Rachel Noerdlinger

Rachel Noerdlinger
Born November 14, 1970
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Residence Edgewater, New Jersey[1]
Ethnicity African American
Alma mater Mills College (B.A., 1992)
Known for Public relations expertise[2]
Title Chief of staff to New York City Mayor's wife Chirlane McCray

Rachel Noerdlinger (born November 14, 1970) is an American publicist. She is the former chief of staff to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray.[3]

Early life and education

Rachel Noerdlinger was born on November 14, 1970 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and soon after was adopted by a white couple named Peter and Janau Noerdlinger. She grew up with four siblings, including another African-American child adopted by the Noerdlingers. Throughout Noerdlinger's childhood, her family moved from state to state to New Mexico, Michigan, California and Colorado, and internationally, to Holland. In her childhood, she had only limited contact with African-American culture, something she would later express frustration with; in 1996, she wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post arguing that white couples should only be allowed to adopt black children "as a last resort".[4]

She attended the University of Denver from 1988 to 1990[5] and graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California in 1992 with a Bachelor's degree. Noerdlinger moved to New York City in 1993 after being accepted to Teachers College, Columbia University to work on her Master's degree in Education. She had spent the year before teaching in Gambia, West Africa as part of the Teachers for Africa Program with the intent to pursue a career in this field. However, during her first semester at Columbia, Noerdlinger dropped out and soon began an internship at the Terrie Williams Agency, one of the preeminent African-American public relations firms in the country.[6]

Career

She is a publicist. Her clients have included lawyer Johnnie Cochran[7] and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.[8] She is the President of Noerdlinger Media[9] and Senior Vice President of Communications of the National Action Network.

Noerdlinger has been featured in Essence Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Amsterdam News for her work. In March 2009, Noerdlinger was appointed to the Diversity Board at Ogilvy and Mather, one of the largest communications networks in the world.

Al Sharpton and The National Action Network

While at Terrie Williams Agency, Noerdlinger had many clients in the fields of entertainment, sports, business, media and politics, but was most recognized for her work with Attorney Johnnie Cochran, whom she later served as a public relations advisor. She developed a strong relationship with Cochran's client Al Sharpton. Noerdlinger later moved to Sharpton's National Action Network.

Noerdlinger's PR firm worked on the Sean Bell case, the Jena Six case, and the case of Megan Williams. She was also Press Secretary for Sharpton’s 2004 United States Democratic Presidential run. She has a weekly segment on Sharpton’s radio show on NationalActionNetwork.net.

Noerdlinger Media

Noerdlinger's PR firm, Noerdlinger Media claims clients including Al Sharpton; The Cochran Firm; Paul B. Weitz and Associates; Lifflander and Reich, LLP; Rubenstein and Rynecki; John Tobacco; Sunshine Sachs Public Relations (in their work with Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Lamell McMorris (Cam Newton's agent). She is Michael Skolnik's publicist.

Controversy

Noerdlinger was appointed by the mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio as the chief of staff to his wife, Chirlane McCray. Her annual salary was $170,000.[10] A number of embarrassing incidents in her personal life uncovered by media have drawn significant criticism towards her character, judgement and de Blasio's decision of hiring her.[11]

Noerdlinger eventually took an unpaid leave of absence n November 18, 2014, a few days after her teenage son Khari Noerdlinger was arrested for criminal traspassing with his friends, two of whom had pot on them.[17] Khari Noerdlinger was previously arrested in a robbery and was classified as a youthful offender.[18]

