Who we are

As editor and associate publisher at Journalistic, Inc., Lea Davis Roark launched the editorial side of QSR magazine, the award-winning business publication for executives in the quick-service and fast-casual restaurant industry. She directed the magazine’s editorial content and direction and supervised copy on the magazine’s Web site.

She also developed PR and marketing programs to promote QSR to a wide array of national business and consumer media. She achieved a long list of high-profile media placements, including

• cover stories on USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal
  
• quotes on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and WUNC’s morning news shows
  
• television and radio broadcasts in major markets
  
• mentions and attributed research in Forbes and Men’s Health
  
• research assistance to Goldman Sachs, ABC News, Salomon Smith Barney, BNP Paribas, American Express, Bloomberg, CBS Marketwatch, and many others
  
• scores of city and regional newspapers and national web sites.

Lea represented QSR and the quick-serve industry at national trade shows and executive conferences, and often shared her industry expertise with advertising and public relations agencies.

At QSR, she developed partnerships with leading market research firms and agencies to provide unprecedented marketing and operations data, including The QSR Drive-Thru Time Study, The QSR 50, and one of the earliest studies of the fast-casual trend.

Before launching QSR, Lea was managing editor of award-winning magazines, newsletters, Web sites, and collateral materials serving clients in telecommunications, business, education, college athletics, and medicine.

She also gained technical experience as a proposal manager at Research Triangle Institute, in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where she coordinated multimillion-dollar research proposals in response to requests from government and private-sector clients. She applied best practices of magazine publishing to RTI’s proposals, increasing the firm's win rate and helping bring attention and additional funding to the proposal development office.

Lea holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Duke University—which remains one of her clients. She’s earned a number of professional awards, including three national Folio: Gold Awards for Editorial Excellence (for QSR, in 1999, 2000, and 2001) and two APEX Awards for Publication Excellence (for QSR, 2000 and 1999).

She’s also been a speaker and moderator, with engagements such as

• moderator for executive panel “Go Faster! Technology for Maximizing Speed of Service,” National Restaurant Association annual trade show, Chicago, May 2001
  
• panelist and breakfast-session moderator at the FoodService Symposium, an executive conference, Dallas, June 2001
  
• headlining speaker at annual convention of a 200-unit bagel and coffee chain, Chicago, June 2002

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