Strategic Communications for Public Trust
I’m April Leonard, MA, a Kansas City-based strategic communications professional with experience across public health, government communications, media relations, crisis/risk messaging, digital strategy, launch communications, and high-visibility events.
My work helps public-facing organizations communicate clearly during complex moments — translating health, civic, and community information into plain-language messages, trusted resources, media materials, web content, social strategy, executive talking points, and public-facing campaigns. I began my communications career in entertainment public relations, serving as a publicist and contracted red-carpet/media-room professional for celebrities, talent, and high-profile officials connected to national television shows and major cultural events. That foundation shaped how I plan, organize, and manage visibility moments with clarity, calm, and strategic purpose. I also speak and train on communications, branding, social media strategy, media relations, public trust, and high-visibility public-facing communication. bringing both practitioner experience and an authoritative voice to government, public affairs, and mission-driven communications spaces.
My work extends beyond content creation. I lead communications from concept to completion — shaping strategy, translating complex information into plain language, developing web and social messaging, writing news releases and talking points, coordinating creative assets, supporting media response, preparing leaders for public-facing moments, measuring results across platforms, and teaching leaders at conferences, workshops, and forums to audiences nationwide and internationally.
Professional Experience
Strategic communications experience across public health, municipal government, digital communications, media relations, crisis/risk messaging, public-facing campaigns, and high-visibility events.
Public Information Officer / City Communications
City of Kansas City, Missouri — Health Department
2023–Present
Lead and support public health communications, including media advisories, news releases, public notices, executive talking points, web updates, social media strategy, campaign planning, emergency/risk messaging, and resident-resource communications.
Her role also includes communications production and external vendor coordination. April identified the need for cohesive professional staff imagery, sourced and hired the photographer, and organized and produced the Kansas City Health Department’s first department-wide professional headshot initiative, creating a more consistent visual presence for staff email, digital communications, and public-facing materials.
City Social Media Manager / Digital Communications Lead
City of Kansas City, Missouri
2019–2023
Managed the primary City Social Media Page and helped professionalize citywide digital communications across 17 departments through social media governance, training, analytics, account standards, digital brand protection, platform growth, web/intranet support, and public engagement.
Communications, PR & Event Media Experience
April Communicates / Fashion, Entertainment, Hospitality & Cultural Projects
Communications leadership, media relations, brand positioning, creative production and live-event experience
Earlier experience includes founding and leading April Communicates; serving as Director of Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations for the West 18th Street Fashion Show; and communications and marketing leadership with Rightfully Sewn. Across these roles, April developed communications and publicity strategy, managed media relations, produced campaigns and branded communications, and led creative and production work for high-visibility events. For West 18th Street, she also coordinated vendors and creative partners for branded step-and-repeats, media kits, photography, video, event assets, and other media-facing materials.
At Rightfully Sewn, April served in marketing leadership and was credited as Executive Producer of the 2017 Golden Gala advertising campaign, later providing project-based executive production for the 2019 Fashion Biennale: Golden Gala. Her Golden Gala work also included managing media, facilitating and hosting Gold Carpet activity, conducting live interviews, and connecting media with executives, high-profile guests, and sponsors.
Through April Communicates, April has coordinated vendors and creative partners for client projects involving photography, video, media content, visual storytelling, and branded production, including work with Jeanne Nuage. She also conceived and co-produced with Liberation Media a two-day destination wedding venue positioning project in Hawaiʻi for Hamakua Hotel and Waterfalling Estate. Her scope included sourcing and hiring the photographer, casting and booking models, coordinating wardrobe with Kansas City designer and dressmaker Nataliya Myers of Lucia’s Sarto and a tuxedo company, scheduling and attending fittings, coordinating crew travel and production logistics, and supporting on-location execution. Select imagery from the production remains featured in Hamakua Hotel’s wedding marketing.
April’s entertainment PR experience includes work within a celebrity public relations firm, coordinating discreetly with media and production companies and supporting publicity and production for entertainment clients. Separately, she was independently contracted for PR work for the NAACP Image Awards Show — Ladies Tea Fashion Show. Later that evening, she worked as a publicist at the awards show, escorting talent through the gifting suite and supporting live-event talent logistics.
Her fashion-launch experience includes serving on a three-person PR team for Rose by Vanessa Jean across Malibu and Miami. April supported production and wrote scripts for segments during a virtual-reality production in Malibu; stepped in as host when needed as Vanessa Simmons announced the model selected to participate in the brand’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week launch; sourced sponsors for the Miami showcase; and traveled to Miami to manage event PR alongside the Director of PR. Her broader experience also spans entertainment publicity, television, media rooms, red carpets, talent and media coordination, and production environments connected with BET, NBCUniversal, and other creative projects.