Olga KatsnelsoN

Olga founded Postcard Communications in 2005 with the goal of creating a public relations agency where clients, colleagues, and journalists could engage in an intelligent, productive, and hopefully sometimes humorous dialogue about the hospitality industry.

A strong believer in a personal and customized approach to each campaign, she keeps the client roster small, ensuring plenty of direct contact and careful attention to detail. Postcard’s clients may be leaders in their fields or emerging talents that show an abundance of promise, and what they all share is tremendous skill, creativity, and heart. 

Olga began her PR career at New York's KB Network News and then moved on to Bullfrog + Baum, serving as an account director there for half a decade. During her time in New York, she worked with noted chefs like David Burke, Todd English, Bobby Flay, Patricia Yeo, Roger Vergé, and Geoffrey Zakarian.

Prior to entering public relations, Olga did bilingual refugee resettlement work, assisting recent émigrés from the Former Soviet Union, and working with the same agency that resettled her own family when they immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition to working with refugees, she has served as a Russian translator for various clients ranging from nuclear engineers to Olympic athletes. 

Olga studied at Georgetown University, majoring in Art History and competing on the varsity sailing team. She serves on the Good Food Foundation's Advisory Board as well as on the board of Berkeley's Badè Museum. In 2018, she was inducted into the esteemed Les Dames d'Escoffier. 

Isabel Baer

Isabel grew up in Zurich, Switzerland and inherited her passion for food from her mother who was a chef, as well as from her frequent travels, trying new cuisines while immersing herself in foreign cultures.  Seeking to pair her passion for the culinary world with her digital marketing and photography skills, Isabel pursued a career in the PR industry. She joined Postcard Communications after graduating from American University in Washington D.C. with a degree in Strategic Communications & Public Relations and a minor in Marketing. Through internships with Bullfrog + Baum, Made In Cookware and working for SoMa StrEat Food Park and SPARK Social SF, Isabel has quickly immersed herself in the local and national food scene. In her free time, she can be found experimenting in the kitchen, exploring farmers markets, traveling to new destinations, and of course,  documenting everything along the way.

Tara blazona

Tara got her start in restaurant PR in 2008 at San Francisco’s Rivera Public Relations. As the Bay Area was coming into its own as a culinary destination, Tara was working with some of the city’s buzziest restaurants like Beretta, Dosa, and Mamacita. From here, she joined Kristen Green PR, a consultancy focused on winery and hospitality clients. She worked with many of the wineries in the Constellations brand portfolio and also branched out into book publicity. In 2011, she joined Postcard Communications, where she worked with emerging artisanal food and spirit companies, cookbooks, and more than 30 restaurants in the Bay Area, New York, and beyond. In early 2015, she left food and restaurant PR to launch a furniture startup with her husband called BenchMade Modern. But just a year later, she felt the pull back to her true passion — food — and rejoined Postcard Communications.

A true Southerner at heart (raised in Jackson, Mississippi) she has a deep appreciation for food history and culture and has a passion for exploring regional and global cuisines. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication where she earned a degree in Public Relations.

Hannah davitian

Hannah brings a keen storytelling approach, melding individualized and collaborative client work with her own culinary aptitude to spotlight nuanced stories that resonate with editors and readers alike. Her expertise spans the food and beverage category having worked on beloved consumer packaged goods, cookbooks, restaurants, and culinary institutions, both overseeing launches as well as ongoing strategic positioning. As Postcard PR's in-house cookbook expert, Hannah runs multi-faceted campaigns and book tours for many New York Times best sellers.

Prior to joining the Postcard team, Hannah worked at Belcampo Group, Inc., where she collaborated on public relations efforts, marketing materials, and social media. While always drawn to the creativity of the kitchen and the intersection between cuisine and culture, Hannah got her professional start in event production for the Eat Real Festival and Good Food Awards after graduating with a psychology degree from Harvard University.

LIZA JOHNSON

Liza was born and raised in the Bay Area, but many of her favorite food memories take her back to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. There, she would wander the farmer's market with her babushka, gradually filling a tote bag with her favorite summer berries. Wanting to develop a more nuanced understanding of her own background, she studied Russian and Ukrainian history, culture, and politics at Stanford University. Her next destination was the University of Oxford, where she completed an interdisciplinary master's degree focused on the former Soviet Union. Her research addressed the ways in which prominent western organizations frame their involvement abroad through press releases and other media outreach. She also organized events for the university's advertising society.

