The Animal Agriculture Alliance announced that Casey Kinler has been promoted to director of membership and marketing and will assume this new role on May 1. In her new position, Kinler will lead membership recruitment, member retention and industry engagement strategy and execution for the Alliance, which is a nonprofit with the mission of bridging the communication gap between farm and fork.
Kinler first came to the Alliance in February 2015 as a communications intern and joined the team full-time in May of that year. In her previous role as communications manager, she connected influencers with factual information about modern food production through traditional and social media. Kinler led projects and initiatives such as College Aggies Online, the Alliance’s scholarship competition aimed at teaching students to be confident communicators on their campus, and the organization’s social media engagement strategy. Under her leadership, the CAO program has grown to include students representing 95 colleges and 35 states, earning more than 7 million impressions on social media in last year's competition alone. Kinler has also grown the Alliance’s social media audience by 233 percent.
Kinler also manages the Alliance website and member Resource Center, including overseeing a complete revamp in fall 2019 that has made the website both more visually appealing and easier for members to navigate. She has also been deeply involved in the Alliance’s issues management work including producing the annual Sustainability Impact Report which was recognized with a National Agri-Marketing Association Region V Best of NAMA Award in the public relations campaign element for consumers category and was named Best of Show in the chapter for the consumer division.
“Casey has been an incredible asset to the Alliance team over the past five years,” said Kay Johnson Smith, Alliance president and CEO. “She has brought so much creativity and passion to every project she’s touched. I know she is going to take our membership and marketing efforts to new heights and having her in this role will allow the Alliance to continue to effectively serve our current members and grow as an organization.”
Kinler holds a B.S. in agricultural communication from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and an M.A. in strategic communication from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
