Kitty Kurth
President
Kurth Lampe Worldwide
Kitty Kurth, the President of Kurth Lampe Worldwide, is a public relations and political strategist with Chicago know-how and global reach. She travels across the country and around the world providing strategic communications and political guidance for human rights and environmental causes, political candidates, corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Kurth has worked on the last 8 American Presidential campaigns in roles of press secretary, and communications adviser and every four years works coordinating speakers at the Democratic National Convention.
Kurth provides clients with wide-ranging services including strategy, communications planning, media training, message development, crisis communications and reputation management. She has worked in more than 45 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, as well as the countries of Egypt, France, Russia, Uganda, Mexico, Rwanda, Greece, Croatia, Romania, India, Indonesia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and many others. She has been sent by the U.S. State Department to Uganda, Indonesia and India to conduct campaign-training and communications workshops for Members of Parliament, candidates, students and activists.
Kurth has extensive experience placing clients’ stories on all of Chicago’s television, radio, print and online news outlets and national and international networks including CNN, FOX, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNBC, PBS, NPR, Bloomberg, etc.; print media including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, Time, Newsweek, Politico, The Hill, Roll Call; news and entertainment programs such as Good Morning America, Today Show, The Daily Show, etc.
Additionally, Kurth has developed and executed communication strategies that have resulted in: major newspapers changing their editorial stands on international issues; a clients settling a multimillion-dollar lawsuits to their advantage after we staged aggressive media campaigns.
The architect of successful grassroots advocacy campaigns to educate various governments to adjust their positions on human rights and social justice issues, Kurth has also educated and influenced major media outlets on their coverage of important international issues. She is a senior advisor to Paul Rusesabagina, the human rights icon who saved over one thousand refugees during the Rwandan genocide and whose story was dramatized in the film "Hotel Rwanda." In 2020 Mr. Rusesabagina was kidnapped by the Rwandan government, subjected to a show trial, and imprisoned. Kurth scrambled to organize a relentless campaign to free Paul in the face of overwhelming odds, bringing together human rights groups, celebrities, and lawyers around the world. Her work garnered thousands of press articles and is credited with keeping Mr. Rusesabagina alive - all as a private citizen with no staff and no budget. Kurth’s work was eventually embraced by the Biden White House, a bipartisan effort in both houses of Congress, the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, and the State Department. Mr. Rusesabagina was freed in March 2023.
A seasoned speaker, Kurth has given talks on American politics, Swedish politics, communications, democracy building, organizing, and communications for many groups and institutions including the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the University of Akron Bliss Institute of Politics and Columbia College. She regularly appears as a guest on radio and television programs around the world and is quoted extensively on political topics.
Earlier in her career, Kurth founded The Concord Coalition for Paul Tsongas and Warren Rudman building 50 chapters and recruiting 250,000 members in 6 weeks before the days of Internet organizing. She also worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee where she trained the Congressional Press Secretaries and advised the top tier congressional campaigns on communications and fundraising.
Kurth is a graduate of the University of Virginia and lives in Chicago with her husband and partner Kevin Lampe.
