With nearly 15 years of strategic communications experience, the Eduflack (affectionately known as Patrick Riccards to family and friends) is an expert in integrated communications initiatives and public affairs.  His work as a senior advisor with the National Reading Panel and the U.S. Department of Education’s Partnership for Reading makes him one of the top education communications executives in the nation.

Currently, Eduflack serves as President and Chief Strategist of Exemplar Strategic Communications (www.exemplarpr.com), a consulting firm that specializes in results-based communications and advocacy solutions for education organizations. 

Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President and director of the K-16 education communications practice for the nation's premier marketing communications agency exclusively serving the not-for-profit field.  There, he is leads a range of education reform efforts focused on high schools, STEM education,  teacher development, whole school reform, and moving educational research to practice.

Previously, Eduflack served as Vice President and Practice Group Director for one of Washington, DC's largest independent public affairs companies.  There, he led the agency’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) efforts, with an emphasis on literacy, educational research, and accountability. As senior counsel to the National Reading Panel (NRP) from 1998 through 2001, he helped shepherd the development of the research cornerstone of President Bush’s reading initiative. With the NRP, Eduflack oversaw all media relations, editorial projects, relationship and partnership development, and public events for the congressionally mandated panel. In addition to masterminding the Panel’s national town hall meeting tour and conducting all qualitative research over the Panel’s two-year term, he led the development of the Panel’s Summary Report, Report of the Subgroups, and Video Report.

From 2002 through 2005, Eduflack served as project director for the Partnership for Reading, a federal inter-agency initiative designed to raise public awareness for scientifically-based reading instruction under NCLB. In addition to  securing millions of dollars of earned media focused on scientifically based reading research, he also developed and managed the Partnership’s Advisory Group, a national board of education organizations, business organizations, and government agencies.

Earlier in his career, Eduflack held senior communications positions on Capitol Hill, running media offices for U.S. Senators Robert C. Byrd (WV) and Bill Bradley (NJ) and U.S. Representative John Olver (MA). He also aided Senator Byrd and Congressman Olver with their work on the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, respectively. 

Eduflack has been recognized by PRWeek and PR News magazines as one of the top professionals in his field, and his integrated communications campaigns have been honored by the International Association of Business Communicators, Public Relations Society of America, and Philips Business Information, among others.

He is a contributing author of Why Kids Can’t Read: Challenging the Status Quo in Education, published in 2006 by Rowman Littlefield Education and edited by Reid Lyon and Phyllis Blaunstein. A Virginia Press Association Award-winning columnist, his ghost-written work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and Education Week, among others.