Geoffrey Knox

President of Geoffrey Knox & Associates (GKA)

Geoffrey Knox Geoffrey Knox, President of Geoffrey Knox & Associates (GKA), brings extensive experience in communicating on a range of complex social issues at the local, national, and international levels. He founded the firm after 12 years working in nonprofit organizations and serving as Director of Communications at the Vera Institute of Justice, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and the American Foundation of AIDS Research.  The firm serves only nonprofit organizations, foundations, and academic institutions, providing a range of media and communications services, public affairs advice, and strategic planning.

As head of GKA, Knox has created and implemented communications strategies for a variety of local, national and international nonprofits and foundations, including, among others, the International Women’s Health Coalition, International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, UN Development Fund for Women, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), the Task Force for Global Health (for two distinct TFGH projects: International Trachoma Initiative and Children Without Worms), International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now OutRight International), HealthRight International (as it changed its name from Doctors of the World USA), Open Society Institute—Public Health Watch Program.

  • In the U.S., GKA has created communications strategies for the National Institute for Reproductive Health, March of Dimes, Modern Language Association (managing media credentialing and on-site management for five years at its 8,000 person annual meeting), Children’s Rights, A Better Childhood, GMHC, and Lambda Legal, among others.  The Ford Foundation also awarded GKA a sizeable grant to provide communication assistance to eight of its grantees working on sexuality across America.

  • Knox also facilitated a one-day meeting for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals to increase understanding of emerging women’s health issues and practice gaps related to screening and treatment of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

Experience Highlights:

  • Consulting with the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) in the lead up to the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, GKA created a communications campaign, Women’s Reality, Women’s Power for the ICPD —a highly effective strategy to highlight the need to put women at the center of population policies, garnering front-page coverage for IWHC, and its colleagues, in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe as well as substantial coverage in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and national news magazines. GKA continued that campaign, adjusting it for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, with equal success in helping to influence negotiations through media coverage and highlighting the need for women to obtain sexual rights.

  • GKA managed communications for the Task Force for Global Health’s International Trachoma Initiative in its efforts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to eliminate trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness. To support ITI’s role in a broader coalition of NGOs working on trachoma, Knox, produced advocacy ads targeting the G8 Summit for support of NTDs and helped secure a multi-year Gates Foundation grant to conduct advocacy & media trainings for Ministry of Health officials and NGOs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Senegal, working closely with local communications firms in each country.

  • GKA helped focus international attention on the crisis of the overlapping epidemics of TB and HIV, the Open Society Institute Public Health Watch released a new report—Civil Society Perspectives on TB/HIV Policy: Reports on TB Policy in Bangladesh, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania and Thailand—the week before the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto. GKA worked with the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, and in-country researchers to craft talking points and compelling messages, identify target audiences, publicize the report through an audio press conference prior to the start of the Toronto conference. To reach journalists in the global South, an international audio press conference was arranged to share the findings and significance of the multi-country report, securing the participation of 24 reporters from 11 countries in Africa, Asia, and North America.