Karen Hinton

Karen Hinton serves as "Of Counsel" to Mercury, working out of the New York City and Washington, DC offices. Her innovative, results-oriented communications strategies regularly produce successful public outreach campaigns on the national, state and local levels. Karen specializes in developing proactive and long-term communications strategies and implementing them primarily through earned and social media. She also has provided in-depth consultation on crisis communications for clients facing difficult media environments. Her extensive media contacts consistently generate positive news coverage for clients in the nation’s premier media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, nightly news, cable and radio news networks, and regional, trade and online media. She formerly headed her own public relations firm, Hinton Communications, for ten years before merging with Mercury. Previously, Karen worked as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, when he served as Housing Secretary during the Clinton Administration. In that role, she oversaw the first trip by a sitting President to visit an American Indian reservation on official government business and helped open storefront offices for HUD employees to interact directly with residents about housing assistance. Prior to this position, Karen worked in the press office at the Democratic National Committee and for former Agriculture Secretary and U.S. Congressman Mike Espy, both in his congressional and campaign offices. She also served as Vice President for External Affairs for New American Schools, an education nonprofit established by President George Bush in 1991. Karen is knowledgeable about a range of issues, including banking, housing, energy, the environment and education. She has generated national media coverage for clients about issues related to tax reform, the federal budget, immigration, gun control, infrastructure funding, exports, trade and charter schools. Through public outreach campaigns, her clients’ positions have been featured in major media markets in opposition to rising credit card swipe fees and predatory lending in subprime markets and in favor of increased regulation of banks and efforts to expand bank branches into low-income communities. Karen also oversaw an international campaign to draw attention to massive contamination caused by a major oil company in the Amazon rainforest. At a federal agency, she provided one-on-one training for high-level officials and, at a D.C.-based think tank, she orchestrated a media campaign to convince political and policy reporters to write about her client’s research papers. Karen is a graduate of the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in Political Science and Journalism. She is married to Howard Glaser with four children, Sarah, Erica, Tali and Zach.