Michael Kleiner

Michael Kleiner was born in Philadelphia. He has received recognition throughout his more than 30-year career in public relations and journalism. He operates his own public relations and web site design business (http://www.kleinerprweb.com) in Philadelphia with a concentration on authors and small businesses.

Beyond the Cold (http://www.beyondthecold.com), his first book, received first prize in the Autobiography/Biography category of the 2009 Beach Book Festival and Honorable Mention in The Nashville, New England, London, Los Angeles and Do It Yourself Book Festivals. In October, 2008, Michael was invited to be among 14 featured authors at the four-day Norwegian Fall Festival, the largest Scandinavian festival in North America, in Minot, ND. He was included in the 2010 Authors Show 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading, and was nominated in the 2011 Dan Poynter Global eBook Awards in the Autobiography/Memoir Category. His blog address is http://blog.beyondthecold.com.

He has established himself as somewhat of an expert on Norway, enthusiastically educating people of various ages about the country. His articles have been published in The Norseman, a magazine published for people of Norwegian descent abroad and friends of Norway by the Norse Federation in Oslo; Norway at your service, published by the former Norwegian Trade Council, and Olympian, magazine of the United States Olympic Committee. When family friends are considering traveling to Norway, they consult Michael.

While pursuing his master's degree in Educational Media at Temple University from 1993-95, he developed a slide show on the Norwegian and Swedish influence in Philadelphia. Prior to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, he produced a slide show and video, Introducing Lillehammer to the World.

After graduation in 1995, he was hired as Director of Communications at Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, PA, and during his three years there, added Norway to the school's multi-cultural programming. During one year, Michael spoke to the kindergarten classes about his reindeer sled ride in Norway in 1970 with the Sami people. It was a big hit, and he has since made presentations to his own children's classes on various topics about Norway since Pre-K.

He was also asked to do an orientation for students traveling to Norway as part of Children's International Summer Village.

In 2003, Kleiner received the Home-Based Business Advocate Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration for Region III (PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, and DC) and The Communicators Awards Crystal Award of Excellence in Feature Writing. He was President of the Mt. Airy Business Association in 206 and 2007.

In addition to working at Abington Friends School, he was a sportswriter for a suburban Philadelphia newspaper chain and Sports Information Director at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Michael earned a B.A. in Journalism and History from Rutgers University in 1980 and a Certificate in Norwegian Language from the International Summer School at the University of Oslo in 1992.

He lives with his wife, Lisa, and 13-year old twins, Matthew and Devra.

BrandYourself profile: http://www.michaelkleiner.com