Joseph Barbato is president of Barbato Associates, a consulting firm that gives distinctive voice to the achievements and programs of nonprofit and corporate clients. His company provides writing, design, and printing services.  Since 1979 he has managed editorial projects for clients ranging from colleges, hospitals, and community agencies to the Special Olympics and the United Nations Foundation.

A native New Yorker, Barbato earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at New York University, where he worked for more than 10 years as a writer, editor, and communications director in public relations and fund raising offices.  He has also been a public-information director at the City University of New York.

From 1990 to 1999, Barbato served as an editorial director on the staff of a client, The Nature Conservancy.  In that period, he directed development communications in two major capital campaigns and launched the Conservancy's first trade book publishing program.  He returned to independent consulting and formed Barbato Associates in Alexandria, Va., in 1999.

Barbato is also a contributing editor of Publishers Weekly and has written for publications from Smithsonian and the Progressive to the New York Times and Washington Post Book World.  He is coauthor/editor of several books, including You Are What You Drink, a report on alcohol and health, and the literary anthologies Heart of the Land and Patchwork of Dreams.  His book Writing for A Good Cause (Simon & Schuster, 2000) has been called “wise, funny, and useful for anyone who writes anything” by Booklist. He is also the author of How to Write Knockout Proposals (Emerson & Church, 2004) and Attracting the Attention Your Cause Deserves (Emerson & Church, 2005).