BERG & ASSOCIATES

Triumph over crisis
with bold, decisive
leadership

PR & Issues Management

Turning 'bad' Press
into Good News

We trade in fear for confidence. We turn differing opinions into a united front. And replace “bad” press with good communication. We help you navigate a way forward through sticky situations, to not only protect your reputation, but hopefully come out ahead.

Contact Us

    Communications

  • Litigation PR
  • Issues management
  • Crisis communications
  • Employee communications
  • Media relations
  • Strategy & planning
  • Content marketing
  • Research
  • Advocacy campaigns

    • Workshops

  • Media training
  • Crisis communications workshops
  • Presentation training
  • Meeting facilitation
  • Customized workshops

    • Leadership Development

  • Executive coaching
  • Leadership consulting
  • Mission critical support

Protecting Your Reputation

Trust is the goal. It’s what you’ve worked so hard to build with your employees, customers, investors, and partners. We use smart research, proven strategies, and unmatched expertise to protect your reputation and the trust people have in you. Our guidance will lead with: live your values, know and meet the expectations of your stakeholders, and fulfill your promises. We currently serve regional and global clients in the energy, technology, aviation, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, hospitality and government sectors.

Awards
Memberships and Certifications
Buiness Oregon Emerging Business Buiness Oregon Women Owned PRSA Counselors Academy Portland Business Alliance APR PRSA West Side Alliance

We are Berg & Associates

Not just an agency, but a community of amazing people helping forward the goals and missions of those around us… from our clients to our employees to the causes we stand for and work with.

CEO and founder, Shannon Berg, takes two decades of big PR firm experience to create a more personalized, value-driven agency, dedicated to the modern needs of today’s organizations, tackling both traditional and digital media complexities.

Clients rave that hiring Shannon is like getting a “master class” in crisis management. Her expertise is not only in seeing the path to success and gaining support from all stakeholders involved, but in helping educate and empower an organization for future challenges.

Shannon Berg

Shannon Berg, APR

Michael Dauphinee

Michael Dauphinee

Megan Deisler

Megan Deisler

Megan Forell

Megan Forell

Melissa McNamara

Melissa McNamara

Jessica Moss

Jessica Moss

X
Shannon Berg

Shannon Berg, APR

sberg@bergassociatesnw.com
503-347-8822
LinkedIn

Shannon Berg, APR, is the Founder & CEO of Berg & Associates. Shannon has more than 20 years of PR consulting experience and specializes in crisis communications and issues management. Shannon has expertise in litigation PR, labor communications, reputation management, incident response and a broad range of regulatory, employment and industry-related issues. She is an experienced workshop facilitator and has built a suite of trainings to help businesses evolve and elevate their communications skills and crisis preparedness. In addition to advising clients, Shannon enjoys speaking to communicators and industry groups on the role of communications in effective crisis response.

Prior to founding Berg & Associates, Shannon was an owner and managing partner of a regional public affairs firm, where she led issues advocacy campaigns, conducted media and presentation trainings and provided crisis communications, issues management and litigation PR consulting services.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Shannon served as the director of communications for the City of Detroit and press secretary to Detroit’s mayor. In that post she played an integral role in the city’s response to the 3-day Northeast blackout of 2013. From there, her crisis communications experience expanded to include class action and high-profile litigation, data breaches, employment and labor disputes, regulatory threats and complex issues management.

Shannon graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in public relations. She earned her APR accreditation and is a Leadership Detroit and Leadership Portland alumni. Shannon is FEMA certified in early terrorism warning and response and earned a PRSA masters course certification in crisis communications.

She lives in Southwest Portland with her husband Erik and their children, Charlie, age 9, Frances, age 7, and Ingrid, age 5. When she’s not working or parenting, she’s hitting the trails with Hilda, her standard poodle, training for a trail race.

