Cultivating Success

Claudine Wargel

is a senior partner at Demeter Communications. A proven public relations practitioner, she now specializes in market research. Her projects have ranged from focus groups, in-depth interviews and series-style panel studies to quantitative survey work. These studies have assessed readership, gauged attitudes toward programs and communication tools, and tracked attitudinal change over time. Her practical approach to market research has been a valuable contribution to many client projects, including profit and non-profit groups.

Claudine is a certified DISC trainer, talented writer and project manager. She began her career as a staff writer for Vance Publishing Company and has worked as a freelance agricultural journalist. Claudine served as director of public relations for Marc Center, a not-for-profit serving people with developmental disabilities. Wargel directed statewide producer communication programs for the Illinois Soybean Association/Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board. Since leaving ISA/ISCB, she has served two part-time stints as the groups' interim communication manager.

Claudine holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural communications from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in communication from Illinois State University. Her master's work focused on applied research and interpersonal communication. She was raised on a grain and livestock farm and now lives with her family in Clinton, Illinois.

Random Acts

Her pro-bono public relations and fundraising efforts generated the $90,000 needed to construct a new 8,000-square-foot playground in Clinton, Illinois. In recognition for her efforts, the local Rotarians named her the chapter's 2004 Paul Harris Fellow.
In 1991 she studied agriculture in Argentina's Parana, in Entre Rios province. Since then, her Spanish has come in handy for family trips to Argentina and Mexico, especially when pharmacy visits were needed to help deal with "common" travel ailments in Mexico City.
Wargel was recently found at her desk, sipping coffee and munching home-canned dilly beans, packed with garlic and red pepper, at 8:30 a.m.

Brushes with Greatness

Wargel has achieved earned placements for agricultural clients in top national media, including the L.A. Times, Boston Globe and The Paul Harvey Show.
She was honored in 2003 to meet World Food Programme Executive Director Jim Morris and hear first-hand his reports on the status of malnutrition and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Wargel is a cousin to - and fan of - Fats Kaplan and Kristi Rose, both talented Nashville recording stars. Kaplan, who has toured with The Tractors, Patty Bogus and Pure Prairie League, recently released his own instrumental CD: The Fat Man Commeth.

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