Melanie Knobel, Neighbor

Knobelwoman Media Relations

The single chord that rings through Melanie Knobel’s diverse career is in the altruistic key of raising awareness and giving back.

President of Knobelwoman Media Relations, based in Spring Lake Heights, NJ, Ms. Knobel has succeeded in growing her own enterprise, founded in 2002, by focusing on building small businesses and brands. Specializing in the promotion of ventures spanning the arts, non-profit, toy, and epicurian fields, her expertise lies in both the strategy and execution of all aspects of media relations. Equally well versed in traditional as well as digital formats, she is also proficient in webs-site design.

In addition to Mary’s Place By The Sea, a client from the organization’s inception, Melanie’s portfolio features helping non-profits such as The Shore Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Society for Prevention of Teen Suicide. Her efforts have resulted in a significant , measurable raising of public awareness for these organizations: those for MPBS have been especially fruitful, with The Daily News, ABC News, FOX News, People Magazine, Asbury Park Press, New Jersey Monthly, The Coast Star, Coaster, and New Jersey Newsroom media covering the most recent fund-raiser, the Karma for Cancer in January 2014.

Her Public Relations career began in 2002 in the fashion industry, and soon expanded to include clients such as Paranormal Books, Kur Wellness Studios, Mary’s Place by the Sea, The Paranormal Museum, Transition Enterprises, Chumley’s Restaurant, and Graff Toyz.

In fact, the founding of Knobelwoman Media Relations represents a change of direction from her prior professional activities, which were incompatible with motherhood, as she and husband Tom were starting a family that now numbers three children.

Her own childhood literally set the stage and put her in the spotlight for all that came afterward: at the age of six she began a nine-year run attending the Creative Arts Theater (CATS), then started working in commercials and modeling. By age fourteen, she was spending summers working in New York City working for Elite Models, and at seventeen enjoyed a stint in Milan, Italy.

After graduating from James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas, she attended the University of Southern California, earning a BA in Visual Anthropology, specializing in ethno-musicology, with a minor in Critical Studies Film.

Field work in the study of the music business in Kenya was undertaken with the intent to study the evolution of their music, but, in Melanie’s words, “When I met numerous famous Kenya musicians, they all wanted to know why Americans were interested in their past but not their present and future. This is when I changed my research, helped create Kenya’s first Musicians Union, and started a documentary on the politics of being a musician in Kenya.

Now, Melanie Knobel is an invaluable member of Mary’s Place By The Sea. Visitors to http://www.MarysPlaceByTheSea.org can witness her contributions to the site, its newsletter, release and management of Facebook announcements, photography, and a soon-to-be released video she directed (available on the website and distributed on YouTube).