Ted Salois
Mr. Ted Salois is the founder of Elbow Key Media. His vast and varied education, experience and expertise uniquely qualify him to oversee all the tasks of this full-service media company.
Salois has more than 30 years of professional communications experience. He has authored a pair of published non-fiction books and served as editor, writer, photographer, page designer and graphics producer on staff of daily, weekly and monthly publications.
Salois has won more than 40 personal awards in competitions by the National Press Photographers Association, Department of Defense, Nikon, Kodak, California Association of Public Information Officials and the Navy. He was twice named military photographer of the year and twice first runner up for the title in Military Pictures of the Year competitions sponsored by the NPPA, Nikon, and DOD.
He was named journalist of the year at the daily newspaper Pacific Stars & Stripes based in Tokyo, military sports photojournalist of the year by the U.S. Military Sports Association, and print journalist of the year (second place and honorable mention) by the Navy.
Salois served as chief photographer and photo reporter at Stripes and also traveled extensively throughout the Pacific as part of a public affairs team based in the Philippines. He covered numerous historical events, such as enforcement of the No-Fly Zone over Iraq from the aircraft carrier USS Independence, the first repatriation of servicemen from Hanoi after lifting of the trade embargo, Shanghai students’ protests in the days preceding the military crackdown in Beijing, and the first U.S. warship visit in more than 50 years to Vladivostok, Russia.
Salois was a crew chief in charge of operations, electronic imaging, photojournalism and video documentation at Pacific Fleet Combat Camera Group based in San Diego. He also worked as a senior graphic designer at the Navy’s recruiting headquarters in Arlington, Va., creating illustrations, books, posters, brochures, flyers and a variety of specialized promotional materials.
Salois earned a master’s degree at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He studied publication design under world renowned Dr. Mario Garcia who has recreated the look of some of the globe’s top newspapers and periodicals. Dr. Garcia was responsible for the new design of the Wall Street Journal.
Salois also has won numerous awards for his advanced research, advertising and website design. Two of his website creations and a public service announcement (advertisement) were honored by the California Association of Public Information Officials. He also won an innovation award for design of “Water Conservation Garden playing cards.”
In the area of crisis communications, Salois was “baptized by fire” – more precisely, ash – when the community in which he lived and worked was buried by Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The volcanic eruption coincided with the arrival of a typhoon, creating a mix of rain and ash that blanketed the region with a two-foot layer of mud. Buildings were crushed. Power was severed. Phone communications were cut. Salois was a member of the Navy’s 7th Fleet Public Affairs team and “got the story out” despite severe limitations, including no vehicle traffic in the first days of the disaster.
See a “bullet list” of Salois’ education and awards.