Cookerly PR | Public Relations, Communications & Marketing Services
With more than two decades of experience in public relations and journalism, Mike is a strategic communications leader who focuses on media relations and reputation management.
He leverages his background as a former news editor to develop media strategies that drive visibility and engagement, excelling at crafting compelling narratives that resonate across print, broadcast and digital platforms. Mike has a passion for helping his clients understand how to create strategic communications plans that move the meter and uncover impactful stories to secure high-profile placements in top-tier outlets, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and USA Today.
His practice spans an array of industries, but he specializes in the healthcare, nonprofit and entertainment sectors, where he’s led award-winning campaigns for a variety of clients, including Kaiser Permanente, YMCA and Georgia Film Academy. His work for City of Hope, formerly Cancer Treatment Centers of American, began with its groundbreaking, development of a comprehensive marketing communications program, carried through establishing the hospital’s reputation for world-class treatment and spurred growth that greatly exceeded patient projections. For Georgia Film Academy, Mike, developed paid, earned, shared and owned media strategies that boosted course enrollment by 22% and established Executive Director Scot Votaw as a go-to industry thought leader. And as Georgia became the “Hollywood of the South,” he led promotion of Pinewood Atlanta Studios’ rebrand as Trilith, a unique 235-acre master-planned community designed for the film and creative industries that’s home to Trilith Live, Trilith Studios, homes, restaurants and retailers.
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mike earned his degree in speech communication from the University of Georgia. He is deeply engaged in the community, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Chattahoochee Nature Center and co-chairing the PRSA Georgia Healthcare Resource Group. An avid sports enthusiast and tennis player, he resides in Marietta, Georgia, with his wife and two children.
Stephen specializes in media and speaker training, national media relations campaigns, and customized brainstorms to help companies break through the ordinary, change behaviors, or attract attention in new and different ways.
With more than 30 years of practice, he has represented some of the world’s biggest and most-recognizable brands on award-winning and notable campaigns. At Cookerly, Stephen’s work for retail chain PGA TOUR Superstore showcased customer golf simulators for consumer homes through a creative “Golf Loft” campaign and garnered a PRSA Phoenix award. For Simon Properties, he helped communicate a series of security enhancements, resulting in record, renewed attendance for shopping centers. He also hosted international journalists to put “Phipps Plaza Reimagined” and its signature NOBU Hotel on the map as an East Coast destination. And for Silicon Valley’s Arkose Labs, he leveraged pop cultural moments, such as Taylor Swift’s battle with Ticketmaster, to draw media attention to innovative technologies protecting consumers and their most cherished sites from hackers.
Stephen is passionate about affordable housing, having led both Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and Atlanta Housing to PRSA award wins, the latter for an “Opening Doors” initiative providing record numbers of homes and innovative support services to residents. He’s also an advocate for education, the arts and the PR profession, serving on boards for Ron Clark Academy and Aurora Theatre, as a member of the Southeast Film Critics Association, and as past chapter president and College of Fellows member in PRSA. The student support center at his alma mater University of South Carolina’s College of Information and Communications bears his name, and the University of Georgia’s Grady College honored him as a Georgia PR Hall of Fame inductee for his work in communications.
Beth oversees strategic communications and integrated marketing campaigns for corporate, business-to-business, technology and healthcare clients. With a focus on brand-building, reputation management and cross-channel engagement, she helps companies connect with key audiences and create lasting impact.
Beth is passionate about simplifying complex concepts, using data-driven insights and creative storytelling to create clear, compelling communications. She enjoys collaborating with clients to develop strategies that drive business success.
