To effectively compete, companies have learned that engaged employees are the secret sauce. Engaged employees solve problems, take up new challenges, perform better and drive innovation. And when employees are happy, the word gets out, which helps attract, retain and continually motivate a quality workforce.

Melissa Clark, APR, Fellow PRSA, outlines the recipe to cooking up effective communications to build your employer brand, create brand ambassadors, connect with employees to build engagement and boost profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction.

About Melissa

Melissa Clark is a results-oriented, high-performing, seasoned public relations consultant with a proven track record of managing crises, cultivating media relations, building reputations and brands, marketing and helping organizations navigate through periods of significant change.

A Tulsa native, Clark graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. She started her career in broadcast news, working for a variety of stations including Tulsa’s KOTV and KRJH.

She transitioned into public relations and held positions with the University of Missouri, Charleston Symphony Orchestra and American Red Cross’ Southwest Region, where she led the American Red Cross crisis communication response to the Oklahoma City Murrah Building bombing for the first 72 hours, setting up processes, fielding media calls from around the world, and effectively organizing and implementing large-scale communications effort with round-the-clock crisis management that also supported fund-raising efforts. Her work was recognized by former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, who was serving as the American Red Cross president and CEO.

For nearly 20 years, she worked for Williams and its related companies, including Williams Communications and WPX Energy.  In these organizations, she served in a variety of roles including media relations, crisis communications, government affairs, mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, internal communications, community relations and executive communications. She left for a couple of years to serve as executive director of Operation Aware, a non-profit organization, but returned to Williams in 2006 and joined WPX Energy as it spun off from Williams in January 2012.

She has been recognized with multiple local, regional and national awards for her work in public relations – most often in for her large-scale strategic communications planning, video production and speech writing.While at WPX, she drafted the CEO’s testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs seeking repeal of the oil export ban. CEOs and executives regularly rely on her communications counsel for business decisions affecting the company’s brand, reputation and positioning.

Clark left WPX in June 2016 and worked with her consulting firm, which she has held for nearly 15 years. As a consultant, she has helped non-profits and corporations build and execute strategic communications campaigns that include media relations, marketing materials, promotional and instructional videos, various speeches and scripts, website content, ethics programs, celebrations of key milestones and more.

Today, she manages public relations across the state of Oklahoma for Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Clark is accredited in public relations and is a member of PRSA’s College of Fellows and was named Tulsa’s PR Professional of the Year in 2012 by the Tulsa Chapter of PRSA. She has been named as one of the Tulsa Business Journal’s “Women of Distinction” for her contributions to the business and non-profit communities. She is a Leadership Tulsa graduate and has served on numerous local boards supporting women, children and education.

Of all her accomplishments, she considers her three children, Alex, Kate and Will – all now grown – her greatest achievement.