About CP Knowhow

With two decades of experience in communications, writing and media, Cynthia Powell, owner of CP Knowhow,  is a big-picture strategic thinker and a guerrilla PR practitioner.

Cynthia plans and leads nonprofit and corporate positioning and media campaigns that get the word out in ink, create blogger buzz, and put client spokespeople on radio and TV. She ghostwrites and places op-eds, letters to the editor, and news articles.  She writes and develops brochures, websites, and reports for nonprofits, government agencies, and corporations large and small.

She spent four weeks in Haiti during the second month after the January 2010 earthquake, where she was communications consultant for HelpAge International, a nonprofit that serves and advocates for older people in developing countries.  Other current and recent clients include The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Shady Grove Fertility Center, Arnold DC, and Capital Performance Group.

As public relations director for U.S. News & World Report until early 2008, Cynthia started an in-house PR operation nearly from scratch, supervising an outside PR firm and hiring a full-time staff.  During her tenure, national TV and radio news interviews of staff writers and editors increased by more than 50 percent.  She oversaw six to eight national media campaigns a year for the magazine’s “Bests” series.  She created content and oversaw design for the magazine’s first-ever online pressroom, www.usnews.com/pr.

In the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa, Cynthia served as a community health volunteer in a rural village and then led communications efforts for the Niger office of a nongovernmental organization, Plan International.

Before Peace Corps, Cynthia worked for two international public relations firms in Washington, DC — APCO Associates and then Fleishman Hillard – over the course of seven years.  At both firms, she played a key role in business development efforts and proposal writing in addition to managing client work.  Prior to moving to Washington in 1996, Cynthia directed media relations for World Learning, a nonprofit international educational services and development organization based in Brattleboro, VT, and Washington.

She began her communications career as a daily reporter for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Lawrence, MA; the State House News Service, Boston, MA; the Times Record, Brunswick, ME; and an occasional freelancer for the New York Times and the Boston Phoenix.

Cynthia has a master of science in journalism from Boston University and a bachelor of arts in history from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude.  She speaks fluent French; superior Spanish and Hausa; and a handful key phrases in Creole.  She volunteers as public relations chair for the DC Ad Club‘s annual awards event, the DC ADDYs, and she’s a membership ambassador for Public Relations Society of America.