PARKER BLACKMAN
	DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE

Parker Blackman has been working in public interest communications, advocacy and organizational development for over 12 years. He serves as lead communication strategist leading branding, positioning, communications planning and media relations strategy for a range of clients, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's education program, Civic Ventures' "Purpose Prize," Sports4Kids, and the Atlas Family Foundation. He is also serving as a lead communications consultant to four foundations - the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and the Stuart Foundation. The foundations have funded Stanford University to lead a comprehensive review of California's K-12 public education system, and Blackman is consulting on the communications strategy for releasing the findings in the spring of 2007.

Blackman formerly served as press secretary for Arianna Huffington's run for governor of California and as a communications advisor for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. As the lead communications strategist on the Evangelical Environmental Network's "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign, Blackman was instrumental in leveraging a modest campaign budget into $3-4 million worth of free media.

As the former executive director of Washington Public Interest Research Group, Blackman led a campaign that successfully blocked the construction of a major oil pipeline in Washington and created new accident prevention and enforcement standards for all existing pipelines in the state. He is the former director of the PIRG National Fellowship Program and opened PIRG's first Intermountain West field office serving the western United States. A former organizer for Green Corps, Blackman received a B.A. in U.S. history from Stanford University.