Sylvia Burgos Toftness
Communications LeadJoined Northwest Area Foundation: December 2002
Sylvia works to help the Northwest Area Foundation and its grantees use communications strategically to engage key publics in action that will reduce community poverty long term. Her responsibilities include contributing to positioning strategies, building and maintaining brand integrity, directing print and electronic communications programs, guiding crisis communications, and developing the infrastructure and systems needed for effective communications inside and outside the organization.
Sylvia’s career began with a stint in the CBS Network Radio newsroom in New York City (she earned her bachelor’s degree in the Big Apple), and then at KDAL-TV in Duluth. She taught English and journalism at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (where she earned her master’s degree), and set up a mass communications program at Wheeling College in West Virginia. She was a manager of corporate public relations at Honeywell Inc. for 10 years, and communications director for a pioneering nonprofit promoting organic foods and agriculture in the Midwest. An independent consultant for 10 years, she provided public relations, and media and presentation coaching to the agriculture, manufacturing and health care industries. More recently, she led public relations efforts for the St. Paul Police Department and for the Stillwater Area Schools.
The mother of two grown children, Sylvia lives in Amery, Wis., with her husband, David.