Biography

Theresa McHugh Palmersheim, APR, is president of McHugh Communications Inc., a Minneapolis/St. Paul communications firm. She has provided public relations counsel and leadership, strategic planning, employee communications expertise, media relations strategy, community relations programming, and writing and editing skills for clients, publicly held corporations, and non-profit organizations for more than 30 years.

Prior to forming McHugh Communications in 2000, Ms. Palmersheim was a vice president at Lilja Inc., Edina, Minn., where she served Barnes & Noble Inc., International Dairy Queen, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, the M.A.Gedney Company, Marquette Bank, and other clients in a variety of internal and external public relations capacities.

She also has provided communications leadership, counsel and expertise at the Academy of Holy Angels, Richfield, Minn., where she was instrumental in the development of a strategic communications plan, the implementation a new branding and brand promise program, the redesign of stakeholder publications, the establishment of a Web site and an electronic newsletter, the development of a crisis communications plan, the management of a media relations program, budgeting, writing, editing and more.

Earlier, she worked as a communications consultant for such clients as Radisson Hotels, Northwest Airlines, Mundale Communications, the Bank Holding Company Association and Twin Cities school districts. For six years during this time, she also was an adjunct instructor in the journalism department at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, teaching semester-long courses on public relations principles, writing and planning. She also served as faculty advisor to the university’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter.

Ms. Palmersheim’s corporate communications experience includes several years in public relations management positions for Republic Airlines, McCormick and Company, and Allstate Insurance Company.

At Republic Airlines in Minneapolis, she directed the employee communications program, counseled senior management, and prepared communications during negotiations with six unions for employee pay cuts and productivity concessions. She also established an employee computer news program and a biweekly tabloid employee newspaper with display and classified ads, and managed an employee news and feedback phone line. Additionally, Ms. Palmersheim provided counsel and services to company departments including marketing and human resources.

At McCormick, the Baltimore-based Fortune 500 international seasonings and flavorings company, Ms. Palmersheim managed award-winning employee publications and provided other public relations services.

Public affairs and employee communications were the focus of her early communications career at Allstate Insurance Company’s corporate headquarters in Chicago.

Ms. Palmersheim’s work has been honored with more than a dozen awards from such organizations as Sigma Delta Chi, the Baltimore International Association of Business Communicators and the Maryland/Delaware/D.C. Press Association.

She holds a master’s degree in public relations from American University, Washington, D.C., and a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism from the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul. An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), she is a member of PRSA’s Counselor’s Academy. She has held a number of leadership positions for the Minnesota Chapter of PRSA as a member of the board of directors, as treasurer, as ethics officer, and as chair of several committees. She also has served as a member of the College of St. Catherine Alumnae Association board of directors.