NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
http://www.nsula.edu/news
1/14/2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES –Direct mail expert Hal Malchow, pollster Whit Ayres and communications consultant Michael Sheehan will be the first three speakers in the Winning Communications Lecture Series which begins Thursday at Northwestern State University.
The Lecture Series is being offered through Northwestern State University’s Office of Electronic and Continuing Education and Department of Journalism. NSU students will be able to enroll in Journalism 4100, “Opinion Writing: Persuasive Communications. Non-students can take part though a non-credit course for $99 or $15 per session.
The instructor for the course is Raymond Strother, a leading political consultant and the 2007-08 Erbon W. and Marie Wise Endowed Chair in Journalism, at Northwestern. The class will be held on Thursdays from 5 p.m. until 7:50 p.m. in Room 146 of the Family and Consumer Sciences Building.
Malchow will lead off the series on Jan. 17, followed by Ayres on Jan. 24 and Sheehan on Jan. 31.
Malchow is president of MSHC Partners and a leader in the field of persuasion mail marketing. His creative work has won numerous awards from the International Direct Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the American Association of Political Consultants. He is the author of “The New Political Targeting,” published by Campaigns & Elections.
In 2005, Malchow received the Sisk Award for pioneering vision that has shaped the direct marketing industry. The last two recipients were the marketing director at NIKE and the National Geographic Society.
Before entering the direct mail business in 1985, he managed four major campaigns including the first Senate campaign of Al Gore.
Ayres graduated cum laude from Davidson College with a major in political science. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His firm provided polling for Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell's upset of Wyche Fowler in 1992 and Tennessee Senator Bill Frist's upset of Jim Sasser in 1994. Other political clients include U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Governors David Beasley and Carroll Campbell of South Carolina and Alexander’s 1996 presidential campaign.
His comments and analysis appear periodically in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today and numerous regional newspapers. He also appears periodically on Fox News, CNN and National Public Radio.
Ayres served as Senior Executive Assistant for Budget and Policy to Governor Carroll Campbell in South Carolina. He has also served as a tenured member of the political science faculty at the University of South Carolina.
Sheehan has been a leader in the field of communications consulting for more than 25 years. He has prepared countless corporate spokespersons for programs including Nightline, 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, Good Morning America and Crossfire and prepares senior corporate executives to step into the media/public affairs spotlight.
Sheehan coached President Bill Clinton during the 1992 and 1996 campaigns, presidential debates, and for all of his Inaugural, State of the Union, and Oval Office addresses. He coached both John Kerry and John Edwards for the 2004 Presidential/Vice Presidential Debates.
In 1988, Sheehan was debate coach for former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen in his celebrated debate with Vice President Dan Quayle, and for Vice President Al Gore in his CNN debate with H. Ross Perot as well as the 1996 Vice Presidential Debate with Jack Kemp. Since 1988, he has been hired by the Democratic National Committee for every convention to edit the texts and rehearse all speakers, including the party's nominees and keynote speakers, for their nationally televised convention speeches.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama. He is a guest lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In 1991, he received the Individual Achievement Award from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association and was recently named to the Leadership Council for the Yale School of Drama.
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