Kathleen Soldati is a big picture thinker, veteran executive and marketing professional, and author/editor whose experience crosses numerous industries from visual to performing arts nonprofits, from political campaigns to public television, and from insurance to architecture. She is most well known for helping place venerable, high-impact New Hampshire arts, culture and history nonprofits on the map. She served as Director of Marketing for The Music Hall and Portsmouth’s JSA Architects, Marketing Associate for New Hampshire Public Television, and as Executive Director for both Portsmouth Historical Society and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.
“a superb communicator and excellent leader…who simplifies and empowers through communication” – George Carlisle
As a freelance PR consultant, she promoted the City as part of the 2013-2015 Portsmouth Tourism Marketing contract for the Portsmouth Chamber Collaborative, which awarded her the “Connector of the Year” in 2015. She served as editor (for Stephanie Seacord) on her third book, A History of Portsmouth New Hampshire in 101 Objects, for the Portsmouth 400th anniversary, for which she is now assisting with media relations.
Since 2019 she has worked as Marketing Strategist (with Barbara MacLeod) for Cross Current Communications. A lifelong activist, her greatest strengths may be her welcoming inclusiveness, knack for seeing unique qualities in everyone, and building respectful work cultures.
Throughout her multi-decade career, she garnered coverage for clients on The David Letterman Show and in the New York Times and Boston Globe. She produced events with Nancy Vawter for Jane Goodall in New York City, and (for Global Citizens Circle) Graca Machel and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, which included arranging with the Mandela government the Sally Quinn interview with Graca Machel for the Washington Post, to introduce the First Lady of South Africa to the US. The first book she edited and published (with Janet Levy) for the Concord NH Chapter of the National Organization for Women was Pro Se Divorce: Representing Yourself, a helpful guide book for those seeking an alternative to using attorneys. Her second book, Business Comes to the Expert (co-authored with Brenda Richards), was a guide to managing, distilling and disseminating a distinctive book of knowledge as the basis for successful marketing. She taught marketing courses at New England College, UNH, Boston Architectural College and USAID in Estonia. A skilled communicator, she has used her voice and dynamic public presence as emcee, facilitator, disc jockey, vocalist, and voice over artist.
Soldati is part of a family devoted to public service. Her late husband, Lincoln, served nine terms as Strafford County Attorney and also as Mayor of Somersworth; while her sister-in-law Jennifer served as Democratic Minority Whip in the New Hampshire Statehouse and also on City Council in Somersworth. Her son Emmett has been a driving force for engagement in electoral politics for the last ten years. All her children – Pacifico, Michael and Gemma worked on numerous campaigns, especially for their father! One grandchild, Mamadou, has already worked on campaigns, she’ll wait for young Luca and Vega to get a little older! Raised by community activists, throughout her life, she has been active in all communities in which she has lived, and in student government, the anti-war movement, the feminist movement, and electoral politics.