Deanna Drendel Communications
For 30 years now, 15 as an independent consultant, Deanna Drendel has contributed to the success of her employers – public relations firms and private and public sector companies and institutions – and her highly diverse Canadian clientele, e.g. healthcare, energy, technology, associations and non-profits. Deanna is known for her innovative and efficient approach, and for her leadership, team spirit, professionalism and integrity.
In 2009, Deanna took a value-driven decision to gradually reconfigure her client base and volunteer work in order to focus more attention on social causes. That same year, Public Relations Without Borders (PRWB) asked her to carry out its first two volunteer missions – a project in Niger, in partnership with Oxfam-Québec. Upon her return, Deanna was recruited as PRWB’s first executive director, and from 2010-2012, she devoted herself full-time to building the organization on multiple fronts, in close collaboration with PRWB’s Board, mission heads, partners, volunteers and interns – the latter worked out of Deanna’s home during those early days.
Today, while continuing to serve a diverse business clientele, Deanna nurtures her commitment to social causes and international development by assuming consultation mandates with organizations such as Canada World Youth, École de technologie supérieure (PRÉCI – student projects in developing countries) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the same time, she is working to add professional fundraising techniques to her skill set – through training, an internship and volunteer involvement with the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Her volunteer work with RESULTS Canada – a citizen advocacy group working to create the public and political will to eradicate extreme poverty in developing countries – also reflects this engagement, whether lobbying elected federal officials, publishing op eds or providing social media support to other volunteers. She also provides marketing and fundraising assistance to a Canadian non-profit working to support a microfinance operation in Africa.
Deanna holds the universally recognized APR designation (Accredited in Public Relations), a bachelor’s degree “with distinction” in philosophy from Concordia University/SGW and she did graduate work in sociology.
In 2006, Deanna was inducted into the Canadian Public Relations Society’s College of Fellows – “proven leaders in public relations and communications who have made exceptional contributions to the profession and their communities”. She was the 2010 recipient of the Yves-St-Amand Award given by the Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques (SQPRP) to the professional “who has made significant advancements to the public relations practice in Quebec”.
