Lisa O'Neill - Women Communicators of Austin

Lisa O’Neill, founder/principal of Breakaway Public Relations, has more than 30 years’ experience in public relations with a focus on small to mid-sized consumer businesses and organizations. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, she began her career on the East Coast working at PR agencies, in-house and ultimately running her own boutique firm in Boston. Her diverse background, ranging relations for a weekly newspaper group to event marketing and PR strategies for start-ups, gives Lisa a broad perspective of how public relations can positively impact organizations of all sizes. Lisa returned to Austin in 2004 to raise her family in Longhorn country. She initially managed public relations at two of Austin’s leading advertising agencies. She re-opened her own public relations firm in 2009 as Newton O’Neill Communications. In 2018, Newton O’Neill Communications merged with another PR firm to form Breakaway Public Relations, a full-service lifestyle PR agency serving clients in travel/tourism, nonprofits, health/wellness and arts/culture such as Georgetown, Texas, AIA (American Institute of Architects) Austin, We Are Blood, the Greater Austin YMCA, Blue Genie Art Bazaar, Alamo Springs Cafe and Texas 4000 for Cancer. Lisa is a long-time supporter of World Vision and its child sponsorship program, along with nonprofits such as Explore Austin and the Center for Child Protection.
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Best Mentee Fit:

Lisa is a best fit mentor for those currently in or looking to join a career in public relations for consumer businesses. She has very little experience in business-to-business PR. She is also best suited to help those looking to work in more entrepreneurial, small to mid sized businesses versus corporate communications. She can offer guidance on what smaller businesses seek in a communications team member – the demands and rewards.

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