Alison Bailin

Alison Bailin is director of client service at HMA Public Relations and has been a member of the team since 2004. Her responsibilities include client management, digital communications, business development, digital communications, strategic media relations, client relations, promotional marketing, creative writing, crisis communications, event planning and issues management. Bailin’s diverse clients at HMA encompass the retail, professional services, event, restaurant, healthcare, government, tourism and non-profit fields.

Bailin also serves as the editor of and contributing writer for The Arizona 100, an e-magazine and content marketing site, owned and distributed by HMA, featuring 15 100-word stories on business, economic development, retail and travel news delivered to more than 50,000 subscribers each issue. She also helps to oversee FinderBinderAZ, which is the statewide media directory for Arizona.

A longtime member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Bailin has volunteered her time in leadership roles with the Phoenix chapter’s professional development committee, chairing both its media breakfasts and luncheon programs for several years, and its annual awards program, which she has co-chaired three times. She has also served as a committee member for the PRSA Western District Conference in recent years. She has served on the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Rocky Mountain Chapter and is a past member of its Executive Board. She also volunteered for 15 years on its Rocky Mountain Emmy planning committee.

She served on the board of directors – including several years as chair – of Subway Kids & Sports of Arizona from 2004 to 2020 and has served as chair of its annual fundraising event and grant programs. Bailin is a founding member of both Phoenix Suns Charities 88 and the Weekend Jetaway Casino Classic charity event, and currently volunteers as a kitten bottle feeder at the Arizona Humane Society’s Feline ICU.

Bailin has been honored for her work by PRSA, the International Association of Business Communicators, the American Marketing Association and more. In 2013, she was named one of the “Women to Watch” in Arizona business as well as inducted into her high school hall of fame. In 2012, Bailin was named by AZ Business Magazine as one of the “Five Most Influential Women in Business Under 35.”

Bailin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University in 2003, with honors. Today she is a frequent speaker at Cronkite on the topics of creative writing, journalism, event planning and public relations.

In her spare time, Bailin serves as a freelance writer on the topics of lifestyle, travel, food, wine, spirits and entertainment for media outlets across the Southwest, including: North Valley Magazine, AZ Business Magazine, AZ Business Leaders Magazine, WHERE Magazine, InBusiness Magazine, AZ Business Angels, So Scottsdale Magazine, Uptown Magazine, Scottsdale Airpark Magazine, AZ Health & Living Magazine, The Entertainer Magazine, AZRE Magazine, Fabulous Arizona, Fabulous California, Contractor & Community Magazine and many more. In 2019, she was honored as a finalist for “Best Food Writer” in Arizona at the Foodist Awards. See her full portfolio here.

An Uptown Phoenix resident, Bailin moved from Indiana to Arizona at age two. If you’re a native or have lived here since a child, she will likely ask you where you went to high school (she went to Horizon). When not working or volunteering, you can mostly likely find her studying sharks and whales; planning a trip to one or more wine countries; listening to Howard Stern; or watching either sports, reality television or Law & Order: SVU. Yes, she still has cable. When people brag about “cutting the cord,” she sheds a tear.

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