Bio
An accomplished and passionate award-winning public relations professional and strategist, Kelly Howard is the CEO of EightSixtySouth, a strategic communications agency operating between Los Angeles and New York. Having served as Post + Beam’s West Coast Director for several years, Kelly acquired the company in October 2016, leading the company through a full rebrand – introducing the new EightSixtySouth in 2017.
Kelly sits on the Advisory Board for the Iowa State Greenlee School of Journalism and has been an active member of the PR Couture Council, a contributor to Forbes.com and a member of the Forbes Los Angeles Small Business Councils. She has spoken and conducted sessions at Women in Media Los Angeles, NYU, Simply Stylist, BOSS Talks, The Collective Conference, Savoir Collab’s “Wild Women Series,” California Market Center, NerdyGirl Academy and at her alma mater, Iowa State University.
She was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Iowa State Alumni Association in 2020, an award bestowed annually to one select individual across the entire university, and was also named “Communicator of the Year” during PR Couture’s Bespoke Communication Award in 2018. Most recently, she was the first-event recipient of the Greenlee School’s Young Alumni Award in 2022, an award created to recognize alumni under 40 years of age who have demonstrated excellence within their field, serving as an early career recognition of excellence in advertising, journalism and mass communication/public relations.
She has been featured in Forbes, New York Magazine, BondTwenty, IdeaMensch, Mavenly, Brit+Co, Business Insider, VoyageLA, HerCampus and Buzzfeed, among others. Most recently, Kelly was selected to receive the 2022 Greenlee Young Alumni Award, an award created to recognize alumni under 40 years of age who have demonstrated excellence within their field, serving as an early career recognition of excellence in advertising, journalism and mass communication/public relations.
Kelly is seasoned in creating targeted approaches for consumer brands in the fashion, beauty, spirits and lifestyle market. Specializing in cross-channel marketing and drawing from expertise in PR, content strategy and integrated digital campaigns, her work builds meaningful and ROI-focused brand experiences for a diverse roster of clients.