Our Staff

Posted by .

Our StaffOur Staff

Cream of the Crop

Each member of the M&P team brings a different perspective to the table; our diverse backgrounds could make us “The Breakfast Club” of public relations agencies. Team members’ varied experiences, working for top global agencies to small firms, nonprofit organizations to in-house roles, give us a broad spectrum of industry insight.

Brenda McDowell

Brenda co-founded M&P in March 1987 after various positions on the agency, corporate and media sides of the communications field, including a publishing company, Kellogg’s and Marian Tripp Communications, Inc.  She also worked with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program; wrote for a newspaper and regional magazine; and authored two cookbooks.

Under Brenda’s direction, the agency has retained two 20-year client relationships; and currently includes Seneca Foods – 12 years and Dreamfields Pasta – 7 years.. A true hands-on leader, Brenda participates in all client account planning, strategic development and program execution.  In addition, she oversees client food photography, video production and M&P culinary endeavors such as recipe concepting and development.

Brenda is an active member of significant food and business associations such as the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the American Institute of Wine & Food, the Southern Foodways Alliance, the Publicity Club of Chicago and Les Dames d’Escoffier.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Brenda holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of South Carolina and a M.S. in Foods from Winthrop College (Rock Hill, SC).  She brings her small town farming roots to downtown Chicago, while currently residing just blocks from some of the city’s hottest restaurants.

Liz provides more than 30 years of business and industry expertise to M&P. She consults with each of the client account teams to help create and deliver strategic, impactful and engaging programs.

As team leader on the Dreamfields pasta account, Liz has grown that business three-fold with strategic outreach programs directed toward healthcare professionals and target consumers.

Prior to joining M&P, Liz held senior management positions at several global PR agencies, working on blue chip food and beverage clients such as: Kraft, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ensure Nutritionals, Barilla, Sunsweet and Brown-Forman Beverage Company. Liz was also owner-president of The Communications Consortium, one of the first virtual marketing communications agencies.

A true Hoosier, Liz received a B.A. degree from Indiana University at Bloomington with a major in Journalism and a minor in Business. Married with three children and two dogs, Liz loves to cook for a crowd and is famous for her annual Thanksgiving morning “Turkeybowl” celebrations where she serves up breakfast and touch football for more than 70 friends, family and neighbors.

Sara Mattillion

Sara is our nutrition expert. She has a B.S. degree in Nutrition, Health & Wellness from Northern Illinois University. Her up-to-date nutrition knowledge and passion for delicious, healthy food is an asset to our team. She assists in recipe editing and nutrition analyses as well as consulting on how to make recipes healthier, while maintaining taste.

Sara will be pursuing her M.S. in Nutrition & Dietetics this fall (2017). She will also undertake a dietetic internship to earn her RDN certification as well as a certificate in Eating Disorders and Obesity. Targeted areas of study will include: working with local farmers markets and community garden programs, overweight children and people affected by eating disorders.

In her free time Sara enjoys lifting heavy weights, the great outdoors, cooking and baking.

Lynn Petrak

Lynn has more than 20 years’ experience in food communications, from working in public relations and nutrition information for the National Live Stock and Meat Board and the Dairy Council of Wisconsin to writing for trade publications including Meat and Poultry, Baking & Snack, Dairy Field, Progressive Grocer, Retail Leader and the National Provisioner, among others. That combination of organizational and editorial writing has given her a true and balanced perspective on issues and trends impacting the farm-to-table food chain.

In addition, she provides media strategy consulting including national, regional and local pitching. Lynn is a contributor to the best-selling book Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, the author of a children’s book, Goodbye Lake and a weekly columnist at her hometown newspaper in La Grange. Ill.  She and her husband have four children and reside in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Madeline Coe

Maddie is a rising senior studying journalism at Northwestern University and this is her second summer interning with us at M&P. Besides reporting for her campus broadcast station, taking her dog on long walks and reading The New Yorker, her passion is food! Creating content over M&P’s social media platforms has created a unique space for a combination of her favorite pastimes: writing and food.

Comments are closed.

Website Design Copyright © 2012 Web Design by elliottsweb.com Website designed by: Elliottsweb.com