Michael Dauphinee

Michael Dauphinee

For more than a decade, Michael Dauphinee has devoted his life to helping leaders create positive change – for themselves, their employees, and the organization. Michael is the founder of the Dauphinee Group and TDK Adventures, providing leadership development and coaching to executives, leaders and entrepreneurs. Michael has had an insatiable interest in understanding the world’s most effective leaders and mapping the key elements to their success. He organized these ideas into the simple concept of a compass. “The Identity Compass,” is based on the four core values a leader needs to balance to amplify their influence and clarity.

Michael’s nontraditional approach to business and leadership have earned him invitations to consult with an array of leaders and organizations, including: Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Shinola, The Detroit Lions, United Way Worldwide, The San Diego Padres, US Olympic Committee, USA Archery, Civila- Detroit, US State Dept., Home Depot, St. John’s Hospital System, and United Way of Metro Dallas.

In 2010 Dauphinee began working on a framework for identity-based leadership development but in fragile and conflict-affected regions of the world. With initiatives in Costa Rica, Nigeria, and Afghanistan, He has had the honor of sharing his ideas at the Afghan National Assembly, with members of the Afghan Security Council, Phoenix Industries, San Jose, CR and Faith Alive Hospital, Jos, Nigeria. Mike shares his passion with all he comes in contact with, speaking at retreats and corporate gatherings around the world.

Megan Deisler

Megan Deisler

mdeisler@bergassociatesnw.com

For more than 13 years, Megan Deisler has led successful communication strategies that resonate with her client’s stakeholders, drive customer preference and advance business goals. Megan’s natural talent for building relationships and asking the right questions allow her to gain a deep understanding of her clients’ needs, what success means to them and what their audiences value. Her strong organization skills keep projects and teams moving forward.

Prior to joining Berg & Associates in November 2019, Megan worked at Legacy Health, serving as a senior member of the Public & Community Relations team advising the chief executive officer, senior leadership and clinical teams on effective corporate, crisis and internal communication strategies. Megan also has agency experience having previously worked with Berg & Associates founder, president and CEO, Shannon Berg, at a Pacific Northwest public affairs firm. She worked alongside Shannon to develop and execute public and community relations campaigns, crisis communications training and strategies, and events for a wide range of high-profile clients.

Megan earned her stripes right out of college on Capitol Hill serving as Deputy Press Secretary to a United States Senator. She learned how to run a busy press office where her responsibilities changed almost by the minute. Whether it was organizing national press conferences, staffing the Senator at high-stakes national media interviews, speechwriting, placing stories and opinion pieces, or managing the Senator’s monthly newsletter, there was never a shortage of learning opportunities.

Megan is a native Oregonian who grew up in Portland and went to college at the University of Oregon where she studied Public Relations at the School of Journalism. She still lives in Portland with her husband Eric and her two young boys, George, 4, and Maxwell who was born in June 2019. Together, they enjoy exploring Oregon and all its diverse and beautiful treasures.

Megan Forell

Megan Forell

mforell@bergassociatesnw.com

A Portland native, Megan’s experience spans 15 years of marketing and public relations. From wrangling NBA players to media coaching engineers and brewmasters, Megan has extensive experience in brand strategy, public relations writing, advertising, strategic planning and event management for iconic brands including McMenamins and Portland Trailblazers.

When not managing her 3-kid circus, Megan enjoys running with friends, exploring Portland’s restaurant scene and planning her next travel adventure.

Hannah Smith

Jessica Moss

jmoss@bergassociatesnw.com

Jessica draws on two decades of experience as a professional communicator to serve as a powerhouse researcher and content creator for Berg & Associates’ clients. Jessica specializes in making difficult storytelling assignments easy. Have a complex issue? Jessica can turn it into an easy-to-digest set of facts. Want to share your message but don’t know where to start? She will dig in to find the information, people and angle that will make your story resonate with your audiences. Jessica also partners with CEO Shannon Berg to conduct media and presentation trainings.

