Diana Rickert, nonprofit and communications SPECIALIST
I’m Diana Rickert. And I love a good challenge.
I’m a highly accomplished, results-oriented nonprofit leader with a 20+ year track record of success. I have a knack for crafting and successfully executing strategies that achieve impact and growth. My colleagues say I bring out the best in them – and that I’m particularly adept at assembling high performance teams.
My specialties include:
- Developing compelling messaging on pressing issues
- Crafting and executing media and advocacy campaigns
- Media training for executives, spokespeople, newsmakers, opinion leaders and citizen heroes
- Overseeing campaign metrics and maximizing impact
- Team and project leadership
- Improving operational efficiencies and outcomes
- Managing internal and external resources, including vendors
- Consultant and vendor negotiation and oversight
- Creating systems and processes that simplify and reduce workload
- Impeccable attention to detail and precision
Here’s more about what I’ve done and where I’ve been:
From 2017 to 2022, I was vice president at the Liberty Justice Center. I joined the organization as its first Vice President just after it learned the Supreme Court would hear its case, Janus v. AFSCME. I oversaw the public affairs campaign surrounding that case, which had me working side-by-side with the lawyers on that case, allied organizations and the plaintiff, Mark Janus. We won that case, giving LJC a platform to expand its portfolio. I then developed and executed a multi-year strategy to expand Liberty Justice Center from a two-lawyer, Illinois-focused firm with a $600,000 annual budget to a national litigation powerhouse with a dozen full-time staff, a robust caseload and $6.2 million in charitable support. I oversaw all aspects of the organization, including: nonprofit compliance and governance, financial management and decision-making, recruiting and personnel management, benefits and payroll administration, projects and workflow, brand development, partnerships with grant and partner organizations, and interdepartmental synergy. Together with my team, I chartered the law firm’s expansion into new issue areas including educational choice, cancel culture, and federal overreach.
Prior to LJC, I was Vice President of Communications at the Illinois Policy Institute, where I built and led a robust communications department, regularly placing the Institute’s experts in The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and Fox News, among other platforms. I also lead several key issue advocacy campaigns, achieving meaningful success in the otherwise blue state of Illinois.
For years I wrote a must-read opinion column for the Chicago Tribune and appeared on regional and national TV as a spokesperson. Before joining the nonprofit world, I was an award-winning journalist. I have worked for the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Associated Press, suburban Chicago Daily Herald and Northwest Herald, among other publications. I have also consulted for two global public relations companies, private law firms, a 501c4 and 501c6.
My Clifton Strengths Top 5 are: Discipline, Responsibility, Achiever, Relator, and Belief.
Email me at: diana@rickert.llc
