JoEllen Bursinger Zacks is the former senior director of strategic communication and public relations for the Chicago-based American Bar Association, the world’s largest professional membership organization. There she served as a senior counselor to elected leadership, Association sections and committees and staff on strategies to achieve policy, membership and public education goals and enhance the role of the ABA as the national voice of the legal profession.
Her recent accomplishments include working with the Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and First Lady Laura Bush to unveil a “Dialogue to Freedom” initiative, created in the days following 9/11 to stimulate classroom discussions on democracy in a diverse society, and spearheading a communication team that worked with the nation’s top military lawyers to launch “Operation Enduring LAMP” (Legal Assistance to Military Personnel), which trained volunteers to help meet the overwhelming demand for legal services such as wills and powers of attorney for military personnel called to duty in the war on terrorism.
Zacks is a graduate of John Marshall Law School in Chicago and the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
In Chicago, she served on the boards of directors for the Infant Welfare Society, Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum and the Girl Scouts of Chicago. Locally, she is a member of the WV Advocates Board of Directors, YWCA “High Hopes” benefit committee and West Virginia Symphony League
She resides in Charleston with her husband Benjamin and daughter Elizabeth.
