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Senior Staff Biographies
Kathy Bonk, Executive Director and CCMC Co-Founder
Kathy Bonk established the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in 1988 and is its executive director and is a co-author of the Jossey-Bass Guide to Strategic Communications for Nonprofits (1999), part of the Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management series. Over the past thirty years, she has been at the forefront of media campaigns that marked a sea change in domestic and global policies affecting women, children, and families with the support of major foundations and large donors.
Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector, Bonk worked in government as a public information officer in the U.S. Department of State and in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. She directed the Media Project for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. She has a degree in communications from the University of Pittsburgh and in 1988 was awarded a fellowship with the Kellogg Foundation's National Leadership Program.
Phil Sparks, Executive Vice President and CCMC Co-Founder
Phil Sparks co-founded CCMC in 1988, and rejoined the organization in March 1998 after a three-year hiatus serving as associate director for communications of the U.S. Census Bureau. Phil has specialized in family projects at CCMC, including the Family and Medical Leave Coalition, the Act for Better Child Care Coalition, Census 2000, the Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work, the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities and the Early Care and Education Collaborative, among others. At the Census Bureau, Phil coordinated a $100 million paid advertising campaign and a separate $100 million community outreach program to encourage public participation in Census 2000.
In his 25-year career in public interest communications, Phil was previously director of public affairs for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); associate director of the President's Commission on Pension Policy; and chief of staff to former U.S. Representative Thomas J. Downey (NY).
Emily Tynes, Executive Vice President and CCMC Co-Founder
Emily Tynes has been a communications professional for 30 years, working as a journalist, a public relations executive and a communications strategist promoting social justice issues. She left a career in corporate public relations in 1983 to become the first communications director for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, where she guided the organization’s communications program during a highly volatile era of historic abortion rights battles.
After her tenure with NARAL, Emily co-founded the Communications Consortium Media Center, where she designed and implemented strategic communications campaigns on women’s rights, racial equality, national energy policy and immigrants’ rights. She has conducted strategic communications workshops for hundreds of social justice advocates in the United States and abroad.
Emily left CCMC in 2002, to become the Communications Director for the American Civil Liberties Union. Her tenure began shortly after the 9/11 terrorists attacks, a period of unprecedented assaults on civil liberties.
Emily rejoined the Communications Consortium Media Center in the fall of 2006.
She joined CCMC in 1999 and left for two years to serve as the Director of Communications for the United Nations Foundation. While there she developed and managed communications and marketing strategies for the Foundations five priority areas: the United Nations; Children’s Health; Women & Population; Environment; and Peace, Security and Human Rights. She returned to CCMC in April 2005.
Previously, she worked for United Way organizations across the United States, including the third largest chapter and the national office. During her United Way tenure she served by appointment on the management team that coordinated the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and The Coca-Cola Company.
She also was as an editor for The Palm Beach Post. She graduated from the University of Florida where she majored in Journalism and minored in Sociology.
Linda Zerden, Chief Financial Officer
Linda Zerden began working for CCMC in 2004 after serving for three years as a financial consultant manager for Outsource Partners International. She has over 20 years of experience in finance, mainly in the healthcare industry. Her experience also includes internal and external auditing. Linda, a graduate of Northern Kentucky University with a major in accounting, is a credentialed certified public accountant.
Susan Boerstling, Development Director
Susan Boerstling combines her communications and fundraising background to oversee CCMC’s development activities. She joined CCMC in April 2000 from the Office of Corporate & Foundation Relations at Georgetown University. Prior to that, she was employed in the marketing department of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston College, Susan received an A.B. in Communications with a minor in American Studies.
