With then-clients from Okura Sushi.

A strong and versatile communicator, I've spent the past  four decades  working in public relations, marketing, advertising, promotion, and event planning.

I'm a native of western New York; I lived and worked in New York City for several years before moving to the West Coast in the mid-1980s. I now call Laguna Beach my home and enjoy volunteering my time and communications skills with a number of community-enhancing organizations. 

Before starting my own agency, I worked at PR and ad agencies in New York City and San Diego (consumer brands, tourism destinations, sports promotion events, QSRs), a television network affiliate, and a regional opera company.

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My commitments include volunteering since 2001 with Laguna Beach-based Friendship Shelter, a highly effective program for unhoused adults. I chaired a record-breaking fundraising gala in 2016 and am on my third term serving on the board of directors. My philanthropic interests are also global, having served for a decade on the board of Chhahari, Inc., which was a home for 23 at-risk and orphaned children in Kathmandu, Nepal that closed as a result of COVID-19. I parlayed that experience into a new board seat serving Impact Schools, an NGO with 235 students, some in residence, located in rural western Nepal where roads don't yet go. It was founded by the brilliant and dynamic Soka University graduate Prakash Bista. 

Barbara McMurray is masked and ready for the day in Kathmandu, Nepal with Chhahari, Inc., a home for orphaned and at-risk children.