Gregory G. Graze

Greg Graze has more than 25 years of experience in journalism and public relations. Before establishing Graze Public Relations in Dallas in October 1990, Graze was a senior vice president in the Dallas office of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. He served as general manager of the office for almost three years.

Graze has managed national public relations programs for a broad range of companies and organizations, including Voluntary Hospitals of America, Inc., the national Boy Scouts of America, and GTE Directories Corp (www.SuperPages.com). He is particularly strong in health care, technology, and crisis communications. His experience in technology includes systems integration, the Internet, client/server systems, videoconferencing, and IS outsourcing.

For VHA, Graze conceived and directed the organization's first consumer-focused national event, "CountDown USA," which in three years screened almost 900,000 Americans for the risk factors associated with heart disease. This award-winning program also generated approximately 1.5 billion media impressions and helped to position VHA as a major national alliance of health care providers.

While at Edelman, Graze directed a sensitive public affairs program for the national Boy Scouts of America that included crisis communications planning, media training, liaison with national experts, and litigation public relations. The BSA subsequently asked Graze and Edelman/Dallas to handle all of the national public relations function for the organization.

Graze's previous public relations experience also includes more than seven years as head of public relations for Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. At Parkland, he developed an aggressive public relations program and served as principal media spokesperson for the hospital, as well as counselor to senior management. He played an important role in gaining national media attention for Parkland and in helping the public teaching hospital generate referrals of private patients. He continued to serve as a consultant to Parkland after joining Edelman.

Graze was a journalist for 10 years, including positions with the Dallas Times Herald and the Press-Enterprise, in Riverside, Calif. He was a Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 1978-79.

Graze's public relations work has been recognized for excellence by both national and regional professional organizations. He received a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America.