Cheron Michelle Brylski,[1] (born 1958 in Cheektowaga, New York[2]) is a writer, speechwriter, public relations director and activist who built a career helping minorities and women enter the political mainstream in Louisiana and improve their quality of life through education, health and economic reform.
She was the first woman to be appointed to the chartered position Public Information Director for the City of New Orleans[3] by the late Mayor Ernest Nathan Morial.
For nearly 30 years, her boutique public relations agency, The Brylski Company,[4] headquartered in New Orleans[5] has helped governmental, political and non-profit clients move their message through effective communications.
She landed her first reporting job for the Vieux Carre Courier, edited by William F. Rushton and published by Philip Carter, when she was 17 years old.
Then-Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader was intrigued by the story and offered her a job in Washington, D.C., with Public Citizen's Congress Watch, an investigative newsletter.
A North American Accord: Feasible or Futile (1983) by Dr. Werner Feld and Cheron Brylski The Blink of an Eye: Photographic Memories of New Orleans No More (2010) with Harold F. Baquet The Brylski Company helps clients develop strategic marketing campaigns designed to increase public education about a specific service or issue, and/or obtain a certain outcome in public policy.
Then Assessor Ken Carter recruited the Brylski Company to help organize a school board reform effort called Excellence in Education.
By 1996, one of the leading reformers, Leslie Jacobs, resigned from the Board to accept a position advising then Louisiana Governor Murphy J.
The surprising outcome was an overwhelming cry by women for more accessible healthcare services for their families instead of a business development model.
The Brylski Company coordinated the City of New Orleans/Orleans Parish School Board's participation in the 1985 World Conference on Women chaired by then First Lady Hillary Clinton.