About Us

Founded in 1996 and located in Washington, DC, CommunicationWorks has served more than 300 clients nationwide, including nonprofit education, policy, civil rights, and youth-serving organizations; colleges and universities; foundations; think tanks and research organizations; corporations; school service providers; publications; trade associations; national commissions; and government agencies.

The CW Team

CommunicationWorks, LLC is a full-service public affairs firm creating high-impact media outreach, strategic communications, public awareness campaigns, and marketing strategies in support of K-12 and higher education, workforce development, civil rights, and community building.

Our name suggests the values we hold: Communication Works.

• Communication works as a tool for sharing ideas, building knowledge, and influencing policy.

• Communication works to connect diverse people and perspectives to solve problems.

• Communication works to advance good ideas – ideas that make a difference.

Our capable, entrepreneurial staff is comprised of nationally known strategists, policy experts, media specialists, writers, and managers. We work collaboratively with clients to help build awareness for their issues, advance their agendas, and promote positive transformations  – and sometimes disruptive changes – in their fields.

Sheppard Ranbom, President

Sheppard Ranbom is founder and president of CommunicationWorks, L.L.C. In leading the firm since 1996,  Ranbom has focused on increasing the visibility and power of ideas and institutions through leveraging research, the media, issue-driven campaigns, grassroots advocacy initiatives, and marketing techniques. He has helped launch new nonprofit organizations and revitalize the image of well-established institutions. His clients have included many of the nation’s leading foundations, corporations, education nonprofits, and research institutions. A former staff writer for Education Week who also edited a weekly education news syndicate for daily newspapers and publications for higher education officials, he has written or edited numerous reports in education issues. An award winning writer and strategist, Ranbom also has written or edited dozens of authoritative reports on education and civil rights issues and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colgate University.

Mary-Mack Callahan, Chief Operating Officer

Mary-Mack Callahan oversees all CommunicationWorks operations and manages projects focused on higher education, research, philanthropy, and nonprofit management. Mary is the former managing director of the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, where she was an adviser to dozens of foundations and hundreds of private colleges for more than a decade. She has managed foundation grants in community development; faculty roles and rewards; and efforts to encourage colleges to play a stronger role in developing the skills of youth in poor, urban, and rural communities. She has been a participant in Grantmakers for Education and other philanthropic groups. Mary has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Swarthmore College.

Mark Carter, Chief Financial Officer

Mark Carter is an accomplished executive and entrepreneur with broad experience in finance, accounting, audit, investigations and internal controls. He has served as a Chief Financial Officer in both large and small companies. He was a founder and Chief Financial and Operations Officer of CoreFacts, LLC, a high technology investigations and litigation support company. He developed and implemented all financial and operational support systems and guided CoreFacts through its sale to a public company.

Craig P. Smith, Director of Higher Education and Strategy

Craig P. Smith leads CW’s higher education, policy and strategic planning efforts. Previously, he was for several years the director of higher education at the American Federation of Teachers. At AFT, he managed national advocacy campaigns, worked on federal and state policy issues with legislative staff in Congress, developed research and policy statements, built and managed coalitions of diverse groups of organizations, developed media strategy, and managed online coordination of AFT’s conference and events. For seven years Smith was a faculty member at Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Smith earned a B.A. in English and history from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, an M.A. in English from Syracuse University, and completed Ph.D. coursework in communications at the University of Utah.

Mark Toner, Senior Writer

Mark Toner, senior writer, specializes in K-12, community colleges and education policy issues, teaching, technology, and local improvement efforts. Toner has served as editor and manager of publications for the 3.2 million-member National Education Association and as senior editor of Teacher Magazine, which was nominated for a National Magazine Award for general excellence during his tenure. Toner has been involved with Internet publishing since 1995, when he singlehandedly launched an association magazine’s website and helped develop the strategy guiding the organization’s broader Web presence. He has since created a wide range of online features and media packages, introduced the first blogs at two organizations, and played key roles in site redesigns at three associations. Toner has also researched and developed white papers on Internet strategy for traditional publishers through his work at the Newspaper Association of America. His personal online projects have been featured in The Washington Post and Washingtonian magazine. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of William & Mary.

Barbara McKenna, Writer-Editor

Barbara McKenna, writer and editor, is an award-winning editor of national education magazines who has written about issues ranging from college affordability and student debt to equity and diversity, technology, and state and federal policy. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, AFT On Campus, Cable in the Classroom, CASE Currents, and Books & Arts. She was among the founding editors of the Washington Book Review. McKenna also served as director of public relations and publications and special assistant to the president of Mount Vernon College (now a campus of George Washington University). She holds a degree from Georgetown University and advanced publications certificates from George Washington University and Radcliffe College. Her work has been honored with awards from ILCA, Ed Press, the Ozzie Awards, and Project Censored.

Angus Paul, Editor

Angus Paul, editor, has edited numerous national reports for clients on education and civil rights issues. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College, he has taught school, reported for The Chronicle of Higher Education (his beat was the research produced by college and university scholars), and edited George Washington University's alumni magazine.

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