PR and Media Activist Rachel Noerdlinger Stands on the Frontlines of Social Justice
As the managing director of Mercury Public Affairs, Rachel Noerdlinger is probably one of the most influential public relations experts of our time. A high-level communications strategist, Noerdlinger handles strategic communications, crisis management, and public affairs, along with community engagement in electoral politics and business. She is also an expert on issues related to equity, diversity, and inclusion and advises corporations and nonprofits on building relationships with communities of color.
From the renowned Terrie Williams Agency to Noerdlinger Media to Mercury Public Affairs, Noerdlinger has been on the frontlines of civil rights and racial and social justice for more than two decades. She has represented a wide range of clients, including her longtime client of 22 years, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. In addition to Sharpton, Noerdlinger currently represents eight other active clients and projects, including three telecom companies as well as ride-sharing companies, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 500 companies.
Noerdlinger has many career highlights and a long list of high-profile media from The New York Times to New York magazine. She was recently named to the New York Power of Diversity: Black 100 list by City & State. She is also an active board member of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). Probably best known for her role as the Press Secretary for Reverend Al Sharpton’s 2004 Presidential bid, she was also a senior communications advisor to the late Johnnie L. Cochran.
The Reverend Al Sharpton has nothing but praise for his media rep. “Rachel Noerdlinger has been the ultimate publicist and communicator that was not only the major communications strategist for National Action Network and me but also was the backbone for how we were able to put public pressure on many cases and legislative initiatives that led to real change in America,” says Sharpton, founder and President of the National Action Network. “Her invaluable expertise should never be underestimated.”
Since the devastating May 25th murder of George Floyd, the country has witnessed an awakening, leading to a higher consciousness about social change. Noerdlinger has had a front-row seat to this groundswell. Noerdlinger planned, coordinated, and managed all the funeral arrangements and the logistics for Floyd’s services in Minneapolis. She also traveled to Houston with Sharpton, who eulogized Floyd at both memorial services, where she also planned and managed the media coverage.
“I did the legwork and coordination for the funeral service in Minneapolis; I had to organize the entire structure and logistics plan for the funeral,” in consultation with the Floyd family, she says. “I made sure that all of the press from across the globe was credentialed,” she explains. “I made sure that the Black press was amply taken care of because oftentimes the Black media is left out, and they are very important to everything we do.”
In the wake of Floyd’s death, “all of a sudden, corporations are super ‘woke,’” continues Noerdlinger, who was already consulting with corporations and nonprofits that were authentically interested in working inside of the Black community. “Now, my work has increased more than ever.”
Though many corporations have been messaging #BlackLivesMatter sentiments in recent weeks, there are still some companies whose actions remain inauthentic and symbolic. “The fact is, [a company] can give a statement, but if the C-suite doesn’t have Black people, and your procurement and supplier diversity is weak and inadequate, then all of it is in vain,” she says.
Family and Adoption
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1970, Noerdlinger lived in foster care for seven months before she was adopted by her white parents, Peter and Janau Noerdlinger. Months before her adoption, the Noerdlingers had adopted a Black boy, her brother, Fred Noerdlinger, in another part of New Mexico. Janau and Peter also had two biological children, Henry and Victor.
Noerdlinger never knew or met her biological parents. Three years ago, Rachel began her search to seek out more information about her parents through the State of New Mexico and Ancestry.com. She later discovered that her mother is Spanish and her dad is Black, which was later verified through New Mexico state records.
“I had a sealed adoption. I will have to go through some legal hurdles if I want to uncover more information,” Noerdlinger explains. “A part of me has been interested and I want to know, but a part of me has also been cautious. Unfortunately, throughout my childhood, my parents were often hurt when I would talk about it, and because of that I never really pushed, especially while my mom was alive. But now, I’m ready to uncover what I can. My father, who lives in Boulder, Colorado is now 85 years old, and at this point, he just wants me to be happy.”
Noerdlinger never lived in Albuquerque, but the family moved to other states every other year, including places in New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, and The Netherlands. “We moved to fifteen different places. My childhood was unique; I was a Black girl in a white household,” she recalls.
Today she claims both Southern and Northern California as home because she lived in the state for three and a half years, and that’s the longest she ever lived in one place, other than New York City and New Jersey, where she has been a resident for almost thirty years.
