Senior Principal ConsultantSlma Shelbayah
Slma Shelbayah is a Senior Principal Consultant for Yardstick Management as well as the Head of Communications. Her background includes more than 15 years of experience as an award winning journalist, communication, and public relations expert in the media industry, including experience as a reporter, show host, editor, writer, commercial talent, voice-over artist, and producer.
Slma holds a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in Sociology and an M.A. in Linguistics with a focus on cross-cultural linguistics of Spanish and Arabic, both degrees from Georgia State University. She has also obtained a certificate from Oxford University, U.K., during which students were selected from 30 countries across the world to pursue a seminar on global media policy: technology and new themes in media regulations.
Prior to joining Yardstick, Slma was a CNN Digital Producer and Assignment Editor, assisting over 600 affiliate clients across the nation with CNN digital stories combined with the most relevant images and videos. Additionally, she managed the Twitter and Instagram social media platforms. She won the CNN Diversity Ovation Award for her commitment to inclusion in news coverage. Her news career includes breaking news coverage with CNN International, spanning the regions of the Middle East, Asia and Africa and varying across national and international topics including stories covering Arab and Muslim Diasporas.
She additionally ran her own firm in which she trained executives, management, and employees from a variety of industries, including corporate, education, healthcare, and non-profit. She has supported organizations by developing strategy and executing plans regarding HR, communication, social media, and media and public relations campaigns. She has revolutionized the way businesses and brands approach marketing through her innovative storytelling training, narrative development, and pitching strategies.
Most recently, Slma was the Director of Corporate Public Relations for Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Additionally, she sat on the Advisory Board for the Harvard Debate Diversity Project inaugural class, an initiative that provides selected high school students debate training and an opportunity to spend a summer at Harvard College developing their speaking skills. Her life-long involvement with youth is also witnessed through mentoring as she is a board member of UBeyond Mentorship, a non-profit mentoring organization for young youth and professionals. She also enjoys giving back to the media industry to further the impact on diversity, culture and faith, and was previously on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters.