Top Women in Communications Awards Luncheon 2026: Shannon Litton

Director of Corporate Compliance and Executive Operations

Avista

Dana Anderson leads with clarity, compassion and courage

For more than three decades, Dana Anderson has shaped corporate communications with steady leadership and a people-first approach. Her career spans decades at Avista, a 136-year-old power company that provides electricity to 418,000 customers and natural gas to about 382,000 customers across 30,000 square miles in four northwestern states. She has helped strengthen trust with customers, employees, regulators and investors through change and uncertainty.

Anderson began her career as an intern at Washington Water Power Company, now Avista, writing for internal newsletters and customer publications. She advanced to director of communications and now serves as chief communications officer, leading teams through pivotal moments that required clarity, speed and judgment.

Early in her tenure, Anderson led a comprehensive overhaul of the company’s website during the financial downturn of the early 2000s. With limited resources, she delivered a low-cost initiative that modernized the brand and improved customer engagement at a critical time for the organization.

Innovation has remained central to her leadership. In a recent special assignment, Anderson developed a strategy to position the region’s energy expertise as a national leader. Starting with audience research, she built a multichannel campaign proposal from scratch. Her ability to adapt to ambiguity and execute with discipline has made her a trusted leader on high-stakes initiatives.

Anderson has guided Avista through some of its most challenging crises. She led communications during oil spills, political controversy, large-scale outages and failed mergers. She also helped manage outreach during litigation involving two Native nations in Washington, an experience that reinforced the importance of cultural sensitivity and stakeholder respect. When a corporate political contribution conflicted with employee values, she addressed concerns directly through transparent internal communications.

Her crisis leadership centers on empathy. During protests over rising energy costs, Anderson helped employees understand public frustration while keeping internal dialogue constructive. She also championed improvements to outage communications, transitioning from manual systems to smart devices and real-time updates that improved customer access to information and strengthened trust.

Mentorship plays a defining role in Anderson’s leadership style. She hires for character and emotional intelligence, believing technical skills can be taught. Her approach has built teams rooted in trust, collaboration and growth. Colleagues credit her preparation, clarity and compassion with inspiring communicators across the organization, particularly women working in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

Anderson’s influence extends beyond communications. She has contributed to investor relations, regulatory strategy and executive decision-making. She supported three major merger efforts, including a significant acquisition where she managed confidential communications as one of only a few insiders. Her role reflects credibility earned through results and sound counsel.

Through vision, resilience and care for people, Dana Anderson has made a lasting impact on Avista and the communications profession. Congratulations to Dana Anderson on her recognition as a Hall of Fame member in Ragan’s Top Women in Communications, Class of 2026.

CEO

HUNTER

A legacy of leadership, mentorship and impact in communications

For more than 30 years, Grace Leong has defined excellence in public relations through visionary leadership, hands-on client work and a deep commitment to elevating the communications profession. As CEO of HUNTER, one of the nation’s top communications and marketing agencies, she has built a career rooted in results, integrity and service.

Leong has played a central role in HUNTER’s remarkable growth and evolution. During a five-year span from 2019 to 2024, the agency achieved double-digit expansion while scaling geographically and strengthening its reputation as an employer of choice. That momentum helped earn HUNTER major industry recognition, including a Large Agency of the Year for two consecutive years and a Best Place to Work honor twice.

A founding member of the agency since 1989, Leong has guided HUNTER’s transformation from an earned media-focused shop into a full-service powerhouse spanning industries and disciplines. Most recently, she led the integration of KWT Global into HUNTER, expanding the agency’s corporate, crisis, B2B and professional services capabilities.

Even with decades of executive leadership, Leong has never stepped away from the craft of public relations. She continues to oversee half of the agency’s practice areas and remains deeply involved in strategy and execution. Her work reflects both the discipline of an MBA-trained marketer and the instincts of a seasoned communicator, using PR to solve business challenges and shape reputations.

Leong has helped deliver award-winning campaigns for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including TABASCO Brand, Kraft Foods, Kenvue, Reckitt and Post Consumer Brands. Her contributions have set new standards across the industry, from the Silver Anvil-winning “100th Anniversary of Jell-O” program to the bold Zyrtec Allergy Face campaign that made waves in consumer healthcare communications.

Her leadership has also earned widespread personal recognition. Leong received PRSA-NY’s John W. Hill Award for lifetime achievement, and earned the Plank Center’s Agency Mentorship Award. In 2022, she was honored as a PRWeek Woman of Distinction. This year, she received the Gold Anvil Award, PRSA’s highest individual honor celebrating extraordinary contributions to the profession.

Leong’s legacy extends beyond campaigns and accolades. She has dedicated herself to mentorship, education and professional development, serving as a board member and volunteer leader with PRSA, PRSA-NY and the Arthur Page Society. As an adjunct professor and guest lecturer, she has shared her expertise with aspiring communicators and helped shape future leaders.

She has also championed equity and inclusion as a core value at HUNTER. Under her leadership, the agency has earned repeated recognition for its inclusive culture, including honors from PRSA-NY’s Diversity Honor Roll, the Diversity Action Alliance and PRNEWS. In 2023, she helped launch the PRSA-NY Barbara W. Hunter Trailblazer Award, further cementing her commitment to breaking barriers and supporting women in communications.

Grace Leong continues to lead with innovation, integrity and purpose, making her a true Hall of Fame figure in the communications field. Congratulations, Grace Leong, on this well-deserved honor.

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

Covista

Megan Noel architects transformation that drives growth and trust

When Megan Noel steps into an organization, she does not settle for incremental change. She rebuilds systems so communications and corporate affairs shape strategy, strengthen reputation and deliver measurable business results. At Covista, she integrated communications, investor relations and government engagement into a unified strategy that supports growth while advancing the company’s mission to address America’s healthcare workforce crisis.

Noel’s career reflects a consistent pattern of transformation at scale. Earlier at PwC, she inherited a corporate affairs function built on tactical execution and dispersed initiatives. She repositioned the team as an upstream strategic partner aligned with business priorities, reducing noise and focusing on fewer efforts with greater impact. Her leadership helped guide the firm through executive transitions, geopolitical pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic. She also redesigned change management for 75,000 employees by shifting outreach to the social and digital platforms where employees were most active. By pacing adoption through a deliberate cadence, she strengthened culture scores, improved retention and enhanced recruiting outcomes, creating a framework the firm could replicate across future initiatives.

Noel pairs that structural vision with programs that link brand equity to business growth. She helped lead PwC’s $3 billion digital upskilling initiative, which addressed workforce development challenges, elevated the company’s technology positioning and generated hundreds of business development meetings. She also co-created CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, mobilizing more than 2,000 Fortune 500 CEOs around the idea that inclusive workplaces drive stronger performance and broader community impact. These efforts show how Noel builds coalitions that extend influence well beyond a single organization.

At Covista, she continues to connect purpose to performance. She reimagined corporate affairs as an integrated engine that aligns communications, public policy, impact and alumni engagement around common objectives. She built a change champion network that cascades clear, consistent messaging throughout the organization while supporting growth tied to delivering practice-ready graduates into critical healthcare roles. Covista’s chairman and CEO, Steve Beard, credits Noel with bringing strategic vision that builds stakeholder confidence and ties mission to measurable outcomes.

Noel also leads with an eye toward the future of work. She implemented an AI-first approach across corporate affairs at Covista, producing measurable efficiency gains and freeing her team to focus on higher-value strategic thinking. Her AI prompting training sessions help teams use technology to enhance creativity rather than replace it. That mindset builds on earlier innovation at PwC, where her integration of three generative AI tools tailored to communications earned recognition in 2022 and shifted team culture toward experimentation and agility.

