Celia Alario
Celia Alario hasn’t fulfilled a childhood longing to become a cocktail waitress. She has made a career out of supporting social change by helping organizations and people find and amplify their voices.
The Utah-based communications and media trainer/consultant started out as a grassroots organizer, and became a campaigner before delving into media relations one day when no one else would make press calls.
A brief stint in marketing, sales support and publicity for Sun Microsystems in the 1990s gave her more “formal” training, while her propensity to passionately talk to strangers likely foretold her success.
“Communications is one of my favorite tools in the community organizer’s tool kit and of course plays a vital role in advancing social justice agendas,” says Celia. “It's a cornerstone of social movement work, although the work itself is rapidly shifting! But that keeps us guessing and keeps work interesting. It’s kind of like a circus side show performer who juggles plates on the end of wooden sticks.”
An inquisitive mind, a warm heart and eclectic style propelled this environmental issues major into a one-woman communications dynamo. But at the core of her work is what is in her heart: “Ultimately all our struggles come down to one theme and that is, well, LOVE,” she says. “What I most enjoy about the work is when we can get past the rhetoric, the statistics and mumbo jumbo, the partisanship and infighting and 'other-ing' that happens in politics and social change movements and get to the bottom line—it’s about love.”
Celia enjoys working with spokespeople. “As they find their voice and speak truth to power, and when the media then acknowledges their voice as valuable, I feel satisfaction that keeps me going through all the Excel spreadsheets and pitch calls,” she confesses.
Her challenges include trying to stay effective in a changing media arena and trying to reduce her carbon footprint to zero. She’s determined to pace herself to achieve her long term goal of becoming a “Raging Granny” or a “Grandmother for Peace.”
“Our work can feel never-ending, there seems to be no end to issues that need our support,” she admits. Her major work is focused on long-term spokesperson training and mentoring for two executive directors of non-profits with plans to help kickoff a new collaborative called Green Lasso Productions.
She will also be supporting Oil Change International in the lead up to Wiwa V. Shell, a groundbreaking case where Shell (Royal Dutch Shell oil company) will stand trial in a U.S. federal court for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria—including the execution and torture of a group of non-violent environmental leaders, known as the Ogoni 9. The Ogoni 9 were fighting environmental destruction and human rights abuses tied to Shell operations on their land—abuses that continue today.
Acclaimed writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nobel Poet Laureate and Goldman Environmental Prize winner, was hanged along with the eight others after being framed in a military tribunal widely condemned as a sham. “Regardless of this trial’s outcome, our goal is to draw media attention to Shell's continued abuses in the region, especially gas-flaring,” Celia explains. (Learn more at http://priceofoil.org/, http://www.goldmanprize.org/ and www.shellguilty.com)
The Progressive Communicators Network represents community to Celia. “This work requires staying on top of a lot of different threads of knowledge: traditional media trends, new media trends, media and PR skills, larger social and political contexts and then the microcosms of whatever current campaigns we are working on. Being around PCNers rejuvenates my soul, tickles my brain, and gives me companions on this journey,” she says. “This configuration of people has an opportunity to step up our collaboration and make a major impact on nonprofit communications.”
And, she can still wear a cocktail dress anytime she pleases!