"I'm not talented enough to be unprepared" —Monroe Stahr, The Last Tycoon
Crisis Management: Decisions and Emotional Intelligence
Social Media Comeback King
Aaron Helmbrecht is a strategic communications consultant serving primarily nonprofit and government clients in Washington, D.C. Most recently he served the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He left government service in January 2025.
Aaron earned his Master of Professional Studies in strategic public relations from The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management in 2017. He interned with Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) after earning his bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge.
Experience
Education
My Work
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Communications Strategist
Independent ConsultantHow does an organization establish a successful communication network with their publics? Start with a plan. As a communications strategist, I specialize in leading event and media marketing campaigns, optimizing content workflow system efficiency, style and Section 508 accessibility compliance, SEO optimization and website management, and much more.
Digital Marketing Associate III
American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAAAS
At AAAS, I learned how to lead a data-driven marketing strategy designed to retain and grow the 3.7 million subscribers of Science magazine and Science.org. Having mastered methods to organize and identify trends from massive amounts of KPI data and present results in concise visual reports, I am confident in my ability to successfully leverage analytics to its maximum potential communications benefit.
Digital Communications Specialist
American Academy of ActuariesThe Academy
As Digital Communications Specialist, I continually modernized digital operations by replacing outdated technology and practices with the latest standards initiatives designed to optimize audience engagement through the integration of digital activities and channels.
Digital Media (Freelance Agent)
The Creative GroupThe Creative Group
Working as a freelance agent is a great way to diversify your skill set. As an agent with The Creative Group, I’d be writing a feature story for Science News magazine one day and designing a recruitment ad for the CIA the next. Building a strong base of knowledge in all areas of communications has made me a better project manager because I know how to communicate the things I need and can set realistic expectations between my principals and outside contractors and vendors.
Public Relations Specialist
American BoardAmerican Board
My public relations career began at American Board. My boss, the public relations director, unexpectedly resigned a few days after hiring me and so her responsibilities fell to me. Despite the fact that I was hired as an assistant right out of college, I was given the job of managing a multi-state media campaign. I made a lot of mistakes in my first year pitching reporters, but I learned quickly from those mistakes. Once I figured out a media strategy that worked in Kansas City, Mo., I knew the same approach would work in Boise, Idaho, and and Greenville, S.C. Before long I was generating headlines, landing broadcast placements, and publishing op-ed nationwide.
Quality Assurance
Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
As an undergraduate student, I worked the night shift at EA testing video game applications. My job was to anticipate how people might use—or misuse—an application in order to identify and report errors in story logic and reproducible bugs.
Education home
George Washington University-home vert
George Washington University
Graduate School of Political ManagementMy graduate education prepared me to be a leader in my profession. I learned how to prepare a strategic communications plan, present a communications case study, and plan a departmental budget proposal. What sets George Washington University’s GSPM program apart from state and community colleges is their unbelievable networking resources. I was able to discuss PR strategies with Jill Zuckman, managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, learn crisis management tactics from Eric Dezenhall, CEO of Dezenhall Resources, and spent a week studying media and globalization at the American University of Paris with Lee Huebner, former speech writer for Richard Nixon.
California State University, Northridge
My undergraduate studies primarily focused on vocational skills used in the media and public relations industry. I was taught the AP Stylebook, the inverted pyramid style of news writing, the active voice style used in speech writing, copyright and first amendment law, and much more. My favorite quote about speech writing came from CSUN professor Rick Marks, who said, “Write like you talk; unless you’re from the Bronx.”
Los Angeles Valley College
The incredible professors at Los Angeles Valley College taught me the core principles of critical thinking and storytelling, and how to use them to write and deliver persuasive speeches. The most valuable lesson I learned at LAVC is that effective communication begins with defining your objectives and knowing your audience. This is always the first thing I consider before drafting a message.
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