Personal life

Noerdlinger lives in Edgewater, New Jersey with her son Khari.[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ Emily Ngo (November 17, 2014). "Rachel Noerdlinger, Chirlane McCray's aide, takes leave of absence". Newsday. Retrieved November 18, 2014. De Blasio in Brooklyn Monday reiterated he views Noerdlinger, 44, of Edgewater, New Jersey, as a dedicated public servant and an integral part of his team.
  2. ↑ MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM, NIKITA STEWART and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM (October 3, 2014). "At City Hall, Backstage Player Is Cast in Main Stage Uproar". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2014. A public relations expert credited with helping to transform her last boss, the Rev. Al Sharpton, into a national celebrity, Ms. Noerdlinger was seen as the ideal collaborator for Ms. McCray, a poet and writer eager to play a significant role in her husband’s administration.
  3. ↑ MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and NIKITA STEWART (November 17, 2014). "Rachel Noerdlinger, a Top City Hall Aide, Takes a Leave of Absence". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ Kemba J. Dunham (September 17, 2012). "White Mama, Black Baby". Essence Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2014. The latter scenario mirrors Rachel Noerdlinger's experience. The 41-year-old, who is Black, was adopted as an infant by Peter and Judy Noerdlinger, a White couple from New Mexico who also had biological children. "My parents believed we could be color-blind," she says. "They saw racial distinctions as dangerous." Noerdlinger, whose Black brother was also adopted, says she paid a hefty price for her parents' idealism. She felt isolated growing up in predominantly White neighborhoods around the U.S. and didn't develop a strong identity until enrolling in Mills College, an all-women's college in Oakland. There she finally connected with other Black women. Noerdlinger's awakening eventually led to anger over her parents' naïveté around race, and in 1996 she penned a forceful Washington Post op-ed arguing Black children should be placed with Whites only "as a last resort."
  5. ↑ Clem Richardson (December 6, 2009). "Rachel Noerdlinger helps sharpen image of the Rev. Al Sharpton". New York Daily News. Retrieved November 18, 2014. Noerdlinger used a partial soccer scholarship to attend the University of Denver in 1988, then transferred to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., where she majored in political science and communication.
  6. ↑ Michael Slackman (December 14, 2004). "Getting to Know the Color of Her Skin". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Browns Lineman Hires Cochran; Suit Possible". Philadelphia Media Network. April 27, 2000. Retrieved November 18, 2014. "Johnnie is going to be working with Orlando. We just don't know in which capacity yet," Cochran's publicist, Rachel Noerdlinger, said yesterday.
  8. ↑ Nikita Stewart (May 9, 2014). "The Women of New York’s City Hall". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2014. Rachel Noerdlinger, the 43-year-old chief of staff to the city’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, is a black single mother who is the adopted daughter of a white couple. She made a career out of helping to reshape the image of the Rev. Al Sharpton, from storefront preacher to civil rights activist and television personality.
  9. ↑ Jennifer Peltz (November 17, 2014). "NYC aide on leave after son's arrest, police ire". Associated Press. Retrieved November 18, 2014. FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, Rachel Noerdlinger, president of Noerdlinger Media, attends a meeting at National Action Network headquarters, in New York. Noerdlinger, the chief of staff to New York City's first lady, Chirlane McCray, since Jan. 20, 2014, announced she is taking a leave of absence, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Women of New York's City Hall".
  11. ↑ "The hypocrisy of the de Blasio administration".
  12. ↑ "At City Hall, Backstage Player Is Cast in Main Stage Uproar". City investigators questioned Ms. Noerdlinger for several hours this week after learning that she had failed to disclose on a background questionnaire that she lived with a boyfriend, Hassaun McFarlan, who had an extensive criminal record.
  13. ↑ "Rachel Noerdlinger’s Home Was Hit With $28K Federal Tax Lien". Ms. Noerdlinger, chief of staff to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife Chirlane McCray, had a $28,190 federal tax lien placed on her Edgewater, New Jersey home in 2011, according to public records.
  14. ↑ "Rachel Noerdlinger’s Home Was Hit With $28K Federal Tax Lien". New York State has also filed a tax warrant against a company owned by Ms. Noerdlinger, Noerdlinger Media Incorporated, for $1,368, according to public records.
  15. ↑ "Rachel Noerdlinger’s Home Was Hit With $28K Federal Tax Lien".
  16. ↑ "The hypocrisy of the de Blasio administration". It was when the duplicitous Noerdlinger named him in an application for a residency waiver, spinning a tale about how the teen — so strapping and healthy that he was playing high school football at the time — was hobbled by a pair of car accidents and needed to be near his doctors.
  17. ↑ "Rachel Noerdlinger, embattled aide to NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray, leaves office as mayor slams 'repulsive' scrutiny by media". Khari Noerdlinger was arrested on a charge of criminal trespassing after he was found in the vestibule of a building in Washington Heights. The teen and three friends — all of them from New Jersey — were drinking and smoking, neighbors said. Two of Khari’s’s friends had pot on them, cops said, but Khari did not.
  18. ↑ "Rachel Noerdlinger, embattled aide to NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray, leaves office as mayor slams 'repulsive' scrutiny by media". The arrest was not Khari Noerdlinger’s first brush with the law. In 2011, he was busted in a robbery in which a man’s $50 headphones were stolen. He was classified as a youthful offender but not convicted of a crime.
  19. ↑ Alyssa Zauderer (November 15, 2014). "City Hall aide Rachel Noerdlinger’s son arrested on trespassing charge". WPIX. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  20. ↑ Michael Howard Saul (October 3, 2014). "City Hall Aide Noerdlinger Won’t Face Disciplinary Action". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 18, 2014. The city Department of Investigation found that Ms. Noerdlinger didn’t reveal Mr. McFarlan lived with her in Edgewater, N.J., but that she didn’t intend to deceive the mayor or City Hall, said a de Blasio spokesman, Phil Walzak.

External links