Media Hall of Fame - Steve Serkaian
Steve Serkaian, 1978, 1983, Broadcast & Cinematic Arts: Serkaian is a nationally recognized communications professional who spent his career working for federal, state and local elected officials, and public and private institutions promoting policy initiatives to help improve the lives of everyday Michiganders.
Serkaian coordinated Senator Carl Levin’s Michigan press operation from his Washington, D.C. office from 1979-1986 and handled media inquiries from national, state and local reporters. He was Assistant Press Secretary during Levin’s first campaign in 1978 and Press Secretary in Senator Levin’s 1996 and 1984 re-election campaigns. Serkaian also was Press Secretary to Speakers Gary Owen and Lew Dodak in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1987-1992, where he promoted legislative initiatives to the Capitol Press Corps and statewide news media outlets that received comprehensive media coverage.
Serkaian owned two multi-client public relations, advertising and political consulting agencies for 15 years, with both providing communication services to government agencies, universities and school districts, labor unions, industry associations and businesses and local and statewide political campaigns. On behalf of Lansing Mayor David Hollister, Serkaian created the award-winning Lansing Works! Keep GM! campaign to retain General Motors in the Lansing area, which helped convince GM to build two new assembly plants in Lansing worth an investment of $1.5 billion. Serkaian also created the paid and earned media campaign that persuaded voters to give a landslide victory in a state ballot referendum in 2006, in which every one of Michigan’s 83 counties voted to overturn the state’s mourning dove hunting law, placing more than $1 million in paid advertising, and writing and producing television spots that received two national awards. Serkaian also produced numerous State of the City events for five mayors in Michigan.
Serkaian was Executive Director of Communications & Governmental Relations for the Lansing School District from 2008-2011, creating a public education strategy that led to a successful election victory for a five-year, $20 million school improvement Sinking Fund millage. He was Director of Communications and Press Secretary to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing from 2011-2012, developing media strategies involving the city’s financial crisis, producing multiple live broadcasts of mayoral speeches and news conferences that updated citizens and the media about the crisis.
Serkaian was Executive Director of Customer Experience for the Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL), Michigan’s largest municipally owned utility, from 2012-2015. He led the effort to repair BWL’s reputation following a devastating ice storm that left 40 percent of its customers without power for nearly two weeks during the holiday season in 2013. Serkaian also led the communications effort to explain the completion of BWL’s lead service water line replacement program – a 12-year program replacing 12,150 lead service lines costing $44.5 million, as the Flint water crisis placed BWL in the national media spotlight. Serkaian retired from BWL in 2025 following a 45-year career in politics, public relations, media and communications.