Her crisis leadership further underscores her impact. During the 2017 Oscars envelope mistake, now a Harvard Business Review case study, Noel helped steer the response in a way that minimized reputational risk and reinforced stakeholder trust. Across roles at Edelman, Golin, PwC and now Covista, she has repeatedly built new capabilities, including launching first-ever public affairs practices in regulated environments and creating global offerings at Golin that drove a 30% increase in revenue and unlocked new business opportunities. Industry leaders describe her as a force of nature who combines strategic insight with commercial acumen and relentless execution.

Megan Noel’s career shows that brand building and business performance thrive together when designed with intention. Congratulations, Megan Noel, on your well-deserved recognition as a Hall of Fame member in Ragan’s Top Women in Communications, Class of 2026.

Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Goldie Taylor turns truth and empathy into institutional impact

Goldie Taylor has spent more than three decades proving that clear, honest communication can move institutions and improve lives. As senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she leads strategy at one of the most trusted names in academic medicine and delivers results that reach patients, clinicians and communities nationwide.

At Dana-Farber, Taylor directs communications for a defining moment in the institution’s history: the development of a new 300-bed adult inpatient cancer hospital in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. She shaped the communications strategy from the ground up, aligning internal teams, engaging community leaders and explaining the project’s purpose to national audiences. Her work helped build public understanding of how the hospital will expand access to advanced therapies, speed research and set a new standard for patient-centered care.

Taylor’s leadership strengthened visibility and trust at a critical time. Her team supported fundraising priorities tied to the hospital project and improved alignment across clinicians, donors, regulators and neighborhood partners. Colleagues credit her with turning complex plans into clear narratives that invited collaboration and sustained momentum.

Before joining Dana-Farber, Taylor served as vice president and chief marketing officer at Morehouse School of Medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. There, she led national public health campaigns that increased community engagement and helped the institution secure record philanthropic gifts to advance health equity. Her work connected scientific expertise with real-world needs and reached audiences far beyond campus.

Across her career, Taylor has delivered communications and brand strategies for globally recognized organizations, including NBC News, Disney, General Mills, Burger King, Home Depot, Walmart, Toyota North America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sara Lee Foods, Kraft, American Airlines, CNN Worldwide and Procter & Gamble brands. She also held senior leadership roles at Edelman Public Relations, Burrell Advertising and GCI Group, where she drove growth and sharpened purpose for clients navigating change.

Taylor brings a journalist’s discipline to every role. A former editor-at-large for The Daily Beast, she has appeared as a political analyst on NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, BBC and NPR, with bylines in Rolling Stone, Ebony, Essence and Salon. That experience informs her leadership style: ask tough questions, verify facts and center the human story.

Equally important is her commitment to mentorship. Taylor invests in young professionals, especially women and people of color, helping them build careers in communications and healthcare leadership. At Dana-Farber, she strengthened team culture, promoted professional development and fostered collaboration across departments.

The results are measurable and consistent: stronger institutional alignment, expanded national visibility and deeper community engagement. Taylor bridges journalism and healthcare with rigor and empathy, showing how communication can earn trust and drive progress.

Congratulations to Goldie Taylor on being named a Hall of Fame member in Ragan’s Top Women in Communications, Class of 2026.

Partner, EVP/Chief Strategy + Creative Officer

H+M Communications

Jennifer Becerra reshapes agency strategy and creative growth

As partner and EVP/chief strategy and creative officer at H+M Communications, Jennifer Becerra has helped transform the agency into a cultural force in entertainment and consumer PR. She began her 15-year career there as an intern and now leads a 40-member team across Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Houston, Chicago, Mexico City and Madrid. Under her leadership, H+M has become the nation’s top Hispanic entertainment and consumer PR agency, with projected 2025 billings of $10 million and double-digit growth.

During a challenging year for the entertainment industry, Becerra moved quickly to diversify revenue. She restructured the agency and launched new Retail + Innovation and TV + Streaming verticals. The firm posted a 73-4 win record, secured AOR assignments with the Frost School of Music, Pinterest and Spirit of Gallo’s Gran Malo and produced campaigns for Prime Video, Canela and Telemundo. H+M led multicultural marketing for 50 films, including Inside Out 2, Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Deadpool & Wolverine and Despicable Me 4. Film and TV work grew from less than 40 percent of the agency’s portfolio to 80 percent, with H+M supporting six of the top 10 films of 2025 and seven of 2024.

Becerra also strengthened the agency’s strategic foundation. She introduced the SAIL framework — Story + Audience + Impact + Learnings — to guide client work and developed Standards of Excellence that emphasize creativity, accountability and execution. Clients such as Amazon Music, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Thoma Bravo and Amazon Stores rely on that discipline. The agency’s average client tenure now exceeds eight years.

Her people-first leadership sets H+M apart. She formalized the agency’s first chief people officer role, launched H+MU for professional development and built management training focused on mentorship and wellness. H+M reports 87 percent retention, full representation among women, LGBTQ+ professionals and people of color and women in 95 percent of senior roles.

Becerra also serves on the board of the Hispanic Public Relations Association, helping expand opportunities and standards across the industry.

CEO & Founder

Brandbuch

Melissa Buch uses communication to drive transformation and culture

As founder and CEO of Brandbuch, Melissa Buch partners with C-suite leaders at multinational companies to strengthen reputation, drive transformation and spark engagement that shifts culture, improves performance and aligns communications with business strategy, creating measurable momentum for change.

Using the “Stand Firm, Stay Fluid” framework, Buch developed approaches that help organizations preserve core values while changing how they plan, execute and measure internal and external communications for clearer decision making. With extensive international experience and multilingual fluency, Buch draws on cultural insight to translate executive intent into local actions, enabling consistent narratives across markets and preventing the disconnects that often derail global programs.

For AT&T, Buch reimagined benefit communications by simplifying messaging, personalizing employee journeys and creating channels that encouraged frontline teams to act, then scaled the approach across the business and integrated feedback loops to refine content and delivery. The initiative drove a 32% increase in frontline benefit enrollment and usage.

For a major manufacturing site, Buch designed a recruitment campaign and live event that combined storytelling, community outreach and experiential moments to rebuild pride, link hiring to local career pathways and strengthen talent pipelines. The work generated record application surges and raised external visibility, positioning the site as an example of recruitment driven by authentic, people-centered communication.

Through partnership with an insurer, Buch transformed an innovation arm into a dynamic platform that engaged innovators, startup founders and internal teams and that helped advance multiple initiatives into funded development and organizational adoption.

Across projects, Buch expanded Brandbuch’s client base, sustained business growth and amplified thought leadership through practical programs and strategic introductions that helped new clients move from intent to measurable action.

A sought-after speaker, Buch shares data-backed insights at industry summits and client forums — translating lessons from crisis communication, leadership and transformation into practical steps that leaders can implement to strengthen trust, accelerate change and sustain wellbeing while adapting to new ways of working across cultures.

President

HMA Public Relations

Abbie Fink transforms HMA Public Relations through growth and community impact

When HMA Public Relations faced the dual challenge of a leadership transition and market pressure after an ownership change, agency leaders prioritized client growth, community partnerships and internal development to prove that boutique firms can scale impact without losing mission.

To do that, Abbie Fink launched a sophisticated client development strategy that realigned service offerings, retrained account teams, introduced value-based pricing and created project roadmaps tied to measurable business outcomes, while establishing mentoring programs that accelerated junior talent into client-facing roles.

Three strategic clients captured under that approach collectively generated over $1.1 million, shifting the agency’s revenue mix, increasing long-term client investments and moving conversations from one-off media placements to strategic, multi-channel business transformation.

The agency also expanded its media intelligence capabilities by growing a proprietary Arizona database, integrating it into media training, pitching and client reporting and packaging insights into sellable products that strengthened HMA’s local market position and pipeline.

