Meet Mary

A Media Insider with Public Relations Know-How

I am passionate about helping people and organizations bring their best selves to the world!‍ ‍

I’ll put my experience in high-stakes media and storytelling to work for you, with experience building compelling narratives, connecting with audience, and shaping confident communicators.

Sometimes you have to put on a hardhat to deliver what a client needs!

Mary Knowles delivers best-in-class story development, communications strategy, media coaching, message framing, and visibility with partners, the public, and the media.  Her career began in traditional network news. She then served as long-time Senior Producer for Bill Maher on his weekly HBO show, REAL TIME, where she booked and prepared hundreds of national-level politicians, policymakers, journalists, and thought leaders from non-profits, academia and the private sector for success on high-stakes, live television.

Mary's experience as a public relations and communications professional includes her work as Communications Directorfor World Energy, the aviation decarbonization pioneer, and as a Principalat Kivvit, a national strategic public affairs firm.In those roles and as a media consultant, Mary has developed message strategies (including crisis communications), trained and prepared executives for media interviews and public appearances, and secured positive coverage in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, CBS News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, trade outlets, and local press. She's also created written and visual content for websites, social media, and op-eds.

Mary has produced interviews and worked with public figures such as:

  • Nancy Pelosi

  • Al Gore

  • Jennifer Granholm

  • Elizabeth Warren

  • Susan Rice

  • Bill McKibben

  • Cory Booker

  • Hakeem Jeffries

  • Wes Moore

  • Thomas Friedman

  • Maya Wiley

  • Michelle Goldberg

  • Karen Bass

  • Bret Stephens

  • Salman Rushdie

  • Cornel West

  • Michael Moore

  • Samantha Power

  • Joe Scarborough

  • Chris Christie

  • Michael Steele

She has also helped state-level and local political candidates identify and tell their most impactful stories. And as the leader of Emerge New Jersey’s Program Committee, and board member of Elect Women NJ, Mary is proud to have trained more than 350 women to run for office.

Mary earned her BA in International Relations from Tufts University and her MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. She lives in Montclair, NJ.

With a love for travel abroad and in the U.S., Mary has visited all 50 of the United States. She’s an avid snorkeler, gardener and is a C-SPAN superfan.