Our Team

Founded by award-winning public relations specialist Deanna Nott, Wings Public Relations is focused on extending your reach.

With more than three decades of experience, our Director and her experienced team can help your business or organisation soar to new heights. We have proven success in developing and delivering innovative media, publicity and communication campaigns. We understand how to build and protect your reputation.

Wings Public Relations can add value by extending your reach to audiences that you never dreamed possible.

Deanna Nott

Managing Director & Founder

Our multi award winning team is led by industry veteran – and military veteran – Deanna Nott. Deanna has been working in the public relations and journalism industry for almost three decades.

Having started her career as a journalist on the Gold Coast, she moved into public relations in the mid 90s. She has held senior private and public sector roles across Australia and overseas, including several executive level positions in the Department of Defence and local government. Deanna launched her firm Wings Public Relations in 2016 and specialises in communication strategy development and implementation for a wide range of private and public sector clients, as well as Not for Profit organisations.

Deanna has extensive experience in developing multi-year engagement and communications frameworks to support Government campaigns designed to influence behaviour change. She has been responsible for developing and implementing significant education and awareness campaigns for organisations including the Department of Defence, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Navy, Logan City Council and Scenic Rim Regional Council. Prior to launching Wings PR, Deanna gained a high profile in south-east Queensland and beyond as Logan City Council’s head of media and communication by developing award-winning campaigns designed to change perceptions of the city located between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. In fact, Deanna and her team were awarded the Public Relations Institute of Australia In-House PR Team Award for 2014.

Deanna spent 20 years working as a senior communications specialist within the Department of Defence before her move into local government.

In 2022, Deanna was named the Women Chiefs of Enterprises International Entrepreneur of the Year, won the Australian Defence Industry Awards Marketing/Communications Professional of the Year, was a Finalist in the Women in Business Awards and a Finalist in the Women in Defence Industry Awards.

Deanna is renowned for her passion, love of crafting the perfect communication campaign, nurturing young talent and devotion to excellence. Deanna proudly serves the nation as a Royal Australian Air Force Reservist, joining in 1994. She was promoted to Wing Commander in June 2021. In November 2020 she was awarded a Chief of the Defence Force Commendation. Deanna’s energy and expertise in the communication field has led to key roles in the public sector, including appointment as Aide-De-Camp to the Governor of South Australia. In November 2021 she was appointed to the National Board of the Air Force Association as Director Communications and Reputation Management and until recently served on the Board of Common Ground Queensland – helping end homelessness.

Marie Howarth

Principal Consultant

Marie Howarth is an award-winning corporate communications specialist with a proven track record in all facets of public relations practice, including complex stakeholder management and in-depth understanding of reputation management across audiences. She is a trained journalist and skilled corporate writer with proven messaging and media acumen. Marie has extensive government and private sector experience with a focus on defence, information technology, infrastructure, resources, health and property, where she has honed her skills in strategy development and community engagement. She has developed and implemented large-scale communication and engagement strategies, particularly for complex and high-profile public initiatives. Marie is based in our Brisbane office.
Qualifications: GradCertBus (Change Mgmt), AGSM, University of NSW, GradCertBus (Public Relations), QUT
Professional memberships: PRIA Fellow; Immediate Past President PRIA Queensland, Founding Member International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) WA, Past Co-President Women in Technology (Qld)

Heather Hunt

Senior Public Relations Consultant

Heather Hunt is a qualified journalist and corporate communications professional with 20+ years’ experience in public relations throughout Australia and internationally, working with corporate, government, non-profit and tertiary institutions.

Her extensive portfolio in communications strategy includes insurance, disability and aged care, small business, transport, native title, digital health, lands and ICT.

Heather led communications and PR for Australia’s largest digital health peak body whose members are SMEs, micro businesses, health start-ups, as well as hospital services transitioning to delivering digital healthcare.

Heather has US stakeholder liaison and contemporary change management experience and also worked in the UK and Hong Kong prior to 2000. While based in New York, she was the PR lead for a $1billion intermediary insurance broker undergoing significant market positioning and change, ensuring client brokers were engaged and committed to the business. In Sydney, Heather was head of public affairs for the copyright agency as it supported and educated its publisher and author members on navigating the new world of digital copyright.

