level editorial meeting between bi advocates, GLAAD and The New York Times.
“Cindi Creager has a phenomenal track record in the national media arena,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Her commitment to helping countless LGBT people thrive in the media spotlight has helped shape the national dialogue about LGBT people. GLAAD looks forward to potential collaborations with CreagerCole Communications in the future.”
After leaving GLAAD, Creager joined the senior leadership team at New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center from December 2010 to July 2012. As the Center’s Director of Communications & Marketing, she oversaw the Center’s external communications initiatives and led the first two phases of a comprehensive re-branding effort before leaving to start her own firm.
Prior to GLAAD and the Center, Creager spent 13-years as a local news director, reporter and anchor in Alaska, working for KTVF and KTVA, and field producer/cinematographer in New York City, working for ABC News, PBS Frontline producer Raney Aronson (recently named one of NewsPro’s “Most Powerful in TV News” and appointed to Deputy Executive Producer of Frontline), and several independent documentary producers. She earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. During her tenure at ABC News, Creager shot and field-produced for the network series “Hopkins 24/7” about life inside Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the program won a Columbia DuPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. She lives in New York City’s Greenwich Village with Rainie Cole, her partner of 14 years. Creager and Cole were legally married in Connecticut in 2008. Cole is co-founder of CreagerCole Communications with a solid background in theatre, television production and cabaret; she will run business and logistics operations for CreagerCole Communications.
Recent CreagerCole clients include: former Tempe, Arizona Mayor, former GLAAD President and current CEO, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Neil Giuliano, who is promoting his memoir, The Campaign Within: A Mayor’s Private Journey to Public Leadership; Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, NYC’s LGBT synagogue, which is spotlighting Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum’s 20th Anniversary and its ongoing capital campaign; John Tiffany, author of Eleanor Lambert: Still Here; and Wayne Self, composer/playwright and up-and-coming blogger, who founded Owldolatrous Productions.