by Dimitri Michalakis

And she will never write a tell-all book: “No, no, I don’t want to be out of business,” laughs the 52-year-old founder and president of Danielides Communications, based in New York, which she runs with her husband Nicholas (“It’s wonderful…It’s great to have the support of one another”).

She will tell you about her long association with the nursing profession. “I helped to produce a 60 Minutes segment on nursing which helped to define an image campaign of nurses in the 21st century. I think that nurses are the solution for primary care, especially with the health care reform that’s coming forward now. I started out working with Columbia University School of Nursing many years ago, and now I’m very fortunate to be working with NYU College of Nursing. I helped them to launch their 75th anniversary and now they are expanding. I’m working with the dean of the nursing school, who’s a very passionate leader: she’s a gerontologist, her name is Dr. Terry Fulmer, and she is a leader in her profession.”

And she will tell you about her long affiliation with dynamic women like Dr. Fulmer. “I love working with female leaders. I was president of Women in Communications for several years, and their foundation and their philosophy is similar to mine about empowering women in the communications industry and in all disciplines, and to help them reach their full potential. I’ve always had female role models in business and in the communications field and I guess I relate very well to other women who are professional in business and what they do.”

Danielides herself was given the Matrix Award by New York Women in Communications (Donna Hanover was the presenter; Danielides was her press secretary for eight years) and she has long been a leader in promoting women in her field. “I’m very committed to giving back. My firm has a big internship program. I feel very strongly about that. I also headed the Women in Communications Foundation, which gives scholarships to women entering the profession.”

She will also tell you about other long-standing clients in the firm’s long roster, including the The Boys Choir of Harlem, which became her first client over twenty years ago. “I had a friend who was on the board of directors there and she called and said that the director, a wonderful man, Dr. Walter Turnbull, was looking for someone to promote the choir tour through the South. And the director came and met with me and asked me to promote the first tour, and I did, and it was a lot of fun, and then they asked me back again and again and I got hooked.”

You need sharp elbows in the business to get your clients media exposure and she might tell you how to get your book on Oprah. “You have to have the right book, and then you have to develop an angle, a media pitch, and then it’s all about connections: you talk to the producer. I’ve been doing this a long time, so I’ve made a lot of friends in the media and we talk all the time about what we have to offer, and they tell me what they’re looking for.”

She specializes in handling the authors of the Mystery Writers of America (a client) and enjoys the privilege. “A lot of them are former lawyers and physicians, and they’ve wanted to be writers, and they write these fabulous mystery books and crime books. One my favorite writers from that genre is Linda Fairstein, the former head of the NYC sex crimes unit (and the author of the Alexandra Cooper mysteries), who writes a book a year that’s always on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s a pleasure to work with her. It’s fun, because there are great writers in every genre, and they invest so much time in their story and in writing it.”

Danielides wrote her own story in the profession almost thirty years ago when she switched from art history (she was working as a historian at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) to public relations. “The last five years at the museum I was running corporate-sponsored art programs and lectures and the corporation that sponsored my program to put the arts in the public schools hired a public relations agency to promote the program and a light bulb went off in my head. Oh, my goodness--you can promote the arts and empower them more than just be in them!” She started working for the big p.r. firm Ruder Finn, but they insisted she work on travel accounts. “With two little boys at home under three, that’s not what I really wanted to do, be on the road all the time. So I resigned and started my own company.”

Her husband joined the firm 23 years ago when another client became the New York City Marathon. “He’s a runner, and he could run with all the reporters around the reservoir and convince them to write stories for the company.” His French background (he was born in Athens but studied in France and graduated the Sorbonne) also helped bring onboard the city of Cannes and his choir background (he was a former choir boy in Greece) helped them tailor their campaign for The Boys Choir of Harlem.

She calls Nicholas the firm’s crisis manager. “He’s a really great negotiator. I think that’s something within your personality. He’s very diplomatic and he has a great demeanor in dealing with clients and a great understanding. He can mediate very well on behalf of his clients.” (He also advises CEOs and lectures on crisis management and corporate communications throughout the United States and Europe.) Husband and wife each have their own field of expertise and stable of clients (“We leave the house in the morning, but each goes in a different direction”), though they do get together on projects of mutual concern.

“Nick and I did work together with the Center for Arts Education to help put the arts back in the public schools,” she says. “We worked with city government; we worked with the United Federation of Teachers and the public schools and brought cultural institutions to the public schools so that it was integrated into the curriculum. That was very, very rewarding because it impacted the lives of so many students who didn’t have that opportunity for a long time and it blended education with the arts and the sciences in a very positive way.”

She is also on the board of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki and a board member of Literacy Partners in New York.

The couple have two sons, Philippe, 26, a graduate of Georgetown Law School now studying for the bar, and Alexander, 23, who works on Wall Street as a financial analyst.

As for that tell-all book about her many clients and the business?

“I’m not writing that,” she laughs again. “That could be dangerous.”