Tracy Sefl

Tracy Sefl is a nationally recognized communications specialist with particular expertise in elite media and issue advocacy.

As a media specialist, the New York Times has noted her ability to create media “without fingerprints.” As a senior-level consultant, Sefl has been commended for applying her strong media sensibilities across diverse client teams and issue sets. In 2012, she and her colleagues were awarded “Public Affairs Campaign of the Year” from the American Association of Political Consultants .

Sefl advises advocacy groups, labor unions, political candidates and campaigns, and Fortune 500 companies for whom she has managed media campaigns for spokespeople and principals, developed positioning for corporate leadership, managed communications for high-stakes issue campaigns, and served in high-pressure “war rooms” for two presidential and numerous other campaigns. Working with executives, candidates and elected officials, she has prepared clients for high-profile media activities across the spectrum of media outlets.

Education

Tracy Sefl received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and music at Cornell College and earned a Masters of Arts and conducted Ph.D. studies in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Career

Before launching her independent consulting practice, Sefl was Senior Vice President and Principal for the then-bipartisan Navigators Global consulting firm and served as Vice President at The Glover Park Group in Washington, DC. In those roles, she led successful national media efforts for issue advocacy campaigns and corporate causes, earning a reputation for consistently delivering high-level visibility for her clients.

Sefl launched and directed communications efforts for the national advocacy group Wal-Mart Watch, which is often described as one of the most successful corporate reputation campaigns of the era. She garnered the organization international attention for corporate wage and policy issues, driving the most high profile, fast-paced and critical media attention the company had ever experienced. Among other major victories, she helmed a successful campaign to make emergency contraception available in Wal-Mart's nearly 4,000 U.S. pharmacies.

In addition to advising her clients, Sefl serves as a political pundit in print and on television and has been a featured speaker at Harvard Institute of Politics. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of RAINN, which operates the national sexual assault hotline, and is a co-founder of the Advisory Council for Child Trafficking , whose efforts were highlighted in President Obama’s address at the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative and who co-sponsored in April 2012 the first of its kind multidisciplinary symposium on meeting the needs of child sex trafficking survivors at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sefl also managed complex communications efforts for several high-profile events and advised the Hillary Clinton for President campaign on national media strategy and tactics. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Sefl served as an advisor to Chairman Terry McAuliffe of the Democratic National Committee and conducted rapid response in the Kerry-Edwards war room.

Sefl was a senior advisor to the Ready for Hillary SuperPAC until it disbanded in April 2015 with Clinton’s announcing her candidacy for president.^[1]

Personal life

Tracy Sefl and husband Darius Tandon, associate professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, split time between Chicago and Washington, DC.

References