Her notable campaigns include helping Guardian Pharmacy grow from a startup with two pharmacies into a publicly traded (NYSE) long-term care pharmacy leader with 51 pharmacies, a national foothold and an industry-disrupting approach. Beth also helped the company with new product launches and offered strategic consulting that took Guardian beyond media relations into its first forays in advertising and social media. She is responsible for Cookerly’s award-winning programs celebrating Mercedes-Benz USA (MSUSA), Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the 2019 Super Bowl in Atlanta, including the “Greatness Lives Here” corporate social responsibility campaign highlighting unsung heroes making a difference in Atlanta and the “Welcome to the A” campaign featuring Ludacris. Forbes lauded her work on the “No Limits” initiative between Mattel, MBUSA and the National Girls Collaborative as one of the most talked-about campaigns that year. Beth is equally proud of her impact on children’s issues, providing integrated marketing, message development, PR, advertising, and community and donor relations for The Center for Courageous Kids, a free, accessibility-focused, medically inclusive camp for children with disabilities and lifelong illnesses. Her work on the organization’s behalf has enabled it to welcome more than 44,000 campers and counting, creating a legacy of courage, connection and joy.
A New Jersey native and University of Georgia graduate, Beth loves travel, the outdoors, football, reading, dancing, and time with family and friends.
Cory has been instrumental in the agency’s continued growth, leading its business development, recruitment and much more. He also helps lead the agency’s widely recognized crisis and issue management practice and directs integrated corporate communications campaigns for many notable public and private companies.
He has worked for an expansive list of corporations facing contentious crises, issues and other business challenges, including recognizable brands, such as Walmart Inc., DuPont, Corteva Inc., Chemours Co., Georgia-Pacific LLC, Colonial Pipeline Co. and LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc. Cory specializes in litigation support, labor and employment matters, regulatory investigations, catastrophic incidents, and many other areas. His crisis and issue experience includes threat assessment and prioritization, planning and training, response support, stakeholder engagement, media relations, and coalition building and management.
A native of Florida and graduate of the University of South Alabama, Cory serves on the global board and North America committee of Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s leading network of independently owned public relations firms, and the board of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities. He is also a past board member of the Chattahoochee Nature Center and Coastal Conservation Association, Atlanta Chapter. He is an avid outdoorsman often found fishing along the Gulf Coast with family and friends.
Tracy leads strategic communications and integrated marketing programs for global corporations, governmental agencies and national nonprofit organizations, with a passion for AI and technology, communities, and the environment and sustainability.
She develops and executes campaigns that help clients reach stakeholders through multi-channel communications, engaging target audiences with brand-building narratives aligned to strategic objectives. And she loves to help clients uncover compelling stories and bring them to life through creative tactics across paid, earned, shared and owned channels.
Tracy has led award-winning campaigns to change commuting habits for The Clean Air Campaign and Livable Buckhead. She launched a robust PR program for AGCO as it went through a massive internal transformation, positioning it as an agriculture technology leader for a digitally driven future, propelling its company executives into the spotlight as thought leaders for tier-one media and announcing its $2.3 billion ag tech joint venture with Trimble to create PTx Trimble – the largest ag tech deal in history. And her work with Georgia-Pacific spans everything from promoting its sustainability/recycling efforts to leading a multi-pronged program to showcase the conversion of its headquarters (one of Atlanta’s tallest skyscrapers) into a mixed-use hub featuring sky-high apartments, offices, retail and entertainment representing the new standard for adaptive reuse.
A graduate of Harding University, Tracy volunteers with several local organizations, including God’s Pantry Food Bank.
As the firm’s founder, Carol is a chief strategist for building and sustaining brands. However, her deft management of complex crises and issues over three decades has made Cookerly a top choice for clients when adversity strikes. Under her direction, the agency has been the lead strategist in scores of permitting efforts, contamination issues, natural and man-made disaster responses, instances of legislative and judicial activism, and challenging personnel matters, including C-suite succession, whistleblowers, discrimination and harassment in nearly every major industry.
She has provided counsel to Walmart Inc., DuPont, NAPA Auto Parts, Allied/Republic Waste Services Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., AstroTurf and many more.
A former broadcast journalist, Carol worked in public relations in New York City before founding Cookerly Public Relations in 1990. She leads media training and tabletop exercises for senior executives in companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
She is a graduate of Duke University and volunteers her time and talents in support of The Metro Atlanta YMCA, Murphy-Harpst Children’s Center and Road Safe America, among others. She is an avid equestrian, fly fisher, sporting clay enthusiast and Americana antique collector.