Emma Hunt

Tara Murphy’s public relations career started with a D in one of her PR classes at Elon University. “It was never something that I wanted to focus on, which is very funny since I’ve now owned a PR company for 24 years,” the 49-year-old Kirkwood resident says.

360 Media, Murphy’s boutique public relations agency specializing in lifestyle, entertainment, and hospitality clients, has been the driving force behind many well-known Atlanta festivals, events, and establishments. Chances are you’ve been to an event Murphy has helped plan: Think Music Midtown, Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, Sweetwater 420 Festival, and Atlanta Dogwood Festival—to name a few. Even Krog Street Market is a product of Murphy’s public relations prowess; her work helped land it on Travel + Leisure’s list of best food halls around the globe prior to its opening. Her business has also gone national. She’s done PR 
for festivals including Hangout Music Fest in Gulf Shores and Telluride Blues and Brews in Colorado, but she credits much of her success to the city she loves most.

“Atlanta gave me the opportunity to be an entrepreneur, and to not only survive, but to thrive and create a business that impacts the city,” she says. “It’s also enabled me to empower other female entrepreneurs.” With 360 Media’s ever-growing network of local, regional, and national connections, the company has served as a launching pad for many young women in public relations. Some have gone on to create their own Atlanta agencies, while others have ended up across the country in Los Angeles, working in music and entertainment.

But Atlanta will always have a special place in Murphy’s heart. “I think Atlanta was before its time on
 a lot of things, and I think people are just now catching on to how savvy the city really is,” she says. “It makes it really cool to work here, and there’s never a dull moment.”

As the first woman CEO and president of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Lauren Koontz shoulders a lot of responsibility. Despite the vast number of obligations that come with the title, the 45-year-old mother of two makes sure that she always has enough time for what makes her happiest: connecting with those at the YMCA. Sometimes that means reading to kids at the Y’s early learning centers; other times it’s getting to know seniors at a class for those with Parkinson’s. “It’s really in the small moments,” she says. “I’m happiest when I’m with the children, families, and people that we serve.”

Born on St. Simons Island, Koontz received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Georgia, followed by her MBA from Georgia State University, which she earned while juggling a career in sports marketing. She knew that the nonprofit world was where she belonged, though. After stints at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Emory University School of Medicine, and Coxe Curry & Associates, the Dunwoody resident landed at the YMCA in 2012. “I came to the Y because it has the scope and scale and breadth and depth of programming to reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people,” she says.

The YMCA’s annual giving campaign, which funds scholarships for those unable to afford Y programs, has grown more than 250 percent during Koontz’s tenure, raising more than $5 million last year alone. Partnerships with other Atlanta-based organizations have also expanded under her leadership. Her 
work with the Atlanta Speech School on growing Read Right From the Start, an early literacy program aimed to reach all kids no matter their family’s socioeconomic status, is one that she is particularly proud of, and one that echoes the YMCA’s mission. “No one’s future should be determined by the zip code or circumstances they were born into,” she says.

To many, that level of reach and responsibility could be intimidating. Not to Koontz. Rather, it serves as her motivation. “Like Billie Jean King originally said, the pressure is a privilege. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to sit in this seat.”