A marketing communications expert with more than 30 years of field experience and a book in the works at McGraw-Hill, Donna Anselmo founded Bold Marketing Solutions, Inc., in June 2008, and divides her time between client service on Long Island and in Melbourne, FL. She differentiates her firm by providing professional development training in addition to the full spectrum of integrated marketing.
In September 2008, Donna launched a weekly educational radio show on AM1300 WMEL, which airs live on Florida’s east coast and streams live over the Internet at www.1300wmel.com on Saturday mornings at 9:07. Her show, BOLDTALK Business Radio, offers personal and professional development programming for business owners, professionals, job seekers and individuals. Each week, Donna interviews guests, ranging from international business experts and consultants to small business owners. She focuses on providing listeners with insight, strategies, tips and tools for business success.
Formerly an award-winning journalist with the Times-Beacon-Record newspapers in Setauket, NY, Donna’s work also has been published in The New York Times, and The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, among other media. She earned a Master of Science degree in Healthcare Policy & Management in 1998. In 1994, she had been recruited to the public affairs team of the Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center and Hospital, where she started as assistant director of news services and was quickly promoted to director of publications.
In 1999, she was recruited by the $4.1 billion Olsten Staffing Services enterprise, where she directed internal communications and publications for more than 3,500 full-time employees and select external audiences. Donna later facilitated communications as part of the merger transition team, with Adecco SA, which resulted in the world’s largest staffing service agency.
In 2000, Donna was named Marketing Vice President of Elite Technical Services, Inc., a $20-million technical consulting firm and provider of information technology and engineering contractors. In that role, she organized a successful strategic re-branding initiative and communication strategies that brought the field and corporate teams into significantly closer alignment; organizational training and sales force development; crisis communication; leadership coaching; as well as investor communications during a capital raise up for a new venture. Upon leaving the firm’s direct employ, she was appointed to its Board of Directors. That same year, she founded Comvergence, a small integrated marketing firm, based in St. James, NY, and later co-founded a small venture specializing in proposal management.
Donna has a long history of community service. In 1989, Donna served as a PTA president, and later as PTA Council vice president and member of the Suffolk PTA Board of Managers; Donna helped draft and support passage of child safety legislation in New York State. From 1995-1999, under the auspices of the University Hospital in a voluntary capacity, she led and managed the not-for-profit Suffolk County SAFE KIDS Coalition, which educated health professionals, first responders and the community about injury prevention, particularly prevention of traumatic brain injury. Over the years she had served as executive vice president of the Long Island Center for Business & Professional Women. She also has served as a board member of the Smithtown Industry Advisory Board, the University Association (Stony Brook), Stony Brook University Hospital Auxiliary, and also contributed a year of service as Education Coordinator for the FOCUS Chapter of BNI. Donna is currently a board member of the American Red Cross Space Coast Chapter. She earned the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Long Island Chapter) Leadership Award in 2000 and was honored by the Melbourne-Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce as a Woman of Excellence in 2009.
Donna has been tapped as an expert source for commentary in news and feature articles. She has been quoted in articles on the economy, leadership and change management, as well as sales, employment and public health issues. She has served as a guest speaker on best practices in leadership, marketing and sales communications, proposal development and transformational strategies for organizations, including the Long Island Software Technology Network (LISTnet) Emerging Technologies Group and the LISTnet Women in Technology Group, International Association of Business Communicators, Small Business Development Center, Farmingdale University Entrepreneurship Conference, Hauppauge Industrial Association, Citigroup, and the Conscious Living Partnership, Melbourne Main Street, and Florida Institute of Technology Women’s Business Center, among others.z