TEAM
CLAUDIA BROOKS D’AVANZO
Claudia Brooks D’Avanzo is founder and president of Creative Communications Consultants, a marketing communications and public relations agency. With over 35 years’ experience, she’s designed national, award-winning programs in consumer and lifestyle marketing, hospitality, retail, travel and tourism, sports marketing, healthcare, B2B, government and non-profit.
Prior to starting CCC, Claudia was an SVP with FleishmanHillard. While at FH, she managed the consumer marketing practice for the firm’s Southeast headquarters office. She started her career with MSL Group and Lockheed Martin.
Her expertise covers PR strategic planning, program management, marketing communications, content marketing, experiential campaigns and special events, national promotions, media relations, social and digital campaigns, influencer alliances, grassroots marketing, internal communications and crisis/issues management. Among the awards her work has received are 10 Phoenix Awards from the Public Relations Society of America, four Gold/Silver Quill Awards from International Association of Business Communicators, a President’s Citation for Private Sector Initiatives and others.
A native of Marietta, GA, Claudia attended Auburn University (War Eagle!), earning a B.A. in speech communications with a minor in journalism, and holds an M.A. in English literature from Georgia State University. She is a past chair of the PR Advisory Council for the Dept. of Communications/Journalism at Auburn, where she established the William T. Brooks Endowed Scholarship in Public Relations in honor of her father, and has been named a “Top Tiger” by Auburn’s Harbert College of Business, recognizing the top fastest-growing companies led by AU alumni. Claudia and her husband Michael have two children – Arielle E. Lyons, a VP at Edelman specializing in national consumer products, and Adrian Brooks D’Avanzo, a recent MBA graduate of Vanderbilt University, who joins PwC’s prestigious Strategy& division this fall. When not working, traveling or visiting their kids, Mike and Claudia (an avid equestrian) can usually be found enjoying time on the lake or on their rural Alabama farm where they spend days mucking stalls, chasing chickens, snuggling dogs, building campfires and gazing at the stars.