Starting her career as a television journalist in Florida, Oregon and Washington State, Jessica learned early on how to distill large amounts of information into an accessible story with speed and accuracy. Just prior to her work in public relations, she was the executive producer, anchor and reporter for a weekly magazine-style news program that covered public policy issues for TVW – Washington State’s version of C-SPAN. She gained deep experience on a range of complex legislative and regulatory issues from social services and transportation to education and health care. While at TVW, she produced and hosted documentaries on health care reform implementation and the embattled state ferry system.

Before joining Berg & Associates, Jessica earned her stripes in public relations at a regional Pacific Northwest agency, where she helped build and execute small and large-scale integrated communications and public affairs campaigns on behalf of high-profile clients in a wide range of industries.

Jessica grew up in Florida and graduated summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University’s communication honors program in Dallas, Texas. Today, she is a near graduate of early parenthood with her daughter Margot in kindergarten, and son Cooper following suit soon. Outside the office, Jessica and her husband spend an inordinate amount of time talking about, sourcing and cooking food, and enjoying the amenities of their little pocket of Northeast Portland.

Melissa McNamara

Melissa McNamara

mmcnamara@bergassociatesnw.com

Melissa McNamara is a marketing pro with a nearly two decades of experience leading client relationships, strategy and teams to implement successful large-scale marketing campaigns. Most recently, she was a senior account manager for Obility, a Portland-based digital marketing agency that focuses entirely on B2B tech companies. Melissa was known for cultivating relationships and gaining trust with her clients through clear lines of communication. Bottom line: She’s unmatched at making complex projects easy for her client and the team she’s leading.

Prior to agency work, Melissa spent more than a decade working as an in-house marketing lead for broadcast stations, including Rose City Radio and KGW Media Group. For both TV and radio, she worked with clients to plan and execute integrated marketing campaigns that included broadcast, print, digital and event sponsorships. Her responsibilities included growing strategic relationships with premier organizations like Nike, the Portland Trailblazers and the Rose Festival, as well as implementing high-profile station initiatives that focused on community benefit and involvement.

At Berg & Associates, Melissa leads internal and client-facing project management initiatives as well as design and execution of marketing activities.

A native of Southeast Portland, Melissa has settled with her family in Lake Oswego. She enjoys embarking on new adventures with her husband and son, as well as frequenting wine country with a great group of gal pals. She has recently become a Barre 3 addict.

“Shannon Berg and John MacDonald’s media training has been extremely valuable in getting Zillow executives prepared to engage with reporters. Their best practice, hands-on approach to media training helps shape messaging around key topics, and elevates the skills of even the most practiced spokesperson.”

-Jordyn Lee, Communications Manager, Zillow

“Shannon expertly guides her clients through the toughest situations. She brings clarity to chaos. She helps leaders make smart decisions that help organization’s rise above even the worst-case scenario. If your company has any chance of reputational risk, Shannon’s crisis planning is a worthy investment.”

-Brian S. Terrett, MBA, APR, Fellow PRSA

“We asked Shannon to work with us to develop a customer service training designed to ensure every interaction meets our high standards for safety, excellence and customer satisfaction. Shannon delivered. She worked with us to create a custom workshop that’s engaging and easy to follow. We’re now using it with our entire team and with every new employee who joins us.”

-Michael Griffiths, CEO, Life Flight Network

"Shannon Berg is a skilled advocate and a proven friend to Oregon’s agriculture and natural resources communities. If you’re in a fight for your reputation, business or industry, you want Shannon Berg in your corner.”

-Barry Bushue, Oregon Farm Bureau President

“As a leader at a Fortune 100 company, it’s part of our culture to continuously improve. I left my workshop feeling like I had to the skills, confidence, and a roadmap to deliver a memorable presentation in any environment. And even more than that, I’m better prepared to lead meetings and build consensus on a daily basis. Shannon’s presentation training is essential skill building for leaders at every level.”

-Christian Lee, Exelon Corporation

“Shannon’s leadership and strategic thinking in the Owyhee No Monument campaign was critical to our success. Simply put, Shannon is experienced, tough, smart, focused and committed to her clients. She is organized and laser-focused on both strategy and details.”

- Andy Bentz, Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition