About

Jean Synodinos is an independent consultant with 17 years of experience helping good organizations do great things. With a background in strategic communication and social marketing, she has expanded her work in recent years to include strategic planning and meeting facilitation. She provides realistic, customized, and actionable solutions to organizations being and small–from local nonprofits to federal agencies that have included several divisions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

A passionate trainer, Jean has conducted over 100 highly-rated trainings to over 4,500 participants nationwide. Her expertise has garnered her invitations to present at national conferences for the U.S. Department of Education, the National Dropout Prevention Center, and CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America).

AREAS OF FOCUS

Strategic planning to identify organizational priorities
Strategic communication planning and execution
Social marketing campaign planning and execution
Storytelling/Success story development to move hearts and minds
Mission and vision statement development
Communicating data effectively
Audience identification and formative research
Values-based message development
Policymaker education and advocacy
Digital and print materials development
Strategic use of social/digital media
Spokesperson training
Branding training

REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS & CLIENTS

Strategic Planning

Pennsylvania System of Care (PA CARE Partnership)

Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee

Communication Planning, Coaching, Training and Technical Assistance

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative and National Center on Youth Violence Prevention and Mental Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Youth Violence Prevention Training and Technical Assistance Center

CDC Division of Community Health (Community Transformation Grants and Partnerships to Improve Community Health)

Pennsylvania Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3 (Division of Special Education Services)

Center for Applied Research Solutions

Keynote Addresses & Conference Sessions

World Social Marketing Conference

SAMHSA Safe Schools/Healthy Students annual conferences

CDC Youth Violence Prevention Initiative annual meetings

U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools

Community Anti-Drug Coalition of American

Iowa Department of Education Safe & Supportive Schools

Colorado LAUNCH Together (Early Milestones Colorado)

Georgia Health Policy Center

Alabama Project LAUNCH

Community of Care Network of Kansas

Campaign Development and Execution

The Walmart Foundation National Retail Challenge (Baltimore and Chicago)

National Library of Medicine’s Women’s Health Resources Center

CDC’s Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures

Mental Health Services Administration of New York City’s Managing Stress in an Uncertain Economy

 

Jean lives in her adopted hometown of Austin, TX. In her spare time, she is an award-winning singer-songwriter*, painter, and blogger. Her favorite hour of the week is spent behind the razor wire at the Travis County Correctional Center where she teaches guitar and songwriting to incarcerated men and women as a means of non-violent self-expression.

 

 

*Fun fact: In a rare linkage of passions, Jean composed and produced the music for Show Me How, a video promoting SAMHSA’s Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative which garnered a 2010 Ava Platinum Award for Best Original Music.