Founder and president of CC Twenty-One, Tom Warnke is a public relations professional with 20 years experience focused on meeting the needs of smaller, community-based entrepreneurs. Both with a small influential Chicago-based public relations firm and as Director of Local Communications for Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Tom has demonstrated a keen commitment to advancing the work of those who have transformed some of this country's most hard-pressed neighborhoods. Tom designed, implemented and managed a uniquely successful communications effort that increased the profile of local nonprofit organizations in some 40 urban and rural communities nationwide. He did this through a combination of strategic planning, training and hands-on mentoring that helped these organizations understand the value and importance of effective communications while at the same time teaching them the fundamentals of communications planning and media relations.  Trained as a journalist, Tom worked for six years as a newspaper, magazine and wire service reporter. That experience adds great depth and perspective to CC Twenty-One's ability to identify opportunities, design and implement strategic communications efforts and create compelling events, materials and social media platforms to convey key corporate messages.