Who We Are | Paulette Lee

Paulette Lee has more than 30 years of combined professional experience as an award-winning journalist, integrated marketing communications professional and trainer/instructor. Proficient in French and well-traveled, Lee most recently served as the Development Outreach and Communications Officer for USAID and PEPFAR/Rwanda in Kigali, after earning her Master of International Service degree from American University in Washington, D.C., where she concentrated on development communications and political economy with a focus on MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.

During her graduate studies she brought her communications skills to the international conflict transformation NGO Search for Common Ground, and to the international microfinance institution, FINCA International. In 2006 she spent three months on her own in Ethiopia, teaching at the graduate school level, editing research reports on gender equity, and providing marketing assistance to private sector entrepreneurs committed to sustainable economic development in their country.

Lee spent 10 years in broadcast news. She was Los Angeles’ first female radio news anchor, receiving two prestigious awards for investigative reporting, and produced and reported on-camera for public television. Subsequently, she spent nine years as senior-level communications and marketing staff for health care, civil rights, human services, civic attraction, and retail organizations, initiating new marketing-for-nonprofit ventures and community alliances.

With her extensive background and comprehensive skill sets, Lee began her own consulting business in Pennsylvania’s state capital in 1988, and for 15 years designed, directed and implemented numerous campaigns and projects for primarily nonprofit clients. Her services included project planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation; branding and cooperative promotions; revenue-generation; media relations and government affairs; advertising and sponsorship; special event management; publications and collateral design, writing, editing and production; and board and staff training. A frequent presenter at workshops and seminars, she developed a series of trainings in crisis communications, internal and external communications, marketing for nonprofits, advocacy work, and association membership development that she delivered statewide to municipalities and nonprofits for the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs.

Paulette Lee is TEFL-Certified and an experienced ESL classroom teacher and tutor. She currently serves as Communications Specialist for the Southern Sudanese Voice of Freedom organization.