Born in Newport Beach, Lea is the daughter of a military officer and has lived all over the United States. Prior to relocating to the Desert, she worked in marketing in Houston and Austin, including W. B. Doner on the Pizza Hut account, and then later as co-owner of an agency with clients that included the Royal Moroccan Golf Association, Hilton Hotel, Fifth Avenue Place in Pittsburgh and a shopping center management company handling the marketing for nine shopping centers in Austin and Temple, Texas.
In 1994, she moved to the Coachella Valley where she co-founded Kiner/Goodsell. There she was responsible for the strategic direction of all projects leaving the agency as well as key accounts including those in hospitality, consumer products, retail and the service industry. She was able to put her crisis PR training to work when she gained national media exposure while serving as the spokesperson for Eisenhower Medical Center during Bob Hope’s stay there.
In 2004 she left Kiner/Goodsell to join Total Marketing Partners where she worked in business development with company founder Earl Greenburg and headed up the Desert’s marketing efforts. In addition to her work with agency clients such as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Eisenhower Medical Center, Palm Desert National Bank, City of Indian Wells (Pacific Life Open/Skins Game) Best Best &Krieger, Nexus Development/Hard Rock Hotel, Wessman Development, Oasi Group/Mondrian, Guide Dogs of the Desert, Desert AIDS Project, the Palm Springs Art Museum and others, she was also the volunteer Executive Director of the Greenburg Family Foundation’s Rick Weiss Humanitarian Awards which has featured such luminaries as Mary Hart, Magic Johnson, Sherry Lansing, Priscilla Presley, Larry King, Sidney Poitier, Jamie Foxx, Berry Gordy and most recently, Sharon Stone and William Shatner.
Upon Earl’s passing, Lea opted to create her own company – Goodsell Group, focusing on Business Development, Branding and Better Communication (PR) for the firm’s clients. Areas of focus will include non profit organizations, development, tourism, medical and financial.
Lea has garnered many accolades for her work – among them local and regional ADDY awards, five international marketing excellence awards (MAXI) from the International Council of Shopping Centers, American Public Transportation Association (APTA) awards (Austin and the Coachella Valley), an Aegis film award, and a national Communicator Award among others. She is also a Certified Marketing Director as designated by ICSC and has a weekly column on retail and contributes feature articles to The Desert Sun and their other publications. She has also served on many boards, including Jr. League (Past President), Desert Ad Federation (Past President), American Heart Association, Desert Community Foundation, YMCA and the Children’s Discovery Museum.
Goodsell Group prides itself on the depth of knowledge of the workings and residents of the Valley, and Lea’s ability to parlay her extensive personal relationships with the Valley’s “movers and shakers” and media into beneficial alliances on behalf of the firm’s clients.
