Public Relations
Rachel McCallister
Rachel McCallister is chairman of MPRM Communications, a public relations agency serving the multi-screen universe of media and entertainment. She was founder and president of Rachel McCallister & Associates, which specialized in television and home entertainment, and co-founder and president of KillerApp Communications, the first agency created to provide public relations and promotions specifically for interactive entertainment and communications companies and their products. McCallister currently focuses her efforts on brand positioning and strategy development for the company’s entertainment, technology and lifestyle clients.
In 1993, she was awarded the Publicists Guild's highest honor, the Les Mason Award for outstanding individual achievement.
McCallister has been responsible for the creation and execution of public relations campaigns for television projects ranging from Lonesome Dove and the MTV Video Music Awards to Dynasty, In Living Color, ALF, Buffalo Bill and It's Garry Shandling's Show. She currently consults on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and America’s Next Top Model. She also developed the launch campaigns for cable networks including E! Entertainment Television, FX, Classic Sports Network, Fox Family and SoapNet as well as broadcast networks The CW and MyNetwork TV. She supervised the re-positioning effort for Disney Channel and has consulted with Oxygen, Fox Reality Channel and FUEL TV among others. She has also worked on film release campaigns, including A Brief History of Time and Gettysburg. McCallister enjoys client relationships with many of the top studios and currently works with a number of independent production and distribution companies, including Bunim/Murray Productions, the Gurin Company and Shine International.
An early convert to interactive entertainment, McCallister has been involved in crafting strategies for companies whose technologies are transforming the creation and distribution of entertainment, from RealNetworks and its RealAudio and RealVideo technologies to Movielink, Hands On Mobile and Dolby Digital Cinema, as well as guiding Hollywood studio interactive divisions through broadband and mobile product launches. She has played a role in developing the launch strategy for numerous content distribution companies.
Currently she is Chair emeritus of the Television Executive Publicity Committee (TPEC) and is on the board of PROI, the world’s leading network of independent public relations agencies. She began her service as a Television Academy governor in 2011.
Prior to starting her own company in 1987, McCallister was executive vice president at the Lippin Group. She began her career in public relations at Rogers & Cowan, where she became director, television publicity.
A native of Los Angeles, McCallister graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she majored in politics. She began her career as the public affairs director for KRTH radio and then worked in various production capacities on both daytime and primetime series before moving into public relations.
Russ Patrick
Russ Patrick has headed Patrick Communications since 1993. He has represented the Hallmark Hall of Fame for 26 years and directed the publicity/promotion campaigns for 90 original Hallmark Hall of Fame network presentations. Hallmark Entertainment (now RHI Entertainment) became a client in 1995; the Betty Ford Center became a client two years later. Patrick has served as public relations counsel and/or speechwriter for the heads of several networks and studios, including Fox, NBC, Paramount Television, Turner Entertainment Group and Warner Bros. Entertainment. A native of Vancouver, Canada, Patrick was a reporter, anchor and producer for the CBC radio and television networks (based in Toronto) and professor of journalism at New York University before moving to Los Angeles and entering the public relations business in 1985. He served twice as chairman of the Television Publicity Executives Committee (TPEC), and in 2004 was elected to the Television Academy Board of Governors. He has been co-chair of the Governors Ball Committee, the Public Relations Advisory Committee and the Emmy Publications Committee.
