Karla Thornhill Coleman, MBA, is a veteran strategist, project manager, and communicator with experience working in nonprofit and corporate environments as well as at the grassroots, community level. Her expertise includes strategic planning, marketing, public relations, digital content creation, traditional writing and editing, and event coordination. She worked for four years at the Detroit Medical Center as a marketing specialist and then 14 years at General Motors, moving up the ranks from communications specialist to group manager responsible for the production of all media materials, globally, and then internal and external communications for 10 plants. After leaving GM in 2009, she launched her own public relations and marketing agency working with clients around the country.
In the last five years, Coleman has directed her interests to public health, particularly maternal and child health and equity, working as Director of Communications for The Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, serving on the board of directors for Baby 1st Network of Ohio, as racial equity and communications faculty/expert for the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) and the NAPPSS-IIN project consultant — facilitating strategic planning and key messaging sessions, assisting with program management, content development, and event coordination.
Coleman is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Journalism and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan. She is also on the Community of Caring Development Foundation board in Columbus, Ohio, which focuses on such social determinants of health as community wealth building, education, affordable housing, and individual health and wellness.