About us
Tim Gibbs
Endgame Messaging Hub is a project of Tim Gibbs Consulting. The firm was founded by Tim Gibbs in 2020 and is dedicated to improving health outcomes for all by tackling social inequalities. Tim Gibbs has worked as a public health advocate for more than 25 years. He has been a lobbyist, grassroots organizer, political strategist, communications and media specialist. He led the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s (ACS CAN) tobacco efforts in California for more than a decade. He led ACS CAN’s successful lobbying campaign to pass a package of tobacco bills that regulated e-cigarettes as tobacco products, raised the minimum sales age for tobacco to 21, closed smoke-free workplace loopholes, increased the state tobacco retailer licensing fee and prohibited tobacco use on school campuses. Tim led ACS CAN’s effort on multiple statewide ballot initiative campaigns. Most notably, he helped pass Proposition 56 in 2016 which raised the tobacco tax by $2 and helped reinvigorate California’s tobacco control efforts with much needed revenue.
Since its founding, Tim Gibbs Consulting has represented the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), the American Lung Association and ACS CAN. As a lobbyist for CTFK, he helped pass SB 793 which prohibited the sale of all flavored tobacco products. He has managed local advocacy campaigns to pass flavored tobacco ordinances in Santa Ana, San Jose and Sacramento County. Those local efforts were critical to the passage of Proposition 31 which defended the flavored tobacco law at the ballot. He has worked on flavored tobacco campaigns in other states like Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. He helped lead the effort in Oregon’s most populous county (Multnomah County) to pass a flavored tobacco law. In Washington County, Oregon he served as the political strategist in the campaign to defeat the tobacco industry’s referendum campaign to overturn their flavored tobacco law.
Debra Kelley
Debra Kelley is the Project Coordinator and has worked in tobacco prevention and control for decades. She spent most of her career as the Director of the San Diego office of the American Lung Association’s public policy program, where she was in charge of strategy development, messaging and communications, media advocacy, community organizing, and education of decision-makers. In that role she served as Project Director for a series of CTPP funded competitive grants spanning more than 20 years. She then spent four years with the County of San Diego, first as a member of the LLA team, and then assisting with the implementation of the County’s comprehensive TRL.
Ms. Kelley has practical expertise and in-depth knowledge in many types of local tobacco prevention policies: tobacco retail licensing, zoning and conditional use permits, flavored tobacco products, smoke-free multi-unit housing, and comprehensive smoke-free indoor and outdoor areas. She has also been a leader in qualifying and campaigning for statewide ballot measures related to tobacco control as well as supporting the passage and implementation of numerous state tobacco prevention and control laws. Debra has received the Carol M. Russell Award from CTPP in recognition of her leadership and accomplishments in tobacco control. She was also awarded the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy from the American Public Health Association.