Baumgarten Public Relations, LLC, provides media relations, media training, and crisis communications consulting services for individuals and organizations.
Roger Baumgarten is a 22-year veteran of public/media relations and crisis communications--as a practitioner and trainer--for the American Red Cross, United Way, Keep America Beautiful, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. He is currently director of media relations for The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
Baumgarten was one of only two dozen professional communicators nationwide to serve on the American Red Cross disaster public affairs "Rapid Response Team" from 1995-96, and as press secretary for the Corrections Department in 1997 he handled media relations following two major prison escapes and for a scheduled execution. He has media-trained disaster public affairs officers and prison public information officers. As public relations manager for the Capital Region Red Cross from 1990-96, Baumgarten achieved unprecedented levels of media coverage that produced higher public participation in--and significantly elevated fund-raising totals for--the organization's efforts on behalf of the community.
Baumgarten has been interviewed frequently on television, radio, and in print, and his appearances include CNN and CBS This Morning. He also prepared then-Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole for disaster-site interviews following Hurricane Opal in 1995. He has received an IABC Silver Award for excellence in public relations, and he received the Distinguished Service Award from the City of Harrisburg for his work with the Red Cross. He also has completed FEMA's Advanced Public Information Officer training. Baumgarten graduated from Brown University in 1982.
Baumgarten is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and the Pennsylvania Public Relations Society, and he has served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Press Club since 2004.
