GSU Library Research Guides: Feminist Action Alliance History Project: G

Gossens, Myra Peabody

Interviewee: Myra Peabody Gossens
Interviewer: Morna Gerrard
Date of Interview: February 1, 2024

Biography:
Myra Peabody Gossens is a Georgia native who has lived in Washington, DC since 1976. She is an entrepreneur, writer, volunteer, and community leader. More importantly, she is a Mother of two caring, successful children, grandmother of three, and a happily married wife.

For most of her career, Myra has provided highly sought-after strategic guidance to a diverse array of CEOs and leadership teams in business and nonprofits, the arts, philanthropy, education, healthcare, energy, human services, technology, real estate, and banking. A sampling of clients includes Sundance, Brookings Institution, AMIDEAST, Rebuilding Together, Georgetown, Syracuse and Gallaudet Universities, Americans for the Arts, Council for a Strong America, J. Paul Getty Trust, Chemonomics International, League of American Bicyclists, National Head Start Association, NeighborWorks, Smithsonian Institution, and Pew Charitable Trust. She founded her first company in 1980 and has been in business for herself ever since.

Myra founded Peabody Communications in 1980, and it became Peabody Fitzpatrick in 1983, when Joyce Fitzpatrick became a partner. The company was hailed as a Washington-area powerhouse communications firm and often featured as an early success story in the new and growing field of women-owned business. Peabody Fitzpatrick had offices in Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC. The partners sold the company to Ruder Finn, one of the largest independent strategic communications firms, and Myra became Managing Director of the Washington office.

Myra left Ruder Finn and founded MPG Advisors, her second business, in 2002. As a chief strategy officer, she was sought out for her perspective, her strategic approach, and her reputation for skillfully helping organizations establish clear directions and achieve their goals.

Before launching Peabody Communications, Myra was National Communications Director of NeighborWorks America. She worked in Washington and across the country to overturn inequitable systems that create barriers for marginalized populations to thrive and also to help communities establish Neighborhood Housing Services programs. Myra was recruited by NeighborWorks in 1976 while serving in the Administration of Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. As Director of Communications for the Department of Housing and Community Development, she worked in many of Atlanta's low-income communities and saw the role racial inequity plays in hindering success and eroding families and communities.

Myra was taught by her parents to give back to community, knowing that we are not on this earth to live solely for ourselves. In Atlanta, Myra volunteered with Coretta Scott King to launch the King Center for Social Change and on campaign teams for Andrew Young and Julian Bond. She was an early member of the Feminist Action Alliance of Atlanta, and co-director of its Festival of Women in the Arts, a month-long celebration in honor of the newly-created International Women's Year. She also served as vice president.

Deeply committed to her Washington community, Myra has long been a part of helping strengthen underserved neighborhoods, working with people who live there. She is Chair Emerita of the Board of Directors of Jubilee Housing, which houses and addresses the needs of low-income residents in the Adams Morgan community. She began her Jubilee volunteer service in the early 1980s , cofounded the Jubilee Support Alliance, and received the Jim and Patty Rouse Award for her service.

Myra was selected for the 1987 first class of Leadership Greater Washington and became president of the LGW Board of Directors. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Good Samaritan Society Foundation (Nominating Committee), theatreWashington (Vice Chair), Cultural Tourism DC (Executive Committee), Cook Ross, Inc., Jubilee Enterprises of Greater Washington (President), The Greater Washington Board of Trade (Executive Committee), Greater DC Cares (Executive Committee), and Gallaudet University Board of Advisors.

In addition to work, volunteerism, and travel, Myra is an aspiring writer, currently working on two novels and a series of short stories. Her happiest recreational moments have been on the Chesapeake Bay at the helm of Spirit, her '38 Catalina sloop.

Born Myra Elizabeth Black, she grew up in Swainsboro, Georgia and graduated from the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, at the University of Georgia before moving to Atlanta.