The recipient of the 2022 Greenlee Young Alumni Award is Kelly Howard. This award recognizes a Greenlee School graduate under 40 years of age or with fewer than 15 years of professional experience who has demonstrated excellence within their field.
An accomplished and passionate public relations professional and strategist, Howard is the CEO of EightSixtySouth, a strategic communications agency operating in both Los Angeles and New York.
Having served as Post + Beam’s west coast director for several years, Howard acquired the company in October 2016, leading the company through a full rebrand – introducing the new EightSixtySouth in 2017.
Howard is a member of the PR Couture Council, a contributor to forbes.com, a member of the Forbes Los Angeles Small Business Council and was named Communicator of the Year during PR Couture’s 2018 Bespoke Communication Awards. She has spoken and conducted sessions at Women in Media Los Angeles, NYU, Simply Stylist, BOSS Talks, The Collective Conference, Savoir Collab’s “Wild Women Series,” California Market Center, NerdyGirl Academy and at Iowa State University, who selected her for the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2020, an award bestowed to only one select individual a year across the entire university.
She has been featured in Forbes, New York Magazine, BondTwenty, IdeaMensch, Mavenly, Brit+Co, Business Insider, VoyageLA, HerCampus and Buzzfeed, among others.
Howard is seasoned in creating targeted approaches for consumer brands in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle markets. Specializing in cross-channel marketing and drawing from expertise in public relations, content strategy and digital, her work builds meaningful and ROI-focused brand experiences for a diverse roster of clients.
Howard has dedicated her time to speak to Iowa State classes and clubs and hires interns from Iowa State. She’s an annual member of the Iowa State University Alumni Association and resides in California.