Longstanding tribal partnerships remained central to the agency’s work, with Fink navigating complex sovereignty issues, bridging cultural divides and securing funding that protected natural resources, improved access to services and strengthened community infrastructure across the Southwest.

Those efforts translated into measurable community benefits, increased visibility for tribal priorities and deeper trust that allowed teams to pursue more ambitious conservation and economic development projects with local leaders.

On the civic front, Fink extended agency leadership into the nonprofit sector by stepping into board roles, guiding organizations through difficult transitions and modeling strategic marketing that stabilized performing arts groups and other mission-driven institutions.

The combined results — scaled client revenue, expanded media assets and sustained community partnerships — established a repeatable blueprint for mentorship, future growth and broader impact across Arizona and beyond, and set a clear course for the agency’s next phase.

Managing Director

Vested

Jacqueline Gogel drives creative finance communications and agency growth

At Vested, Jacqueline Gogel led high-profile accounts for Bloomberg and World Gold Council and guided fintech and consumer clients through tightly aligned strategy, integrated media planning and creative storytelling that connected communications to measurable business objectives, shifted market narratives and positioned clients to capture new customer attention and investor interest.

Campaigns combined strategic rigor with bold consumer activations, integrated earned, owned and paid channels and produced broad audience engagement, including a televised activation that reached 16.7 million viewers and drove sustained app adoption and heightened brand consideration across target segments.

Internally, Gogel shaped the firm’s direction as an early leader and senior decision-maker, serving on U.S. and global leadership teams and the Partner Program, while also helping lead a task force that integrated AI tools to accelerate workflows, increase creative output and improve client responsiveness.

Beyond agency work, Gogel helped build Financial Narrative into a major network for senior financial marketers and contributed to selective industry cohorts, while organizing intimate events and CEO roundtables that allowed senior leaders to exchange strategy, surface emerging trends and form partnerships that strengthened the broader communications ecosystem.

Within the agency, Gogel mentors rising talent, advocates for working parents and helped design a generous parental leave policy, modeling a people-first management style that supports retention, elevates team morale and opens clearer paths for diverse career growth.

Outside work, Gogel balances leadership with parenting, community volunteering and mentoring other women navigating demanding careers, and brings lessons from family life into workplace practice to normalize flexible approaches that enable sustained performance without sacrificing personal commitments.

That combination of client results, agency building and industry leadership links creative communications to business outcomes, scales organizational capability and cultivates the next generation of financial communicators ready to adapt and seize new opportunities.

CEO & Founding Partner

O'Connell & Goldberg

Barbara Goldberg leads a people-first agency that delivers results

The firm O’Connell & Goldberg has operated under the credo Good People Make Good News, with Barbara Goldberg shaping a workplace that prizes collaboration, creativity and kindness and that links internal wellbeing to client strategy and reputation building.

Inside the firm, Goldberg directs leadership with integrity, empathy and positivity and measures success by employee wellbeing, client outcomes and sustained financial health. The leader implemented a hybrid schedule with defined office days, funded professional coaching for every employee at no cost and launched mentorship circles that spanned interns to senior leaders to strengthen skills and retention.

Under Goldberg’s direction, the agency posted record revenue, sustained profitability through disciplined planning and kept long-term client partnerships that reflect deep trust and strategic alignment.

On high-profile work, Goldberg led national campaigns, including the Freedom Tower reopening and the anniversary of Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, that drew major national attention and generated more than $10 million in media value. Those campaigns secured prime placements in broadcast, print and digital outlets and translated visibility into measurable brand momentum and new customer engagement for clients across categories.

Beyond client work, Goldberg taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, built volunteer partnerships with Jewish organizations that support Holocaust survivors and others in need, and used public platforms to advance civic conversation. The result is a firm where employees feel valued, communities receive sustained civic investment and leadership continues to expand coaching, wellbeing and programs that create opportunity for others across the region.

Looking ahead, Goldberg plans to scale mentoring programs, track staff development against clear outcomes and invest in tools that connect employee growth to client return, with the goal of maintaining a people-centered model that drives measurable business and community impact.

Founder / CEO

Dreamday

Lauren Kleinman shapes growth-driven, culture-first communications leadership

Lauren Kleinman has reshaped what modern communications leadership looks like by pairing measurable growth with a people-first culture. As founder and CEO of Dreamday, she steered the agency through a record-setting year marked by rapid expansion and national recognition. The firm ranked No. 1189 on the Inc. 5000, No. 15 on the Los Angeles Times list of fastest-growing private companies in Los Angeles County and earned placements on Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agencies list, The PR Net 100 and the Inc. Female Founders 500.

Kleinman’s Performance PR model fuels that momentum. The integrated strategy aligns earned, affiliate and paid media to drive clear business outcomes. Under her direction, Dreamday posted double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth, increased client press coverage by two to three times and doubled year-over-year affiliate revenue. The agency expanded its roster with brands such as Goop, ILIA Beauty, The New York Times, Ritual and Ruggable.

She also deepened the agency’s social impact. Dreamday’s Client Accelerator Program, now in its third year, provides pro bono PR support to mission-driven brands during the holiday season. The initiative has secured more than 50 media placements for emerging businesses and broadened access to high-level communications support.

Kleinman anchors that growth in culture. She champions the agency’s “Better You Benefit,” a weeklong sabbatical inspired by her yoga training that encourages employees to recharge. Her focus on mentorship and professional development has helped Dreamday maintain an 89% employee retention rate and earn recognition as a top workplace.

Beyond the agency, Kleinman expands her influence through thought leadership and entrepreneurship. In 2025, she began writing a column for Inc. magazine and grew her Substack, The Founder Flow, which The PR Net named a “Substack to Watch.” She also leads Quality Media and The Quality Edit, which generate more than $100 million in attributable revenue each year for brands including HelloFresh.

Through business growth, mentorship and philanthropy, Kleinman delivers results that resonate across the industry.

Chief Executive Officer

MSQ Sport + Entertainment

Steph Lund drives revenue growth while centering staff wellbeing

A strategy that combined aggressive commercial targets with a people-first workplace drove an agency transformation led by Steph Lund, with revenue, profitability and wellbeing treated as equal priorities from day one and a clear emphasis on workplace culture, support programming and community engagement. Lund scaled a boutique operation into a full-service firm and grew revenue from under $500,000 to nearly $15 million in under five years while maintaining a relentless focus on client outcomes, employee experience and talent retention.

Execution leaned on high-touch client partnerships, creator-led content and measured campaign performance to make work that connected with audiences and returned value for brands across paid, owned and earned channels. Lund launched the agency’s first creator marketing arm in 2023 and positioned it to serve Jaguar Land Rover, Samsonite and William Grant while expanding the capability into one of the agency’s top revenue drivers within a year.

Campaign teams under Lund’s guidance delivered work for Discord, Converse, Sonos, Casio and Bowers & Wilkins, combining product storytelling, influencer collaborations and platform-first activations and scaling creator integrations across product launches and experiences. Those outcomes allowed the business to move into the upper profit tier of its global network and funded investments in employee programs, mental health training and a peer mentorship platform for executive women that prioritizes confidential support and sustained development.

To codify wellbeing into operations, Lund trained leaders as mental health first aiders, integrated support programming into performance planning and created a private, curated forum where female-identifying executives exchange advice and build accountability. After accepting a role to launch a U.S. sport and entertainment practice, Lund built a roster across sports, fitness, beverage, nutrition and youth athletics and attracted major brand partnerships in six months. By combining commercial discipline, creative creator strategy and public thought leadership featured in Forbes and Campaign, Lund produced a repeatable growth playbook that delivered measurable client impact and a sustained, values-driven culture and now informs the U.S. practice’s approach to new business.

CEO and Founder

The Brand Agency

Priscila Martinez drives global brand moments through creative-led campaigns

Campaigns produced national headlines, cultural conversations and sustained social momentum for household brands. The Brand Agency’s Priscila Martinez guided a strategy that combined influencer activations, press outreach and live events to translate creative concepts into measurable public attention and long-term client value.

