Howard Bragman, a public relations master, and LGBTQ+ advocate has died from leukemia according to a journal entry from his partner, Mike Maimone. He was 66. “The enormity of our shared loss can’t be overstated. Howard was a constant in so many of our lives and the brightest star in his wide constellation of friends and family,” says Maimone.
Bragman was a master of public relations for over 40 years, cofounding the firm Bragman Nyman Cafarelli (BNC, which later merged with PMK). He also founded Fifteen Minutes PR, and later in life, LaBrea Media. His clients included Stevie Wonder, Ricki Lake, Anna Kendrick, Monica Lewinsky, and Paula Abdul. Bragman later transitioned into crisis management and appeared frequently as a live television expert on shows like Good Morning America and Larry King Live.
Bragman also published a book, Where’s My Fifteen Minutes? Get Your Company, Your Cause, or Yourself the Recognition You Deserve, and served as an Adjunct Professor in Public Relations at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication from 1998 to 2003.
Among his many accomplishment, Bragman was active in the fight for clean water in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. In 2021 he contributed to a $1 million endowment to establish the Howard Bragman Coming Out Fund on the facilities of the University of Michigan. The endowment included funding for the Spectrum Center, an LGBTQIA+ support center founded in 1970, and the first LGBTQIA+ support center founded on a college campus.
“This campus allows you to be yourself. It allows you to spread your wings in the way you want to spread your wings,” said Bragman in a statement announcing the Coming Out Fund. “It’s so important for students to know they are not alone and that the Spectrum Center is there for them. I want to assure that other people get that same access that I had; life-changing, life-saving access.”
