Kelley Bass Jackson is an Atlanta-based writer/editor, public relations consultant and multimedia content producer. Under the banner Jackson Wordsmiths, she has worked with individuals and organizations from the private, public, entertainment and non-profit sectors needing support in the areas of public relations, media relations, community relations, event planning, communications writing, speech writing, video production and social media.
Jackson has written speeches, remarks, talking points, introductions, program scripts and program books for a host of high-profile events and individuals, public figures, elected officials, clergy and entertainers. She has served as a writer/editor/ghost writer on several published works, and is a prolific blogger, social media user and strategist, and branded content producer.
Jackson currently consults for nonprofits, startups, individuals and other concerns needing public relations, media relations, social media strategy, copy writing, speech writing and ghostwriting services. Her current clients include the Andrew J. Young Foundation, Soteria Systems, and others. She has worked as a writer for Morehouse College; served as the assistant director of communications and speech writer for the Attorney General of the state of Georgia; speechwriter for the DeKalb County, GA CEO’s office; public information officer for the city of College Park; public relations manager for Girls Incorporated of Greater Atlanta; and public relations/media specialist and writer for First Class Inc., a top boutique Atlanta PR firm with major corporate clients.
As a professional writer, Jackson has written hundreds of speeches; hundreds of scripts for radio, including PSA’s; hundreds of corporate and celebrity bios and profiles; countless press releases and media advisories; numerous magazine articles; contributed to three books, edited five; and regularly blogs. She has edited and contributed to two books that were nominated for NAACP Image Awards for Literary Work, Non-Fiction and ghost written two memoirs.
Recently, Jackson served as an organizer, writer, script writer, video producer, social media strategist and content producer on the production of a series of high-profile events in Atlanta, Georgia. They include The Inaugural Women 2 Women Conference 2014 with keynote speaker Dr. Maya Angelou; the Southern K-14 Education Innovation Summit, a partnership between Georgia Piedmont Technical College and the Center for Digital Education; the Global Peace Foundation’s Global Peace Convention Atlanta 2012 which hosted peace leaders and heads of state from around the globe; Andrew Young’s 80th Birthday Gala Fundraiser Oprah Winfrey; the Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation’s (MJYF) inaugural signature gala “Ignite 2012”; SCLC/WOMEN’s 33rd Annual “Drum Major for Justice Awards”; and the inaugural Master Class for Morehouse College’s “Candid with Cannon: A Conversation with Legendary Producer Reuben Cannon” in conjunction with the Morehouse Filmmaker’s Association and the newly created Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies (CTEMS) department.
Jackson spent several years working in Hollywood and Los Angeles, California in the entertainment industry holding various positions in television and film, including associate producer, producer’s assistant, researcher and production assistant. She worked as an arts and entertainment journalist for various music trade and consumer/lifestyle publications, and studied screen writing at UCLA. She has worked with on Hollywood studio lots, including Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, and with major production companies, talent agencies and television shows. Jackson worked on the studio lot as an assistant to producers and development executives for such television shows and film production companies as Alec Baldwin’s Eldorado Pictures, Lisa Henson and Janet Yang’s Manifest Films, Turman Morrissey Productions, the venerable Ray Stark Productions, Sony Animation’s “Men in Black,” The Game Show Network, and as an assistant in comedy development for Sony Television.
Jackson’s work as a researcher on FOX Television’s “Encounters” and Paramount Pictures’ “The Leeza Show” prepared her for producing documentary programming. In 1996, Jackson earned an associate producer’s credit on the critically acclaimed ABC Television Special “The Story of Mothers and Daughters,” the first documentary film to air on that network in over 20 years. She also wrote, directed, and starred in an independent short form video of her “Women’s Glib” project, which also starred Nia Long and Paula Jai Parker.
Jackson relocated to Hollywood after a successful run as the head writer and creative voice behind “Girl Talk,” a nationally-syndicated entertainment radio program produced by American Media which aired in nearly 60 urban markets across the country.
