Q&A with BP’s Newest Senior Account Executive, Kalli Plump

We are pleased to wel­come Bell­mont Part­ners’ newest team mem­ber, Kalli Plump! Kalli pre­vi­ous­ly worked at RunSwitch PR, a pub­lic rela­tions and pub­lic affairs agency in Louisville, Ky., where she devel­oped pub­lic health cam­paigns, worked on state and fed­er­al leg­isla­tive efforts and exe­cut­ed large-scale pub­lic rela­tions cam­paigns and events. Since join­ing our team, she’s already con­tributed to projects large and small for clients includ­ing Min­neapo­lis North­west Tourism, Digi-Key, MnFIRE, Mid­west Dairy and more.

We are incred­i­bly excit­ed to have Kalli on our team – so excit­ed that we recent­ly sat down and asked her a few ques­tions to learn more about what makes her tick.

How did you get your start in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions industry?

When I first start­ed col­lege at Bio­la Uni­ver­si­ty I want­ed to be a high school Span­ish teacher, but I quick­ly real­ized I didn’t want to do the same thing every day. I’ve always loved to write, so that’s how I got inter­est­ed in pub­lic rela­tions. Right out of school I interned at Porter Nov­el­li, and I grew from there. No two days are the same, I real­ly like that about my career.

What is a project or accom­plish­ment you are espe­cial­ly proud of in your career?

At RunSwitch PR, I led a com­mu­ni­ca­tions cam­paign for a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment in Ken­tucky that gave crime vic­tims con­sti­tu­tion­al rights called Marsy’s Law. After a year­long vot­er edu­ca­tion cam­paign, the amend­ment was passed by the vot­ers in Novem­ber. That is the biggest accom­plish­ment of my career thus far, espe­cial­ly after meet­ing and get­ting to know so many crime vic­tims and telling their sto­ries through­out the cam­paign. A lot of times in pub­lic rela­tions, we don’t work on projects with obvi­ous “wins.” But with this project, the out­come was tan­gi­ble, a vote yes or no. On elec­tion night we had a cam­paign par­ty and eager­ly watched as the votes rolled in. See­ing the final vote count up on the screen and the hap­py reac­tions of the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies was one of my proud­est moments.

You’ve worked from Cal­i­for­nia to Ken­tucky, what makes you excit­ed to return to your home state of Minnesota?

So many things. I moved here from Louisville with my hus­band in Jan­u­ary. We loved Louisville, but Min­neso­ta has always been home. I grew up in Edi­na, actu­al­ly right down the street from the BP office! One of my favorite parts about this area has always been the lakes. I think I’m most excit­ed to be near the lakes again and be close to my fam­i­ly and friends. After being away for sev­en years, I have a lot of Min­neso­ta pride, and I’m so hap­py to be back.

You’ve had a lot of expe­ri­ence work­ing with clients in health­care. What’s your favorite part about com­mu­ni­ca­tions in the health and med­ical industry?

I enjoy work­ing in health­care because I feel like I am mak­ing a big dif­fer­ence for peo­ple who a lot of times are too sick or vul­ner­a­ble to speak up for them­selves. Health­care can be com­pli­cat­ed, and although com­mu­ni­cat­ing in that space can be chal­leng­ing at times, I know I’m help­ing the peo­ple who need it most.

What is your most mem­o­rable work experience?

At RunSwitch PR, I got to work with Churchill Downs, the home of the Ken­tucky Der­by. That was a lot of fun because the Ken­tucky Der­by is such an icon­ic, his­toric event, and peo­ple in Ken­tucky love horse rac­ing. Dur­ing Der­by Week, I had to go to the media vil­lage for inter­views at 5 a.m. which sounds ter­ri­ble, but for the Ken­tucky Der­by it was won­der­ful. The hors­es were warm­ing up, and I got to watch the sun rise over the race­track every morn­ing – it was beau­ti­ful. And there’s noth­ing quite like the excite­ment of the live race itself.

What makes you excit­ed to join the BP team?

I’m most excit­ed about the cul­ture here, and how col­lab­o­ra­tive every­one is. It’s excit­ing to see every­one on the team gen­uine­ly invest­ed in the future of the com­pa­ny and their clients. Agen­cies can be very com­pet­i­tive, but here at BP we’re all work­ing togeth­er toward a shared goal. BP also has a great vari­ety of clients, and I’m excit­ed to be work­ing with so many rec­og­niz­able brands.

Wel­come to the team, Kalli – we’re excit­ed to have you at Bell­mont Partners!