The Sephora influencer getaway highlighted content creators of diverse backgrounds and beauty and created community among talent while sparking conversation across platforms. In that activation, Martinez executed logistics, content strategy and media engagement that produced more than 125 million organic social impressions.

A New York Times bestseller campaign for “We Made It After All” placed the book in national lifestyle outlets and secured features in ELLE and Marie Claire, broadening public understanding of the story. In that effort, Martinez shaped messaging, coordinated talent interviews and aligned influencer storytelling to sustain coverage beyond launch windows.

A landmark concert activation at the Empire State Building became a global moment for a fragrance launch and drew intense media and social attention. Behind the scenes, Martinez ran press and influencer strategy that coordinated talent placements, on-site media and real-time content distribution to put an artist on the 86th floor before live audiences and amplify the brand narrative.

Mentoring and advisory work reinforce the professional impact, with Martinez running a COVIA program that teaches wellbeing and technology to immigrant Spanish-speaking seniors while advising Latinas in Tech and mentoring through Big Brother Big Sister of L.A. Across the past 12 months, Martinez expanded The Brand Agency’s roster to include The Walt Disney Company, Sephora and Dwayne Johnson’s Project Rock with Under Armour and scaled services across corporate strategy, media relations, brand storytelling, high-impact events and talent partnerships for clients in lifestyle, fashion, entertainment, tech and beauty.

President, Communications & Public Affairs

Global Strategy Group

Tanya Meck drives growth and long-term partnerships

A firmwide shift focused on turning short-term projects into enduring partnerships prioritized capability building in corporate reputation, crisis communications and executive profile development while aligning client strategy with measurement, integrated teams and long-term value creation in today’s complex media and political landscape at Global Strategy Group.

Under Tanya Meck’s leadership, teams integrated data-driven insight, creative storytelling and public affairs expertise to design cross-disciplinary campaigns, unify measurement frameworks, streamline client reporting and scale services across sectors from consumer brands to regulated utilities, healthcare and public sector entities.

Under Meck’s guidance, the Communications & Public Affairs portfolio doubled in revenue over five years and moved toward larger, multi-year engagements that increased client retention, deepened strategic influence, improved forecastability for the business and attracted larger mandates from boards and C-suite leaders.

The L@B, an in-house creative and media hub Meck envisioned and built, became an engine for growth — producing Madison Avenue-level creative, prototype testing and AI-driven ad analysis, accelerating campaigns, powering bespoke multimedia and unlocking new business with clients such as Patagonia, National Grid, Lifepoint Health, Las Vegas Raiders and Teach for America.

A national study Meck led turned polling and executive interviews into a practical playbook that urged leaders to prioritize authenticity, owned channels and long-term trust-building, and the team briefed dozens of business leaders and boards on concrete steps to rebuild stakeholder trust, adapt CEO messaging and invest in owned audiences.

Teams under Meck prepared CEOs for congressional testimony, managed intense media interest at peak moments, developed rapid-response plans for nonprofits confronting political attacks and conducted media training, rehearsals and message mapping for leaders under pressure.

The result aligned commercial growth with counsel-driven impact, strengthened long-term client partnerships and positioned the firm to counsel leaders through polarized times while mentoring rising communicators, advocating for women in leadership and formalizing mentorship programs and internal training.

Chief Communications & Strategy Officer / Partner at Talent Resources

Talent Resources

Bonnie Taylor transforms brand storytelling and agency culture

Talent Resources faced a year of high-stakes moments that required cultural fluency, tight negotiation and storytelling that felt both timely and true while managing complex stakeholder expectations across brands and partners. Bonnie Taylor mapped integrated approaches that aligned creative, media and executive narratives, created clear decision frameworks and set measures for authenticity, audience resonance and long-term reputation.

Across high-profile work, Taylor led campaigns from talent negotiation to message discipline and media planning, coordinating with production teams, talent agencies and national broadcasters to turn a Super Bowl spot into a broader cultural conversation. Those strategic choices kept the work grounded in brand voice and helped shift celebrity attention into sustained public discussion and earned coverage across mainstream outlets and trade publications.

At The Athlete’s Foot, Taylor reframed leadership change as a recommitment to community retail and framed launches to emphasize local stories, employee voices and customer trust while aligning leadership messaging with in-store experiences. That approach carried into LF*GO!, where Taylor positioned Mike Tyson’s launch around discipline, transformation and wellbeing, and the campaign generated more than 1 billion impressions while drawing coverage in outlets such as ESPN, ABC News and TMZ Sports.

Internally, Taylor redesigned systems to streamline workflows, improve onboarding and strengthen cross-team collaboration, standardizing processes that let teams take on larger briefs without sacrificing hands-on client service. Taylor also mentored junior leaders through direct coaching, client-ready feedback and redesigned assignments, creating career pathways that increased confidence and prepared staff to manage higher-stakes client relationships.

Clients and communities now get campaigns that feel authentic, move conversations forward and sustain attention long after launch, and Taylor continues to refine strategy, scale teams and elevate emerging voices across the industry. Audiences at a regional leadership forum heard a keynote on visibility, leadership and strategic storytelling that crystallized the principles Taylor applies to client work and to mentoring rising communicators.

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Nebo

Stephanie Wallace transforms Nebo’s approach to marketing

At Nebo, Stephanie Wallace reshaped a traditional digital shop into a multidisciplinary agency that emphasizes substance, strategy and soul while expanding services to include strategy, content, PR, paid media and analytics to meet more complex client needs and to pursue deeper partnerships.

By blending human-centered marketing with SEO, AI and PR, Wallace built integrated programs that aligned visibility with credibility and that prioritized trust, authority and long-term relationships over short-term impressions or vanity metrics — a shift that changed how teams set goals and measure success.

Under Wallace’s leadership, Nebo created an integrated PR+SEO playbook and developed thought leadership frameworks that helped clients own niche conversations and influence their industries while creating repeatable systems for new business and retention. As a contributor, Wallace shared those playbooks in Search Engine Land and at global marketing conferences, training teams to use AI responsibly as a strategic accelerator, not a shortcut.

The agency sustained 21 consecutive years of growth without a single layoff under Wallace’s strategic oversight — a record that reflects client retention, revenue stability and disciplined reinvestment in talent and capabilities, and that enabled ongoing investment in employee development.

On Randstad, Wallace directed social, influencer and community strategies that produced the agency’s most successful influencer campaign to date and that dramatically expanded audience reach and video distribution while strengthening community engagement and conversion pathways.

For Dawn House, Wallace guided a luxury smart-bed launch into national lifestyle placements, amplified product narratives in top-tier media and helped the brand translate editorial coverage into retail credibility, consumer interest and stronger retail partnerships.

Internally, Wallace championed ethical AI adoption, codified new workflows, created learning programs and improved cross-channel collaboration to fuel new business and boost client retention across sectors. That approach connects creativity to measurable strategy and converts storytelling into authority, deeper partnerships and long-term growth.

Senior Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing

Tulane University

Kimberly Allen strengthens Tulane’s communications to amplify research, innovation and community

Under Kimberly Allen’s leadership, Tulane repositioned its communications to reflect both academic excellence and regional leadership, shifting narratives from isolated accomplishments to a cohesive story of research, innovation and community impact that aligns campus priorities with public expectations and with regional economic partners.

The reorganization created an integrated communications team that spans content strategy, marketing, executive communications, media relations and institutional events and that gives campus units a single, responsive partner for telling coordinated, strategic stories.

