Team Spotlight: Meet Tayler

Tayler Vranicar is Kirkpatrick Group’s senior writer, with over a decade of strategic experience behind every white paper, press release and byline article she creates. After earning her Master of Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked in a range of industries from healthcare to manufacturing and couples her background in SEO, graphic design and social media with her technical writing skills. Tayler met Kirkpatrick Group founder, Katie Regan, in 2012 during an internship. After finding a handwritten note from Katie, the two reconnected in 2021 and Tayler joined Kirkpatrick Group bringing the best book recommendations and exceptional writing to the team. 

What led you to communications and public relations?

I have always loved reading and writing, so when I tried to go in the direction of chemistry and math in my undergraduate courses, I quickly changed directions to English and graphic design. The intersection of words and visuals is particularly interesting to me. When I found the professional writing master’s degree program at Carnegie Mellon, I knew I was in the right place. Through the program, I was exposed to a broad range of careers in writing, journalism, public relations and more.

Describe your background in communications. 

After I completed graduate school in 2012, I worked as a Department of Defense contractor then at a marketing and advertising agency. Supporting industries like tourism, commercial carpet cleaning, facility management, and labels, my early experiences were in trade media. 

Now with Kirkpatrick Group, I mostly support trade media writing for manufacturing clients and develop various written communications such as award entries, employee spotlight features and internal employee news articles.

What are your favorite types of projects?

I particularly enjoy taking on dense, complicated and technical assignments like white papers. Starting with subject matter expert interviews to the final design, I like translating information into digestible, easy to understand materials. I also love design projects. From writing white paper content to designing it into a visual document then creating supporting social media graphics to promote the paper, I appreciate the entire process from start to finish. Separately, creating stories about our clients’ employees and their work to build employee engagement is one of my favorite types of projects. 

What do you think makes Kirkpatrick Group stand out in our field?

We treat public relations as integral part of an entire business, not a separate function that operates alone. We have a special understanding of how media relations and strategic communications impact the whole business and use this understanding to support specific business objectives.

What are your interests outside of work?

I enjoy being active. I am a registered yoga teacher and often spend time hiking and exploring with my kids and golden retriever. Indoors, you can find me reading or scrapbooking.  

What’s your favorite “fun fact” about yourself (cue team meeting icebreaker)? 

My husband and I hiked the Inca Trail in Peru that leads to Machu Picchu for our honeymoon. For three days, we camped along the way. When we reached the top, it was cloudy, and we couldn’t see anything. 

You have lived all around the U.S. and globally. What is your favorite place you’ve ever traveled?

I studied abroad in Italy and have visited again since then as I am drawn to the Italian language. Venice is my favorite, unique city. It’s such a beautiful place with the waterways, its slower, relaxing pace, great culture and history and wonderful things to see. Italian foods are also my favorite – breads and pastas are at the top of my list!

I also really enjoyed living in Philadelphia when I attended the University of Pennsylvania. 

You moved to the Boston area about a year ago. What do you like most about living in New England? 

Coming from Virginia where we visited the beach often, it’s a big change and I love to explore the city of Boston. The fall and winter seasons – from the snow and cold weather to the colorful fall leaves– are so beautiful here. Some of my favorite things about living in New England during the cooler seasons are apple cider everything and easy access to ski resorts in New Hampshire and Vermont. 

What’s one thing you can’t live without?

Paper notebooks and planners. There is something I appreciate about putting pen to paper.