The Noerdlingers provided their children with the best education and opportunities to succeed in life. An all-around athlete, Noerdlinger is a highly skilled and competitive soccer player, skier, and runner who is still actively engaged in all three sports. She recalls when her parents used to pull her down a ski hill with a rope when she was just two years old.
Peter Noerdlinger, a computational astrophysicist and researcher, was a professor at several universities including Michigan State and Menlo College in California. He was also employed as a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the Aerospace Corporation, SERI (Solar Energy Research Institute), and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
A loving and devoted mother, Janau Noerdlinger was also a photographer and visual artist and traveled across the country to present her latest pieces. Unfortunately, she also suffered from mental health issues, including depression. This fact led to one of the worst moments in Noerdlinger’s young life.
She was a sophomore in high school when her mother committed suicide. It was not her first attempt.
Noerdlinger says she was haunted and traumatized by her mother’s death for many years. “I’m still not over it,” she shares. “She made [a previous] attempt to take her life, which I witnessed when she jumped off a cliff. I remember visiting her in the hospital. But this particular time, I had been away on a European soccer tour, and she was supposed to pick me up and she never came. My mother went to Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach [in Southern California’s Orange County]; she took some pills, drank who knows what, and walked into the ocean.”
Following her mother’s death, Noerdlinger also lost her half-sister. Lucy Noerdlinger, a 33-year-old daughter from Peter’s previous marriage, was stabbed to death. The insurmountable loss of her mother and sister was tragic and unbearable for young Noerdlinger and her family. Now Peter Noerdlinger was left with two teenagers in high school and two young men in college. Noerdlinger says, “Our father supported us, but we were all grown and took care of ourselves from that point on.”
Noerdlinger’s unique childhood later led her to write a powerful and moving testimony about interracial adoption in a Washington Post Op-Ed, when she was 25.
College Years
In 1988, Noerdlinger attended the University of Denver on a two-year soccer scholarship, where she studied political science. When she transferred to Mills College, a women’s college in Oakland, California, she continued her studies and secured her four-year degree in political science.
Noerdlinger had not grown up around Black people. Until she attended Mills College in Oakland, California, she had lived in places that were devoid of Black faces. Once at Mills, she met some incredible and powerful Black women and became consumed with Black culture. Noerdlinger joined the Black Women’s Collective and studied under the tutelage of some great professors of color, who were instrumental in her growth.
Thembisa Mshaka, a longtime friend and then president of the Black Women’s Collective, recalls their time at Mills. “We were in college together during the anti-apartheid/divestment movement,” says Mshaka, now an author, filmmaker, and award-winning creative campaign writer. “It was at the time when white women were confronted with the idea of allyship with Black causes and justice that didn’t center whiteness.
“Rachel was always sharp, taking things in, and once she had a grasp of the need, she was about taking strategic action,” Mshaka continues. “The ironic thing about Rachel at Mills is that she found agency in her Black identity at this predominantly white women’s college sitting in the heart of East Oakland. Black Women’s Collective, the student organization for undergrads at Mills, became home for Black women on campus, but especially so for Rachel.”
Says Noerdlinger, “Thembisa was my shero. I had missed out on so much [before college]. I became rebellious and later moved to Africa.”
Africa
After graduating from Mills College, Noerdlinger moved to The Gambia in West Africa as part of the year-long Teachers For Africa program in 1992. The program had been founded by the late Reverend Leon Howard Sullivan, who during that same year was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
Before the program started, the organizers scheduled a pre-trip to Gabon, on the west coast of Central Africa, and Noerdlinger was part of the delegation that, also included leaders Minister Louis Farrakhan and Reverend Al Sharpton. Though it was the first time she saw Sharpton in person, she did not meet him on that trip.
In The Gambia, Noerdlinger taught eighth-grade, full-time, five days a week. She was also the ad hoc soccer coach and created a soccer team with the boys. All expenses were paid by the Teachers For Africa program. Noerdlinger shared a house with three other African American women teachers.
“[Soccer] took me around the world,” says Noerdlinger. “I love it there [West Africa]. My reason for going was to find myself and I felt it was going to be the most transformational experience to my Blackness.”
While in West Africa, Noerdlinger also visited other surrounding countries including Liberia and Senegal. “In each country in Africa, there are different versions of how people see themselves and see Americans,” she continues. “And many of the Gambians wanted to go to America, whereas I want to be in The Gambia. It was a fascinating, phenomenal experience in my life. It’s a beautiful country, the people are beautiful.”