The Academic Year in Review became a signature publication under Allen’s direction, with hands-on editorial guidance that ensured every discipline and campus achievement appeared, and with narrative framing that tied breakthroughs to real-world benefits for students and the region. Allen made the publication a bridge between peer institutions, alumni and local stakeholders, using storytelling to demonstrate how interdisciplinary collaboration fuels discovery and how those discoveries translate into practical advances across campus life.

A major focus was the Future of Energy Forum — Allen led a strategy that brought 1,700 participants and expanded the mix of industry, government and academic voices to position Tulane as a convening force on energy challenges. On a tight timeline, Allen directed the renaming and rebranding of the university’s biomedical research center, aligning a new name and visual identity with digital materials and an internal campaign to unlock partnerships, broaden research scope, diversify revenue sources and secure new collaboration opportunities.

Through targeted public outreach, Allen framed Tulane’s role in downtown revitalization and linked campus development to broader economic and social priorities, using an integrated website and storylines that clarified how the university contributes to city renewal and long-term growth across the region. Allen also designed outreach for Tulane Day at the Capitol that translated campus priorities into state-level policy conversations, built intentional stakeholder engagement and set a communications foundation for sustained collaboration with government and community partners.

Senior Director of Communications

Security Scorecard

Anne-Marie Avalon makes invisible cyber risk visible

Making invisible cyber risk visible became the primary communications challenge in a field dominated by technical jargon and hidden threats, because executives and the public often lacked a clear line of sight into adversary behavior and criminal infrastructure. Anne-Marie Avalon reshaped how SecurityScorecard tells its story, translating complex, proprietary signals into clear, actionable narratives that executives, analysts and the public could understand and use to prioritize risk reduction.

Leading the STRIKE rebrand, Avalon turned the threat intelligence team into a clearly branded source of real-time insights for business leaders, making technical detection timelines and actor mappings intelligible to nontechnical decision makers. Avalon gave the work a distinct voice, identity and positioning that framed early detection as a tactical advantage companies could use to act swiftly, reduce exposure and prevent escalation of incidents.

Report downloads rose 262% after the rebrand, signaling stronger engagement with intelligence outputs among security teams and business leaders and driving follow-on conversations that moved technical findings into procurement and executive briefings. That surge amplified media reach and share of voice, broadened regional penetration and translated technical findings into business conversations about risk tolerance, remediation priorities and executive decision making.

Communications became a measurable business driver that supported revenue and pipeline growth during a critical pre-IPO phase, helping position the company for investor due diligence and customer confidence.

A practical, ethically driven approach to AI accelerated content production while preserving accuracy and audience trust, and created repeatable processes for analysts and communicators to surface timely findings. Avalon built tools, trained teams and set guardrails that treated technology as an extension of human skill, ensured safe use of generative systems and kept analysts firmly in control of sensitive judgments.

The work strengthened credibility with customers and investors, aligned messaging with the mission to make the digital world safer and laid the groundwork for the company’s next brand chapter.

Head of Communication, IKEA Canada

IKEA Canada

Tanya Bevington reshapes communications at IKEA Canada

Across the past year, Tanya Bevington reshaped modern communications at IKEA Canada by blending business strategy, brand storytelling and social purpose into integrated programs that kept the retailer’s mission front and center and that aimed to make everyday life better for many Canadians.

The work married creative risk with clear measurement and with cross-functional alignment to deliver cultural resonance, to influence shopping behavior and to sustain long-term brand trust across Canadian communities.

Internally, Bevington cultivated the “IKEA Twinkle” — a confident, optimistic tone — that pushed teams to create work that felt accessible, inventive and emotionally resonant while remaining strategically sharp and operationally disciplined.

For commercial impact, Bevington aligned communications with pricing strategy and consumer needs to reassure Canadians about affordability through the New Lower Prices campaign, which reached more than 204 million media impressions and helped improve affordability perceptions among younger shoppers while supporting sales and store performance.

On the policy front, Bevington led the multi-year Second-Hand Tax campaign to challenge double taxation on used goods, mobilizing public pressure, securing a 14-business coalition and turning consumer momentum into formal conversations with government that advanced the policy agenda.

That campaign drove measurable retail results and visibility — boosting As-Is sales and increasing store traffic while earning international attention and sparking debate about circular living. It also changed how consumers and policymakers view second-hand markets and shifted retailer approaches to reuse.

In partnership with others, Bevington advanced social impact through The Sleepless Lamp, working with Furniture Bank to visualize sleep poverty, to distribute Sleep Well Kits and to convert empathy into donations, a government grant and broader public awareness while creating a replicable model for design-led advocacy.

By tying storytelling to business goals, by building coalitions and by driving measurable outcomes, those programs moved culture, shifted policy and influenced commerce. Teams inside and outside the business now use those methods as a practical blueprint for future campaigns.

VP, Corporate Communications

Dynatrace

Kristy Campbell shapes a new narrative for Dynatrace

A yearlong storytelling initiative repositioned Dynatrace from product-focused descriptions to an aspirational narrative centered on business value under Kristy Campbell’s direction. Instead of telling customers what the company makes, the campaign showed what its technology makes possible for business operations, using customer stories and executive examples to anchor the message in real results.

By rejecting vendor-speak, Campbell focused messaging on how teams analyze, automate and innovate faster, and Campbell codified new language and playbooks that surface outcomes such as reduced toil, faster innovation cycles and measurable operational resilience.

Cross-functional teams across marketing, communications, product and go-to-market brought the narrative to life through press releases, analyst briefings, social media, thought leadership, internal comms and executive storytelling, with Campbell guiding phrasing, visual cues, key examples and the message architecture used at every touchpoint and personally editing launch materials to align tone and imagery.

Message pull-through reached 87% of media coverage, analyst reporting began to reflect leadership in AI-powered observability, and earned media sentiment moved positive as coverage emphasized business value instead of technical specs, a shift that also opened new briefing opportunities and amplified the story.

Sales teams report that the value-focused messaging creates stronger conversations with prospects, strengthens opportunities in the pipeline and helps accelerate deal cycles by making business outcomes explicit, and revenue trends have improved in segments where sellers consistently use the value story.

Global enablement sessions ensured engineers, sellers and executives could tell the story with conviction, and recorded playbooks, regional workshops and onboarding modules helped the updated voice take hold across more than a dozen regions and among numerous agency partners.

As architect and amplifier, Campbell built a disciplined message architecture that turns complexity into clarity, makes AI-powered observability synonymous with innovation, reliability and trust, and sets clear guardrails for future campaigns, product launches and the next phase of growth.

Managing Director of Consumer and International Public Relations

United Airlines

Nicole Carriere reframed risk into defining brand moments

An airline transformed contentious moments into brand-defining opportunities by taking calculated communications risks that most teams avoided. Nicole Carriere marshaled cross-functional teams, removed internal barriers and pushed for first-ever moves that prioritized people, operations and authentic storytelling across channels at United Airlines.

When the carrier launched the first U.S. regular route to Greenland, political chatter threatened to eclipse the operational achievement and cloud passenger sentiment. Carriere redirected coverage to the people and complexity behind the route, invited The New York Times behind the scenes and produced more than 50 global stories including BBC and Reuters that framed the trip as adventure, not controversy, and highlighted operational skill and regional partnerships and logistical ingenuity.

A deal to add free, high-speed Wi-Fi with SpaceX’s Starlink became a live broadcast opportunity when TODAY staged the first in-air, live segment by any airline — a break from standard product announcements and a chance to make innovation visible to mainstream audiences. Carriere organized meticulous rehearsals, removed obstacles, made the decisive go-no-go call the day before and delivered a flawless segment that reached millions across NBC and TODAY channels while showing technology in a real passenger environment, while proving the airline could safely showcase new technology in normal operations.

Amid disruptive operational headlines out of Newark, the airline kept forward momentum with the global reveal of a new 787-9 interior and premium experience that set a new benchmark for the brand. Carriere balanced crisis response and brand work, enabled a polished unveiling and secured widespread coverage in outlets such as Fox Business, Condé Nast Traveler and The Points Guy, sustaining commercial momentum and preserving trust with key audiences.