As a devoted home cook and enthusiastic dinner party host, her pivot towards food and beverage communications seemed inevitable. Liza can often be spotted with a camera in hand, capturing restaurants, bars, farms, and markets, or pursuing other food-related hobbies such as gardening and ceramics.

Serena Nguyen

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Serena has always had a niche for sharing her adventures and big appetite in the food scene. She graduated from San Jose State University with a Sociology degree in 2019 and joined BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment (makers of the famed PacMan game) right after college. She then had the opportunity to work at a startup, KalaVita Nutrition, then Boston Scientific as a Content Strategist. Now, she works at Postcard Communications helping grow restaurants’ online presence. Her love for food and more broadly the restaurant industry stems from her family’s previous ownership of several Vietnamese restaurants around the Bay Area. Witnessing her mother and family’s industriousness inspired Serena to take on a new challenge within the food industry: Digital Marketing and Content Creation. She aspires to make an impact and help restaurants through Social Media solutions. Outside of work, she can be found at the gym, hiking, or taking conspicuous food pics.

NICOLE KING

Nicole's passion for food and beverage PR is deeply rooted in her New York upbringing, where she cultivated an appreciation for diverse culinary experiences. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in Urban Studies, she traveled across Morocco, Japan, and Central America, a journey that deepened her love for exploring culinary traditions around the world.

Nicole's passions for food and community intersected when she worked on an urban farm in Washington, DC. that was dedicated to making locally-grown organic produce accessible to residents in food deserts through an affordable CSA program. Before venturing into PR, Nicole delved into political advocacy work as a Field Organizer on Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign in Iowa and subsequently served as New Hampshire’s Statewide Voter Protection Coordinator for the general election. Through these experiences, she witnessed the power of compelling messaging in connecting impactful messages with audiences nationwide. This realization eventually steered her toward the realm of public relations, where she could leverage her communications skills to celebrate the artistry of food and the human stories that enrich it. In Nicole’s free time, you can find her trying every coffee shop in DC, hosting dinner parties, and practicing pottery. 

Larina Chen-Mehta

Larina Chen has a proven track record of securing high profile, timely editorial placements in multiple forms of media on behalf of her valued clients – a success rate that stems directly from the deep-rooted philosophy that telling organic, authentic, and timely stories is the key to a successful and sustained PR & Marketing campaign. As a former freelance writer herself, Larina’s highly customized approach to storytelling – coupled with strong personal and professional relationships with local, regional and national media makes for a maximum return on investment for all clients.

Larina has been in the marketing and public relations field for over 15 years and has worked with remarkable brands and companies such as; Hakkasan Group, Le Bilboquet, Blo Blow Dry Bar, AKT, Four Seasons Houston, Richard Sandoval Hospitality, SoulCycle, and W Hotels - in addition to numerous other hospitality and lifestyle brands. Born into a family of restaurateurs, Larina’s background knowledge of the business world encompasses everything from back of house operations to front of the house in order to market and publicize any business establishment or property to best suit the needs of the consumer and the owner. Her understanding for both sides of the spectrum is what has made her campaigns and strategies successful and measurable. 

MINDY FOX

Mindy is a food and communications specialist whose work has encompassed editorial, branded content and public relations. Having grown up in the Northeast, she made her foray into the world of food and CPGs at the young age of 14, hand-labeling jars and helping her mom hawk a then nascent homespun mustard at New York’s Fancy Food Show. (Fox More Than a Mustard went on to sell nationally, winning multiple awards and praise from discerning critics, including The New York Times’ Florence Fabricant.) After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Communication Arts / Film Studies, Mindy cooked professionally in Boston, MA, working with James Beard Award nominee, chef Stan Frankenthaler and others. She then embarked on a career as a food writer and editor in New York, where she worked on staff and freelance for Saveur, Epicurious, Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, and more, and authored and co-authored numerous cookbooks, including the New York Times bestseller, Antoni in the Kitchen, with Queer Eye all-star, Antoni Porowski.

Mindy’s reputation as a multifaceted storyteller and creative strategist in the food publishing sector made for a natural shift into public relations and communications, where she is now helping to get the word out about some of today’s most innovative food companies and products. Her publishing experience and extensive network of editorial relationships has helped clients land stories in top tier outlets, including The Guardian, Departures, Eating Well,  NPR, Epicurious, The Spruce Eats, The New York Times, Well+Good, Saveur, and others.

Mindy lives in Portland, Maine, where she spends her free time exploring food shops and farmers markets, cooking with family and friends, hiking and otherwise enjoying Maine’s natural beauty.