LANSDOWNE, Va., Nov. 10, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mark Serrano, a crisis communications and PR expert, leading political strategist and commentator, and national advocate for sex abuse victims, is available to provide expert insight on the Penn State sex abuse cover-up and the university's communications approach in dealing with the scandal.
As a sex abuse survivor and national advocate, Serrano offers both personal experience and expert knowledge on this highly sensitive subject. At the outset of the Catholic Church child sex abuse crisis in 2002, Serrano's story of abuse and secrecy was featured in a front page story in the New York Times. The story made Serrano the first clergy abuse survivor to publicly break a gag order in a church settlement through the national media. This launched a new role for Serrano as a national advocate for childhood sexual abuse survivors and sex abuse prevention. Serrano has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in award-winning documentary films, including Holy Watergate. He is a recipient of the Voice of Courage Award, presented to him by Darkness to Light (www.d2l.org), an organization nationally recognized for its work in childhood sexual abuse prevention and education. Serrano is also a past member of the Board of Directors for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
In 1996, Serrano founded ProActive Communications (www.proactivecommunications.com), a leading strategic communications firm which provides expert public affairs, digital PR, and multimedia services.
Serrano has conducted hundreds of live and taped interviews as a commentator with major national broadcast and cable news outlets and newspapers. He is also an opinion-editorial writer and has been published in numerous major daily newspapers across the country
Commenting on the Penn State scandal, Serrano said, "The child sex abuse scandal at Penn State, enabled by senior university officials, is sickeningly egregious because of the many child-victims whose lives are forever affected. The university must change its approach in handling this scandal to provide more transparency and directly address the issue. Penn State cannot maintain an institutional culture which hides the truth from students and the public for the sake of preserving its image or limiting its liability."
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Contact:
Patricia Kakridas
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