NSPRA's Communication Audit Report - Harford County Public ...

Karen H. Kleinz, APR
Karen H. Kleinz, APR, associate executive director of the National School Public Relations
Association (NSPRA), has 27 years experience in public relations, working in the private sector as well as
public education. She has won numerous state and national awards for her work. She is also accredited in
public relations (APR).
Since joining NSPRA in 1998, Karen has led the Association’s public engagement efforts and has
represented NSPRA in collaborative partnerships with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the
Study Circles Resource Center and the Kettering Foundation. Over the past two years she has directed
NSPRA’s learning contract with the Kettering Foundation to develop a community audit process designed
to help school systems and communities assess their ability to successfully engage each other in
supporting student achievement and building public ownership of schools. She has also been very
involved in the issue of school violence and in helping schools and educators communicate with their
publics in a crisis situation, including providing on-site assistance to the Jefferson County (Colo.) Public
Schools communication department in the aftermath of the Columbine High School tragedy. She served
as editor and project coordinator in revising the second edition of NSPRA’s popular Complete Crisis
Communication Management Manual.
Karen has developed and managed school public relations programs for diverse school districts,
from small, semi-rural districts with large non-English speaking minority populations to the largest
elementary district in Arizona, serving suburban Phoenix. As director of district public relations she was
responsible for internal and external communications, including serving as spokesperson in crisis
situations. She also was responsible for media relations, overseeing district publications, training
administrators and teachers in effective communications, promoting community involvement and
volunteerism in the schools, coordinating bond election campaigns and engaging the public in deliberative
discussions about education through study circles and community forums.
Her district experience includes operating as a one-person office to supervising a communications
staff that included a full service print shop. She has created award winning public relations offices in
districts that had none, and expanded programs in districts with established departments. Kleinz also
operated a public relations consulting business in Arizona specializing in school communications. As a
consultant she assisted schools and districts in developing a positive image and work environment
through improved communications. She is the co-author of NSPRA’s best selling Unlocking Sensational
Service: Tools for tapping the people power in your schools CD.
Before joining the NSPRA staff, Kleinz served on the NSPRA Executive Board as Vice President
of the Southwest Region and twice served as President of the Arizona School Public Relations
Association. She was also a member of the Teacher Venture Arizona executive board, a non-profit group
of business and school leaders who distribute classroom mini-grants to teachers annually, and was a
founding board member of the Yuma County (Arizona) Educational Foundation.
NSPRA Communication Audit 107 Harford County Public Schools