From Africa to Columbia University
While in West Africa for the Teachers For Africa program, someone recommended that Noerdlinger consider applying to graduate school at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. Though she recalls visiting New York as a kid because her father was born and raised in Manhattan, she did not want to go to New York because of her affinity for her West Coast roots.
Unsure as to which path to take after her teaching excursion in West Africa, she applied and was accepted to Teachers College. She relocated to New York in 1993 and stayed at Columbia for just four months. “I just wasn’t the theoretical abstract knowledge, all these books,” says Noerdlinger “I didn’t see myself as a teacher. You’ve got to have a lot of patience.”
The Terrie Williams Agency
“Someone told me about a woman that was looking for interns, and her name was Terrie M. Williams. And I said, ‘What does she do?’ And the person replied, ‘She’s a publicist.’ And I said, ‘What is that?’”
When Noerdlinger heard that Eddie Murphy and Miles Davis were Williams’ first clients, she was fascinated; the next day she went and to the Terrie Williams Agency at 60th and Broadway, near Columbus Circle, and applied for an internship.
Noerdlinger secured the internship without pay and her career in communications media was launched. She started as an intern in 1994, and was then promoted several times, becoming an account executive, and ultimately a vice president before leaving the agency in 2000.
Terrie M. Williams had a wide range of clients, from the Hollywood elite to top film companies to political leaders to business executives. Noerdlinger worked on a range of projects with Williams, including the multi-platinum selling group Boyz II Men. She also handled several top-grossing films, including Cry, The Beloved Country, and Losing Isaiah starring Halle Berry, just to name two.
Noerdlinger and Williams became close and soon she was one of Williams’ most trusted lieutenants. Williams later assigned Noerdlinger to Johnnie L. Cochran, who moved to New York City to tape his then-new show, The Cochran Files on Court TV. He hired The Terrie Williams Agency to help him get acclimated to New York and he wanted to attend important networking events. Noerdlinger also managed his day-to-day media schedule.
“[During that time], Johnnie Cochran had numerous big cases around police misconduct and civil rights,” says Noerdlinger. “I was fascinated and loved working with him because I got to see different cases that led to legislation. We developed an amazing rapport,” she recalls. “After Johnnie Cochran came in as a client, in 1998, Reverend Al Sharpton hired Terrie Williams and I was assigned to him as well.”
Working with Sharpton helped shape Noerdlinger’s future at the agency. “Reverend Sharpton and I immediately developed a symbiotic relationship,” Noerdlinger continues. “While Terrie taught me everything I know as a practitioner of public relations and communications strategy, Reverend Sharpton taught me what media activism is and how to use the media to propel and amplify your cause so that it leads to legislative change or bettering humanity in some capacity.”
By 2000, Williams had written three books and was doing less client and project work. Instead, Williams was focused on her mental health platform and her career as a successful published author and public speaker. At this point, Noerdlinger decided to step out on her own.
Noerdlinger Media
In 2000, Noerdlinger started her PR agency, Noerdlinger Media, and with Terrie Williams’ blessing, both Reverend Sharpton and Johnnie L. Cochran moved over to her firm. With such high-profile lead clients, Noerdlinger secured a wide range of other clients and projects that were similar to what she had worked on at the Terrie Williams Agency.
“Everything Terrie has stood for has been about uplifting our people,” she explains. “She taught me to look for that in our clients. And even to this day, if someone wants to retain me, I often look at it through Terrie’s lens. What is the value? Who are they? What is it that they can offer that will help change humanity?”
“When you have crisis management clients, which I now have a lot of, you don’t have the luxury [of being selective],” she continues. “Sometimes you have to just take them, and that is what it is. But the clients that I want to work with in terms of brand building are people that I feel are making a difference.”
Working with Sharpton has been both rewarding and challenging. Noerdlinger notes that more than a decade before she started representing Sharpton, he had often been viewed by New Yorkers as a controversial figure. In his early days, Sharpton was associated with many highly publicized cases including Tawana Brawley, Bernhard “Bernie” Goetz, Howard Beach, Bensonhurst and the death of Yusef Hawkins, the Crown Heights riots and the death of Gavin Cato, a seven-year-old Guyanese boy; and the accusation of Sharpton being an FBI informant.
