Sophie McCarthy

Sophie specializes in public affairs, stakeholder engagement and message development. She develops customized campaigns involving wide-ranging communications strategies and grassroots and grasstops advocacy, and she works in a variety of industries and sectors, including healthcare, public health, land use and nonprofits.

Sophie’s work includes decades of experience at the intersection of politics, government and private industry. She has led some of Avoq’s most influential campaigns, including helping to bring the Obama Presidential Center to the South Side of Chicago and engaging with multinational financial institutions to create a more equitable economy.

Before Avoq, Sophie worked on Capitol Hill for a congresswoman in Kansas City, before moving to New York and directing political work for Rosie O’Donnell. She then worked at a New York-based communications firm, moving to Chicago to serve as David Axelrod’s chief of staff at AKPD Message and Media. She has worked on several political campaigns, including Barack Obama’s Illinois Senate primary race and his 2008 presidential run. Following the 2008 election, she switched from the political side of Axelrod’s firm to the public affairs side.

Sophie is from Kansas City and now lives in Oak Park, IL, with her husband and two children.