Margaret Dunning / Principal & Chief Strategy Officer
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Malcolm Gladwell has written about “Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.” Clients and friends regularly identify me as a connector, a descriptor with which I’m very comfortable. At Widmeyer, it’s a given we’re going to provide our clients with well-thought through strategy, plus the latest in communications tools to achieve the objectives; being able to create linkages that aren’t readily apparent is an added plus.

Twelve years ago when I joined the firm, I was commuting between New York and DC. I don’t miss being a road warrior and can still get my New York fix by visiting our great Manhattan-based team and clients. I can also enjoy dinners with my husband, David, on weeknights as well as weekends. Life is good.

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Biography:

Margaret Dunning, a principal in the firm and head of Widmeyer’s Washington office, is focused on strategy development and ensuring integration of agency services. Dunning has extensive experience in issues management, crisis communications, media strategy and long-term client positioning. She works with a number of the firm’s corporate, government, nonprofit and foundation clients and also oversees the firm’s Higher Education and Research practices. Dunning has provided counsel to Pearson,  Nestlé, Lumina Foundation for Education, Business Roundtable, Wellesley College and Association of American Publishers, among others.

Prior to joining Widmeyer, Dunning was vice president and director of communications for Public Agenda, a New York-based nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization. During her tenure, Public Agenda grew in both size and stature, becoming for policymakers and the media a trusted source of public opinion research.

Dunning also has experience in the public service advertising world, having worked for The Advertising Council on campaigns ranging from drunk driving awareness and Head Start to forest fire prevention with the Ad Council’s oldest icon, Smokey Bear. On the broadcast front, Dunning headed up the television production company responsible for “The McLaughlin Group” and “John McLaughlin’s One on One,” which are seen on NBC and PBS stations nationwide, as well as “McLaughlin,” one of CNBC’s first evening programs.

During the Reagan Administration, Dunning worked in the Office of Management and Budget, after having been a Capitol Hill staffer for a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is a graduate of Trinity College where a senior internship at the Republican National Committee turned into a first job. A past member of the Board of Directors of The Sewall-Belmont House and Museum and the Levine School of Music, Dunning currently serves as an advisor to the American Red Cross’ Office of Public Affairs and held a similar role for the RAND Corporation’s Office of External Affairs. One of her most treasured roles was serving as a Regional Panel judge for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships.  Dunning is on the board of directors of the Economic Club of Washington, is in the Federal City Council and Leadership Greater Washington, where she was a member of the Class of 2009.

Contact information:

  • 1129 20th St NW, Suite 200,
    Washington, DC 20036
    Phone 202.667.0901
    Fax 202.667.0902