Rosemary Martinelli, BAJ, MACC

With more than 25 years of professional experience in corporate communications, marketing, public relations, brand visioning, multimedia communications, news and public affairs, and corporate citizenship/philanthropy, Rosemary Martinelli has worked for nonprofits and corporations throughout the United States.  Her experience spans industries from retail to multimedia to academia to energy, nonprofit, and technology organizations. In those companies and organizations, she has served in a variety of capacities as a news reporter and producer, assignment editor, consultant, corporate spokesperson, marketing and philanthropy executive, and published writer.   Her communications work also included tenures at various media organizations in the roles of news director, reporter, writer, creative services director, and marketing executive for stations including WDUQ (NPR), KDKA, WQED Multimedia, and WPXI-TV.

Ms. Martinelli’s professional work has been honored with dozens of communications and professional awards, including five Mid-Atlantic Emmy nominations for television promotion; a Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Award;   National Bellringer Awards for Community Relations Excellence; International Association of Business Communicators Golden Triangle Awards; Association for Women in Communications Matrix/Clarion Awards; Public Relations Society of America awards; Golden Quill Award for Journalistic Excellence; and awards from the American Gas Association and Utility Communicators International. 

Ms. Martinelli also received the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh’s Tribute to Women Award in communications, one of the highest recognitions given to women of leadership in the Pittsburgh region. For her dedication to teaching, the University of Phoenix honored her with a Distinguished Faculty of the Year Award in 2011.

She has served, with distinction, on the boards of directors of a variety of community organizations, including Beginning with Books, the Roberto Clemente Foundation, The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, and the Communications Advisory Board of The Pennsylvania State University—Beaver Campus, to name a few. In Fall, 2020, she will take on the role of chairperson for Penn State Greater Allegheny's Faculty Senate.

Ms. Martinelli is often called upon to write for journals, magazines and nationally-published books on topics related to marketing, media relations, communications and social responsibility. She most recently was a featured expert on community relations as a business strategy in the book “Recalculating,” a compendium of small business strategies from 97 of the country’s top business writers and consultants. She also authored articles and book chapters for PR News Press and the Council on Foundations.  She is a sought-after speaker and trainer in communications, non-profit management, and integrated marketing workshops. In 2018 and 2019, she served as a conference speaker for the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Conference where she shared her professional work and provided training in 1) how to secure corporate and foundations grants for multimedia educational programs and video production and 2) how to strategically position communications and journalism degrees in a changing media society. 

At Penn State Greater Allegheny, Ms. Martinelli serves as the faculty advisor to The GA-Zette, the campus newspaper, and she is currently working with interested students to form a campus speech club that will affiliate with internationally-known Toastmasters.  

Teaching Interests: Broadcasting, Journalism, News Writing, Media Relations, Marketing and Public Relations, Corporate Citizenship, Writing and Marketing Communications

Area(s) of Expertise: Broadcasting, Journalism, News Writing, Media Relations, Marketing and Public Relations, Corporate Citizenship, Writing and Marketing Communications