KPC Integrated Marketing Institute

For nearly twenty years, Katie Pesha has led teams that combine expertise with collaborative solutions to spark ingenuity and increase accountability. In 2003 she began her career with the team at USA Today, where she moved from circulation manager, to National Account Director, into a role as National Director for Higher Education Programs. In 2011 she took on the role of Executive Director of Communications and Planning for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where she oversaw all marketing, interactive media, community relations, publications and pastoral planning efforts for all offices and agencies. In 2016 she departed the Archdiocese to establish KP Consulting Group, in order to better serve the needs of the Church in the modern world. Since then, KP Consulting has grown from a one-person operation to a robust network of Catholic marketing and communications professionals. Katie is an active participant in the inaugural cohort of the Church Communications Ecology Program sponsored by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, which is meant to promote parish vitality through better communications. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of the Miraculous Medal based in Perrvyille, MO, as the chair of the Mission Advancement committee. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member for St. Charles Community College, where she teaches marketing, business ethics and entrepreneurship.

Steve Mamanella is a collaborative communications and marketing leader with more than 30 years of broad-ranging strategic and tactical experience. His work includes leading organizational brand management and marketing, digital media strategy development, media relations and crisis management, executive communications and speechwriting, special events planning, employee engagement and internal change management communications. He served as community relations director for the Archdiocese of St. Louis during Pope St. John Paul II’s historic trip to St. Louis in 1999. In 2003, he joined the team at Ascension Health and became the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications where he coordinated public events and speaking opportunities, created internal and external speeches and presentations, videos and other content for digital platforms - and hosted a monthly Ascension leaders’ podcast! In 2017, Steve moved to join the team at Saint Louis Priory School where he coordinated the introduction of a brand identity and brand promise aligned with the school’s mission and goals. Steve joined the KP Consulting team in pre-pandemic 2020.