“Reverend Sharpton has had media coverage since he was in his teens,” says Noerdlinger, “but it wasn’t always the positive mainstream evolving coverage that he has received over the years. In the beginning, there were a lot of people that were not receptive to him. [For me], there was always the challenge of not being able to get a New York Times reporter on the phone. But we persevered and now look, twenty-two years later, we’re doing okay.”
“Many people, especially New Yorkers had perceptions of him; even my own family,” Noerdlinger continues. “When I dropped out of grad school, my dad stopped talking to me for a long time. He was very upset. A, because he was helping me. But B, he thought teaching would be a way for me to help other Black kids. He also had his preconceived notions of Reverend Sharpton. We stopped talking, but then I had my son, Khari, and he became my silent partner in my PR firm. He was editing my press releases, and my dad was very helpful for the first several years. I was working out of my brownstone in Harlem. I would call him, ‘How do I spell this? Where do I do this?’”
New York’s City Hall
Before joining Mercury Public Affairs in 2015, Noerdlinger served as the chief of staff to New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray, who is the first African American woman to serve in that role. Noerdlinger was also a senior aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio and was instrumental to his administration. She helped guide him through several issues concerning the African American community and the Eric Gardner police misconduct case.
Noerdlinger, however, was not exempt from controversy herself. During the first year of the de Blasio administration, she became the subject of a series of damaging headline news reports about a string of personal issues involving her then live-in boyfriend, her son, and other financial matters. As a result of the distractions and public scrutiny, Noerdlinger met with de Blasio at Gracie Mansion and informed him that she needed to step down. She later announced that she would take an indefinite leave of absence.
“It didn’t end very well,” is how Noerdlinger summed up that period of her life.
Friends rallied to her defense. “I’ve known Rachel for thirty years, and she has always had this unbreakable determination combined with a deep level of empathy and compassion,” says Thembisa Mshaka. “She has had every kind of adversity thrown at her — both personally and professionally — and treats vanquishing them like a marathon. It might take a while, but she plays the long game exceedingly well, and she’s not going to lose. It’s no surprise to me at all that she is seeing much-deserved vindication on battles she’s fought for decades concerning police terror and injustice. Rachel has the vision of someone who lives on the right side of history. American media and reporting are finally, thankfully, starting to catch up to her.”
The Last Word
She may be a modern-day freedom fighter with a heart for social justice, but Noerdlinger’s walk through the post-civil rights movement has not always been smooth. Still, she has managed to take on the challenges and the opponents with grace and dignity. Committed to advancing the lives of Black people and people of color, she understands that her position as a media activist is not a career, but a lifelong commitment to freedom.
Through the years, many of the crisis management cases that Noerdlinger managed for Sharpton and the National Action Network were centered around police misconduct, including those for Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, and George Floyd, just to name a few.
“We run a crisis communications campaign like it is a crisis because it is a crisis when a young Black life is taken,” says Noerdlinger. “The way that we organize the PR strategy around a case is much like a PR campaign. By amplifying the issue and making sure [the case] is constantly talked about [immediately] after the initial phase of the case happens. After a while, the cameras start to go away. We have to keep thinking of creative ways to make sure that it’s still in people’s minds.
“It also involves putting together third-party coalitions of people that can help push our cause beyond ourselves, beyond the Reverend Sharptons of the world, and other civil rights leaders, and young activists,” she continues. “Part of my job is not just the communications strategy, but it’s putting together the coalition of stakeholders that can also help to push your issue.”
Noerdlinger’s success with Sharpton has been notable. “If it were not for Reverend Sharpton and the National Action Network, most of these cases would not have received international attention or recognition,” she notes. “It hasn’t just been these police misconduct cases, it’s also been criminal justice reform, economic issues, legislation issues, civil rights issues, and voter’s rights and voter suppression. Many of the measures that we helped to amplify are now actually legislation, including the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Bill in New York.”
Noerdlinger has found her niche and is constantly honing it. “I’m a connector,” Noerdlinger concludes. “I bridge power-basis grassroots. There are not many people that are doing what I do. I handle both high-level communication strategy while intersecting community issues into it, that’s exciting! I love that about my work! But amplifying [Black] issues is the most important thing.”
Gwendolyn Quinn is an award-winning communications strategist and consultant with a career spanning more than 25 years. She is the Chief Content Officer of the Global Communicator. As a contributor, she has penned stories for NBCNews.com, Black Enterprise, Essence.com, Huff Post, and EURWEB.com.
