MONA ELYAFI
“I know it sounds cliché, but I didn´t choose to go into PR; PR chose me,” says Mona Elyafi. “It seemed like the perfect fit for my academic background and the natural match for my personality, meaning the best way to organically combine the business side of things with the creative.” An NYU grad with a master´s degree in journalism, Elyafi worked at PR companies like Norman Winter & Associates, Harper PR and the famed Lee Solters Company before going out on her own in 2004 as founder and CEO of ILDK Media specializing in the LGBT market. Celebs whose careers have received the Elyafi treatment include Chaka Khan, the late Rick James, Lisa Rinna, Billie Myers, Marina Rice Bader and Rolla Selbak. Elyafi has also been repping an event close to our hearts here at GO, Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend. Elyafi, who still keeps her hand in journalism by blogging for HuffPost, appreciates how things have changed for the LGBT population over the years. “I love the fact that all things LGBT are part of the new normal. What that translates into is the fact that more and more members of the LGBT community are getting the exposure and media accolades they deserve. And to know that, as a publicist, I am involved in that very process of helping to change minds and hearts is an extremely rewarding thing.” -GH
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