Mary Helen Gillespie of Londonderry, N.H., has joined the Board of Advisors to drive marketing, business development and public relations for InDepthNH.org and its parent organization. She is a strategic-communications professional with deep expertise across all areas of digital and traditional media.
“Mary Helen has been a valuable resource for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism for more than two years and as a board member will help us define what the future of news will look like in New Hampshire,” said Nancy West, executive editor and founder of the Center. “She is creative, experienced and forward-thinking and I am grateful that she agreed to help us continue to grow.”
Mary Helen serves as Chief Executive Officer at Strategic Communications Ltd., a marketing and public relations firm she founded in Londonderry, N.H. She has previously worked as a journalist, author and editor; a Congressional speechwriter; and has 15 years of teaching media, marketing and public relations to undergraduates and graduate students. She served in senior corporate communications roles at several Top 10 U.S. banks and global financial-services giants.
“This is my dream job: to create relationships supporting nonprofit journalism in New Hampshire. Nancy West has done an outstanding job in ensuring she and her team investigate and report vital stories that impact all residents of the Granite State,” Gillespie said. “Journalism is my passion and to be able to shine a light on these efforts is a honor, especially during these cataclysmic days and nights for the journalism profession and the news industry. I am most grateful to serve as a volunteer for this vital mission, which has been a part of my heart since I was 15 years old and decided after working a year on my high-school newspaper that I was going to be a reporter. Telling stories that inform and educate people still fills my heart with joy.”
Mary Helen will also help with the Center’s NewsMatch Double your Donation campaign that runs through Dec. 31 in which every dollar donated by an individual to the nonprofit will be matched.
Gillespie has worked with InDepthNH since September 2016 as a contributing writer. Gillespie is a former business columnist for The Boston Globe, business editor for the Boston Herald and freelance reporter for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. She also pioneered the transformation of news and content from print to digital channels across the Boston media market — and was once a rising star in the area of arts reporting as New England’s first comedy critic. She still loves laughing, plus taking long walks along the ocean and cuddling dogs. Gillespie has a BA in journalism and a MBA from Northeastern University in Boston.