The result became a pattern of high-stakes choices that amplified customer goodwill, showcased operational competence and advanced team capability as Carriere mentored staff through formal programs and an open-door approach, reshaping airline PR playbooks and influencing industry practice and setting a template other brands studied.

Chief Brand & Communications Officer

Eventbrite

Lauren Danis elevates Eventbrite’s storytelling to center why people gather

As chief communications officer and chief brand officer at Eventbrite, Lauren Danis united storytelling and brand strategy to reposition Eventbrite as a cultural guide to how and why people gather in real life, to align communications with product and creator priorities and to tie measurement to business outcomes such as ticketing and creator growth and to increase creator discovery in local markets.

By unlocking Eventbrite’s event data, Danis identified emerging trends, created narratives creators could use to program and promote experiences and gave consumers clearer signals about what gatherings would deliver, integrating findings across PR, content and paid campaigns, and to inform partnerships and sponsorships with promoters and venues.

Fourth Spaces functioned as a research and storytelling platform that Danis launched to link quantitative insight to qualitative stories, to inform an integrated communications strategy across earned media, product marketing and executive channels and to provide an ongoing editorial calendar for culture-driven activations and to create source material for spokespeople and media briefings.

The research fueled a steady stream of culture moments such as Soft Clubbing, Granny Core and Silent Book Clubs, with Danis creating sharable assets, activating community partners and enabling creators to translate trends into live experiences and to test messaging before broader product launches.

A genre‑blending experiment with Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski sold out a Brooklyn warehouse, showcased the intersections of food, music and community, amplified creator voices, sparked coverage in global news outlets, lifestyle shows and podcasts and generated over 200 million earned media impressions across more than 60 outlets under Danis’s direction.

An executive newsletter from the CEO amplified creator stories, connected those stories to product offerings and local experiences and created a repeatable format that Danis scaled into broader executive communications and that provided case studies for sales, partnerships and investor communications.

Across research, activations and executive storytelling, Danis translated insight into sustained brand momentum and deeper audience engagement, building a consistent narrative about belonging, creativity and connection that set a model for future seasons of research and activations.

SVP, Head of Worldwide Corporate Brand & Communications

Scopely

Brittany Geldmacher elevates Scopely’s brand and culture

As SVP and head of global corporate brand and communications at Scopely, Brittany Geldmacher led a strategic shift that repositioned the company as a community-driven entertainment brand beyond video games and set a foundation for sustained, accelerated growth across markets and clearer positioning with partners, investors and players. Geldmacher expanded the communications team significantly to scale storytelling, deepen reporter relationships and expand reach into entertainment, tech and business sectors, and to improve responsiveness for live-operations communications.

Geldmacher drove sustained earned media coverage in top-tier outlets and secured global speaking stages from Bloomberg Screentime to Web Summit to amplify the company’s strategic narrative and to raise its profile within entertainment, technology and broader business conversations worldwide. A strategic rethink of executive thought leadership produced features that cast the company as a forward-looking industry voice, including profiles and bylines in Variety and other business outlets, and elevated executive visibility at global forums.

Geldmacher tied those narratives to business milestones such as surpassing $10 billion in revenue, which gave the communications function a strategic seat at the table and informed investor and partner dialogue. Internally, Geldmacher launched a refreshed internal-comms program that focused on inclusive storytelling across global offices and reinforced core values such as “Play to Win,” “Iterate to Greatness” and “Care Deeply,” while increasing leader visibility.

The program used quarterly all-hands, targeted leader scripts and multilingual intranet content to lift employee engagement and improve cross-regional alignment and collaboration. Beyond that, Geldmacher built measurement frameworks that linked media reach, sentiment and internal engagement to business outcomes, created dashboards to demonstrate impact to senior leadership and advised on complex global communications during M&A activity, including the acquisition of Niantic games. Players, partners and employees experienced clearer messaging, steadier trust and improved alignment as the company navigated rapid growth and change across studios, markets and product lines.

Co-Founder and CEO

SutherlandGold

Lesley Gold drives market-defining narratives

After helping launch Circle Internet Group more than a decade ago, SutherlandGold’s Lesley Gold helped reposition the company as a white-hat, compliance-friendly pioneer in a market that often favored a “move fast and apologize later” mentality, and translated that stance into a clear investor-facing narrative. That narrative secured support from major financial institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, and it opened doors to blue-chip venture partners including General Catalyst, IDG Capital and Breyer Capital while laying groundwork for a high-profile public market debut.

Working directly with CEO Jeremy Allaire, Gold sharpened messaging, aligned compliance and product teams and presented a risk-aware story that reassured regulators and institutional investors. The result helped Circle mature into a $76 billion global force and prompted established technology and payments companies to accelerate competitive plans.

Almost immediately after that market milestone, Gold joined forces with Catena Labs co-founder Sean Neville to craft a narrative for a regulated, AI-native financial institution built for autonomous agents and their human collaborators. Gold set communications around responsible behavior, policy engagement and practical use cases and positioned the company as a catalyst for smarter regulation through initiatives like the GENIUS Act.

On a separate front, Gold framed Sila’s Moses Lake plant opening as a moment of U.S. manufacturing and innovation and secured national coverage that took the story beyond a facility ribbon cutting into a conversation about industrial scale and supply chain resilience. Media placements included The New York Times, TechCrunch, Axios, POLITICO and Tech Brew, which amplified Sila’s silicon anode as the most notable battery breakthrough since lithium-ion and reinforced the narrative that advanced materials can be made at scale in the United States.

This run of work demonstrates an ability to shape credible narratives, rally investors and policymakers and move markets — a record that explains why peers and clients repeatedly turn to Gold for strategic counsel and sustained impact.

Director, Editorial & Content Leader

Guidehouse

Morgan Guthrie reshapes enterprise storytelling at Guidehouse

In 2025, the enterprise content and editorial team at Guidehouse grew from one to 10 under Morgan Guthrie’s leadership, transforming a lone role into a cross-functional group of strategists, editors and creators able to build scalable brand storytelling across services, offerings and channels.

Those changes, driven by Guthrie, established the firm’s first editorial process, voice and tone guidelines and a collateral system, and they anchored an enterprise-wide content strategy that now serves as Guidehouse’s durable brand backbone. The team produced enterprise messaging assets such as the 2025 Trends Guide, Tech Guide and Managed Services Guide, and paired each with strategy decks and performance frameworks to turn creative storytelling into measurable internal and external communications outcomes.

The team also executed the first enterprise-wide LinkedIn brand awareness campaign, launched the firm’s initial follower effort and deployed graphics and templates to scale employee advocacy across networks and boost employee reach under Guthrie’s direction. Segment-specific strategies produced dramatic audience gains, including a 731% increase in engaged sessions for Health insights and a large surge in Financial Services case study pageviews that helped clarify where content drove commercial interest and pipeline.

More than 100 writing projects ran in seven months under Guthrie’s oversight, from articles and case studies to reports and landing pages, ensuring steady output, editorial standards and quality while new content leaders were onboarded. The team also adopted AI innovations, including the firm’s first editor agent in Copilot, guided by Guthrie to accelerate production, reduce repeat edits and free senior talent for strategic work while protecting accuracy and authenticity.

The result is a repeatable system that empowers colleagues to tell one clear brand story, maintains continuity through leadership changes and positions Guidehouse to scale consistent messaging across industries and platforms and set a model for future growth.

Senior Vice President, Head of Consumer Banking Communications

Citizens

Michelle King Savio elevates Citizens Consumer Banking’s profile

A focused external communications push raised Citizens Consumer Banking’s visibility and strategic position, and Michelle King Savio led the effort across media relations, executive narrative and product storytelling to align communications with business objectives and amplify the bank’s voice in national and consumer media. Savio set measurable goals, coordinated cross-functional teams, established proactive media campaigns and prioritized storylines that supported growth, retention and market differentiation.