A media advisor and spokesperson, Heather brings a wealth of experience in contentious media relations and the provision of strategic PR support for government ministers, boards and executive teams.

Laura Broad

Public Relations Graduate Consultant

After living abroad in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates for many years, Laura Broad joined the Wings Public Relations team in early 2023. Laura holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Communications and Bachelor of Psychological Science from Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

Kate Ames

Senior Public Relations Advisor

Dr Kate Ames is a Professor in Learning Design and Innovation at Central Queensland University with qualifications in education and training as well as a PhD and Masters of Letters in Cultural Studies. Kate has more than 20 years experience in communication and education, including continuous service as an Australian Army Reservist since 1997. She currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a senior military public affairs officer.

As a cultural sociologist, she is an experienced and active qualitative researcher in a wide range of methods, including nominal and focus groups, interviews, surveys, forms of discourse analysis, and also linguistic analysis supporting ethnomethodological approaches.

Kristen Zotti

Public Relations Consultant

Kristen Zotti is a PR and communications professional with more than 14 years experience under her belt.

Throughout her career she has been lucky to work on high-profile national campaigns including Harmony Day, promoting the skills of Defence personnel to help them transition into civilian life, raising the profile of early learning educators and launching Canberra’s very first light rail.

She has provided communications and media advice to CEOs, embassies, ACT and federal ministers and politicians, including working with the Prime Minister’s Office, to build and manage their reputation and profile.

Kristen is passionate about using her expertise to work on projects that make a difference and that benefit from a strategic and story-telling approach. She specialises in running strategic campaigns, publicity, creating content and coming up with creative concepts to achieve cut-through for clients.

Kristen holds a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations) from the University of Canberra and has been serving on the PRIA ACT Board for two years. In 2021, she was named President of the ACT Chapter.

Darren Harrison

Senior Consultant

Darren Harrison has an extensive background forged in both the commercial and government sectors, and brings experience gained from spending 15 years living and working in the UK and the Arabian Gulf.

With diverse exposure across Australia’s priority industry sectors, Darren has worked with and for local, state and federal agencies engaging with industry and community to develop strategies and plans that enhance economic opportunities, attract investment and directly assist businesses in their journey from inception to expansion.

Darren holds an MBA from the University of Southern Queensland. Leveraging his experience in strategy development, understanding of wider economic drivers and his ability to turn vision into words, he brings a balanced resource to the team that adds to our stakeholder engagement and growth consulting capacity.

Tom Vergotis

Content Creator

Tom Vergotis has worked with the Wings PR team since 2018. An avid content creator, Tom is an award winning journalist and film-maker, who learnt his trade in broadcast television at the ABC, WIN Television and Channel 9. Since leaving journalism, Tom has held roles leading content creation for Gold Coast City Council, Suncorp Insurance and Origin Energy. Tom holds a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Business, with distinction, from Queensland University of Technology.

Tiffany McLean

Senior Public Relations Consultant

Tiffany McLean joined the Wings Public Relations team in early 2019 with experience in strategic planning, communications, as well as media and stakeholder relations. Previously, Tiffany worked in public relations for a university in Toronto, Canada. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Applied Arts in Media Studies from the University of Guelph as well as a Diploma in Media Communications from Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. Tiffany completed a Master of Communication degree at Bond University on the Gold Coast in December 2019.

Libby-Jane Charleston

Senior Writer

Libby-Jane Charleston is an award-winning writer, journalist, online content producer and podcaster who has worked at a senior level across radio, TV and newspapers. As one of the most prolific writers for Australia’s number 1 ranking online newspaper, news.com.au LJ has a huge portfolio of health, business and history features – her article about smallpox reached more than 2 million readers. Her podcast for news.com.au “Ghosted” ranked in the top ten podcasts for Australia, Canada and the US. Several of LJ’s articles have gone viral in Australia and overseas, as she has a unique talent in being able to take complex issues and make them entertaining and readable for the general population. Most recently she has ‘ghost-written’ for several high profile CEOs and produced online content for a range of clients including SalesForce, Docusign and SAP Success Factors.