Dan Cohen founded Full Court Press in 2001 with a vision of providing public relations, public affairs and crisis counsel to companies, foundations and non-profits who wish to use strategic communications to make social change.

Dan is a veteran public relations, political communications and media strategist. He applied his belief in brand building public relations to all of the General Mills Brands including Wheaties, Cheerios, Box Tops for Education & Betty Crocker. His work at General Mills in the mid-1990's was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as being on the forefront of leveraging brands to greater PR success.

Dan was a political consultant for initiatives and Democratic candidates for offices from mayor to Congress. He was recently named by the East Bay Business Journal as one of its "40 under 40," and serves on the Board of Directors of Alameda County Meals on Wheels. Dan is also on the Board of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Dan is a licensed attorney but chooses to practice strategic communications … his passion.

Melissa Daar, Senior Vice President, has vast experience in media outreach, public affairs strategy, grassroots/community action programs, and online organizing and advocacy.. 

Melissa led FCP’s efforts to assist California’s health and human services advocates to protect safety net services from drastic budget cuts that generated hundreds of stories throughout California. In re-launching Next 10’s Budget Challenge, an online tool to solve the state’s budget crisis, Melissa led the FCP team to develop an integrated public relations and online strategy; the campaign attracted more users for the Challenge than in any year since its founding

Social media plays a key role in Melissa’s efforts at FCP. Melissa and her online team assisted California Health Access in building the fastest growing online constituency for federal health reform during the 2009 public debate. Melissa also helped to launch “Postcards from Bosnia,” featuring blogging by two leading Earthjustice attorneys reporting from a climate summit that drew international visibility.

Before joining FCP, Melissa was the California Policy and Field Director for People For the American Way and played a leading role on the political team for Working Assets. Her previous experience includes communications for the ACLU of Northern California, staffing a San Francisco Supervisor, leading on-line advocacy on a ballot initiative, and public relations for a San Francisco tech start-up.

Melissa spent a decade as a social entrepreneur. She founded and led an Oakland-based business for a decade that organized cultural exchange travel to Cuba and Brazil.

Jordan Pierce comes to Full Court with a broad range of experience well-suited to our mission; including work in local government, event production, and the non-profit sector. He recently served as co-chair of the Mayor Dellums Task Force on Transparency where he facilitated the research and drafting of policy recommendations related to the city’s contracting process.  Jordan’s international experience includes time working for the New Zealand Department of Labour and a semester studying Mexican literature and history at the Universidad Veracruzana, in Xalapa, Mexico. An Oakland native, he is a graduate of Haverford College where he earned a degree in English literature.

Brian Rice brings extensive experience in online communications and social media to his work at Full Court Press. Prior to joining FCP, Brian worked on several political campaigns in New York and in the Bay Area where his work included developing successful online strategies to supplement traditional campaign work. Originally from upstate New York, Brian earned his Bachelor's degree in political communications and philosophy at Binghamton University where he also studied computer science and programming.

Aimee Fisher is a leader in strategic marketing initiatives, working with clients to think big about their futures and then build tactical plans to reach their goals.

Having worked in organizations ranging in size from four employees to several hundred thousand, including household names such as EarthLink, Kodak and Kaiser Permanente, Aimee understands the challenges clients face at all the steps of their lifecycles. She has successfully rolled out new products and services, tackled customer loyalty and retention and built strategic roadmaps to take companies ten years into the future.

Aimee enjoys working on projects at all levels - from managing and shepherding long term strategic planning processes involving a variety of stakeholders to editing website copy - to ensure a client project is well thought through, well articulated and well accepted within the larger organization.

Aimee has degrees from Smith College in Sociology and Women's Studies. When not helping clients change the world, Aimee runs around after her two daughters.