Student lending remained a strategic priority as competitors scaled back, and the team kept public conversations focused on borrower needs, policy implications and innovative repayment and support solutions. Savio kept the bank central to policy and consumer discussions, secured placement in key outlets, cultivated spokespeople and reframed the business line as a committed partner for students and families.

Executive expansion required clear public narratives to define roles, build credibility, accelerate leader visibility and maintain momentum during internal change. Savio crafted concise messaging, placed leadership commentary in targeted outlets, prepared executives for interviews and synchronized internal briefings with external announcements to reduce confusion.

The launch of a new credit card suite marked a major business milestone and required coordinated outreach to media, partners and customers, along with timely Q&A materials for frontline teams. Savio directed the launch communications, secured broad coverage in national and trade press, mobilized stakeholders and drove engagement that underscored the bank’s customer focus and product value.

Coverage increased across national and trade outlets, elevating the bank’s profile among consumers and industry peers, supporting higher consideration in target segments and reinforcing the bank’s reputation for thoughtful product development. In 2025, the bank secured more than 150 pieces of earned media coverage, and Savio’s blend of strategic planning, rapid execution and clear storytelling helped convert that visibility into measurable customer consideration, stronger media relationships and renewed stakeholder confidence.

Vice President, Customer Insights & Branding

Dollar General

Angela Martin centers brand and insights on cash-strapped customers

Angela Martin has spent 37 years ensuring Dollar General never loses sight of the customer it set out to serve in 1939. Growing up shopping at the retailer, she understands firsthand the needs of cash-strapped families. Today, as vice president of customer insights and branding, she turns that understanding into a strategy that guides one of the nation’s largest discount retailers.

Martin leads the company’s customer research and segmentation efforts, analyzing first-party, syndicated and proprietary data to define clear behavioral and attitudinal groups. She translates those insights into action for leaders across the organization, from the board and C-suite to store teams and vendor partners. Her work sharpens focus on who Dollar General serves and how to deepen productivity and loyalty through meaningful, measurable initiatives.

She also steers brand strategy across every touchpoint, from store design and signage to advertising and décor. Her influence extends to growth concepts such as pOpshelf and Mi Super Dollar General in Mexico. Martin balances brand consistency with evolution, ensuring the company addresses customer pain points while staying true to its identity.

During her tenure, Martin also supported the DG Fresh initiative, which expanded access to affordable, healthier food options in underserved communities. The company added produce to more than 7,000 stores and fresh meat to more than 1,000 locations, giving customers nutritious choices close to home at everyday low prices.

Martin also supports efforts to accelerate delivery access for time-strapped shoppers. In 2025, Dollar General partnered with Uber Eats to bring more than 17,000 DG and pOpshelf stores onto the platform. The retailer expanded further through DoorDash and its DG Delivery service. In August, it enabled SNAP and EBT payments at more than 18,000 stores on the DoorDash Marketplace, increasing access for families who rely on those benefits.

By aligning data, brand and operations around real customer needs, Martin helps drive growth while strengthening trust. Her leadership keeps Dollar General relevant in changing markets and connected to the communities it serves.

AVP of Communications

Dreamday

Sonia Portaluppi modernizes brand storytelling with performance-driven strategy

At Dreamday, Sonia Portaluppi blends creative intuition with performance-driven strategy across fashion, beauty, tech and lifestyle, infusing cultural relevancy into campaigns, guiding integrated teams and keeping focus on clients’ business outcomes and media resonance. Portaluppi identifies macro narratives that appeal to journalists and consumers and translates those narratives into storylines that make headlines, shift perception and drive measurable shifts in search, site traffic and conversions.

Within the Performance PR model, Portaluppi united earned, affiliate and paid media to build trust, accelerate discovery, create clear attribution between coverage and commerce and activate partner programs that scale performance. That approach produced a two- to threefold increase in client press hits across key accounts and improved conversion pathways during product launches and seasonal moments.

With Ritual, Portaluppi led a thought leadership strategy that framed the company and its founder as transparency advocates in women’s health, amplified science-first messaging and elevated the brand beyond supplements into cultural relevance. The strategy secured features in Forbes, Fortune and Women’s Health and steered industry conversations on regulation, maternal health and consumer trust while strengthening founder and brand profiles.

For Quince, Portaluppi framed the beauty launch as an expansion of affordable luxury through an exclusive in Business of Fashion, which helped catalyze partnerships, social momentum and retail interest, while also leading launch publicity for a creator platform that secured an exclusive in Fortune and placements across VC trades and influential newsletters. When global tariff news threatened client portfolios, Portaluppi converted risk into PR impact with coverage in The Washington Post, Bloomberg, CNBC and other national outlets, protecting positioning, calming partners and preserving sales momentum.

By marrying affiliate analytics to creative work, Portaluppi links storytelling to revenue, equips brands to measure impact, creates repeatable playbooks for teams, sets a clear blueprint for outcome-focused communications, and prepares to scale the model across categories and geographies.

Chief Communications Officer

Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena

Katie Townsend reshaped a franchise brand through storytelling and community

From the Seattle Kraken’s inception, Katie Townsend shaped a brand around storytelling, audience engagement and community, drawing on a BBC journalism background to pair global perspective with local heart.

Last year, Townsend led a campaign that reinvented the Kraken experience with a bold overhaul of pricing and benefits, and Townsend crafted fan-first messaging to protect trust during a big change. Townsend aligned media outreach with digital strategy and translated communications into stronger season ticket renewals, higher single-game sales and clearer brand equity.

During an ownership transition, Townsend worked with executives to elevate the owner’s profile locally and nationally through strategic storytelling, fan communications and curated speaking engagements. On the question of potential NBA expansion into Seattle, Townsend framed the conversation in terms of legacy, risk and civic pride, and Townsend kept commentary measured to preserve credibility and long-term relationships.

Across the campus, Townsend connected narratives for Climate Pledge Arena, the Seattle Center Monorail, Memorial Stadium and the One Roof Foundation to show how the organization can act as a values-driven civic partner. Townsend led stakeholder engagement for the Memorial Stadium redevelopment and staged the inaugural One Roof Foundation Night to spotlight equity, sustainability and youth opportunity.

Inside the organization, Townsend launched a monthly internal communications group, led a regional networking series with leaders from Microsoft, REI and Seattle Children’s Hospital and mentored colleagues across the industry. Townsend also translated practice into public learning by keynoting forums and creating safe spaces for discussion about communications in a politicized environment.

Townsend’s work turned complex challenges into clear narratives, moved fans to action, and deepened civic ties — a body of work that demonstrates how strategic communications build identity, inspire action and strengthen community trust.

Communications Manager

Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

Courtney Widli connects frontline voices and corporate strategy through storytelling and systems

Faced with a dispersed, largely blue-collar workforce, Courtney Widli built a people-first communications strategy at Casella Waste Systems. To authentically tell service stories in an industry powered by thousands of hands, she prioritized listening, simple systems, repeatable storytelling processes, and measurable channels to drive both external reach and internal clarity.

By building rapport through repeated interviews, asking better questions and creating flexible, low-friction channels that fit irregular schedules, Widli translated reluctant front-line voices into public narratives that preserved individual dignity, highlighted job skills and made technical work compelling to a broader audience.

Those narratives appeared as news coverage, short videos and human-interest features and they fed media outreach, recruitment campaigns and customer-facing messaging so the company could present frontline expertise as a clear competitive advantage rather than a talking point.

The public content pipeline also supported stronger social performance, more consistent media engagement and sustained site traffic, which together increased customer trust, improved employer reputation and opened new conversations with partners, regulators and local communities.

In parallel, Widli led internal initiatives, piloting digital signage across multiple sites, launching a new employee communications app and reorganizing awards and recognition processes so supervisors could nominate drivers, mechanics and other professionals with clearer, more cohesive stories.

Those tools connected 5,500 employees across states and lines of business, improved information flow and made it easier for field teams to contribute stories, participate in programs and access HR, safety and training content on demand, which in turn amplified peer-to-peer sharing and local leadership visibility.

The combined approach simplified onboarding for hundreds of new hires, strengthened engagement across levels and created a scalable model that other teams can adapt to expand brand presence, surface new storytellers and accelerate market growth through trusted, employee-led content.

Leaders now report clearer decision-making, more confident field managers and a stronger pipeline of employee storytellers who help translate daily operations into measurable brand value across local markets and strategic growth initiatives.

VP of Public Relations, IFC Entertainment Group

AMC Networks

Judy Woloshen elevates publicity across IFC Entertainment Group

At AMC Networks’ IFC Entertainment Group, new leadership redefined publicity across theatrical, streaming and specialty releases, and Judy Woloshen joined as vice president of publicity in August 2022 to shape unified campaigns for Independent Film Company, RLJE Films and Shudder while leading cross-departmental work with marketing and distribution. The approach fused editorial outreach with immersive activations, strategic partnerships and festival positioning to build narratives that moved from local events into national conversation, and the team tracked coverage and audience response to guide tactical pivots.

Those activations translated into bold publicity programs, with Woloshen executing a nationwide semi-truck tour featuring Frendo the clown, launching early drive-in partnerships in key markets and coordinating festival and influencer outreach to extend campaign life cycles and sustain earned momentum. Campaign tactics emphasized storytelling, influencer engagement and timed content releases to amplify earned coverage and social momentum across platforms while preserving creative intent and protecting filmmaker relationships for each title.

Outcomes included record opening weekends and the studio’s first Oscar nomination in more than 14 years with Memoir of a Snail, which signaled that publicity strategies drove critical attention and created commercial opportunity for a diverse slate. A viral rollout for Good Boy generated more than 100 million combined views and earned feature placements for the film’s canine star, Indy, in USA Today, People and The New York Times, which broadened audience reach and sustained media interest.

The rebrand work unified the company’s voice, introduced a new logo, produced a messaging framework for company leadership and staged a Cannes launch that gathered trade, critics and partners to discuss the company’s future and marketplace role. Woloshen kept Shudder’s identity distinct within the broader network, secured anniversary and executive coverage, and aligned publicity, executive positioning and audience engagement to deepen fan loyalty, build industry relationships and create sustained commercial momentum across the three verticals.

SVP, Corporate Marketing and Communications

Ameresco

Leila Dillon redefined Ameresco’s narrative and converted skepticism into momentum

At the start of 2025, Ameresco faced investor skepticism, rising interest rates and policy uncertainty, and Leila Dillon launched a strategic overhaul of corporate communications to turn a complex earnings narrative into a confident, cohesive story about performance, precision and leadership in the next era of energy, centering messages on measurable operational reliability and long-term partner value.

Leading the effort, Dillon built disciplined outreach programs, coordinated C-suite briefings and aligned spokespeople and collateral to ensure consistent messages reached investors, customers and the media, while instituting rigorous message discipline and proactive outreach that anticipated tough questions.

When the August earnings report shattered expectations and briefly pushed shares up 40% in a single day, the communications plan explained why, emphasizing custom power systems, long-term contracts and operational reliability and highlighting decades of federal and commercial partnerships that underpin future growth. Dillon reframed the company from being perceived as “just another renewables company” to a critical energy infrastructure partner that builds and operates custom power systems for data centers and defense facilities, delivering resilience where the grid cannot.

That repositioning accelerated commercial momentum and opened doors on major data center, geothermal and nuclear projects, positioning the company as the go-to partner for hyperscalers, utilities and public-sector customers and enabling the sales team to close conversations faster.

Communications drove visibility with more than 40 billion media impressions and secured extensive placements in outlets such as Barron’s, Bloomberg and Fast Company, turning technical achievements into clear stories that investors and buyers could act on and providing sustained narratives across print, broadcast and digital channels.

The work elevated communications into a strategic business function that links financial performance to purpose, helps attract new customers, builds investor trust and inspires employees worldwide as the company scales to meet AI’s growing energy demand, and Dillon’s leadership also advances representation among senior communications leaders in the energy sector.

Vice President of Internal, Owner and Executive Communications

Hilton

Sally Schiff drives empathetic storytelling across Hilton

Facing crises and major brand moments at Hilton, Sally Schiff built integrated storytelling and empathetic communication that connected corporate and hotel team members, executives and owners across Hilton’s global footprint through clear channels and tailored content.

During the Los Angeles wildfires, Schiff led the internal response, coordinated with American Express and 211 LA and shaped messaging that supported displaced families and first responders through complimentary hotel room nights while prioritizing safety and community recovery.

For the Waldorf Astoria New York reopening, Schiff designed internal and executive communications that tied the hotel’s legacy to the company’s future and amplified a cultural moment for employees, then crafted storytelling that framed the reopening as a civic and hospitality milestone and helped leaders celebrate shared history while preparing teams for operational change.

On the conference stage, Schiff oversaw mainstage presentations at regional gatherings in the Americas, APAC and EMEA and created a master narrative and CEO keynote that energized thousands of leaders and hotel teams, and introduced practical leadership takeaways and action steps to scale best practices across regions.

During Travel with Purpose Week, Schiff led communications that helped mobilize team members to log 1 million volunteer hours globally and translated corporate goals into local action that turned internal messages into community impact.

The work aligned internal channels with PR, ESG and government affairs to ensure consistent narratives across markets so customers, owners and regulators received coherent messages and employees had the context to act.

The communications approach emphasized transparency, recognition and belonging and helped improve employee engagement, pride and a sense of shared mission while supporting leaders in recognizing frontline contributions and celebrating milestones in real time. The master narrative linked brand launches, executive priorities, and hotel operations so leaders could act with clarity and purpose, and provided templates, toolkits, and messaging playbooks for rapid local adoption.

That emphasis raised employee pride, improved recognition practices and strengthened belonging, supporting retention and talent development and helping the company sustain momentum through rapid growth and organizational change. Looking ahead, Schiff will scale narrative practices and align storytellers across functions to turn major moments into lasting community impact, mentor communicators, refine crisis playbooks and embed purpose into everyday operations.

VP of Communications

Covista

Jordana Strosberg builds AI-powered communications at scale

Jordana Strosberg has built a career on leading communications that shape strategy, elevate executives and deliver measurable business results. At Covista, she now oversees communications for an organization that serves more than 91,000 students across five institutions and engages 10,000 employees along with investors, policymakers and healthcare partners.

Since May 2025, Strosberg has served as vice president of communications, where she is building an AI-powered team spanning public affairs, crisis, external, digital and internal communications. She joined Covista in November 2024 as vice president of CEO communications and, within six months, repositioned Chairman and CEO Steve Beard as a leading voice in healthcare workforce development. Her strategy secured high-profile coverage in CNBC and The Wall Street Journal, earned Beard recognition on the TIME100 Health list and helped him achieve LinkedIn Top Voice status. She translated business priorities into clear narratives at a pivotal time for the healthcare education sector.

Previously at PwC, Strosberg architected and launched a firmwide business strategy for more than 4,000 partners and 75,000 employees. She drove alignment across business units, strengthened culture scores and created a unified framework that every communications function adopted. During a full C-suite transition, she counseled senior leaders, maintained client and regulator trust and secured top-tier media coverage while protecting business continuity.

Strosberg also positioned PwC as a leader in generative AI within communications. Working directly with the chief communications officer, she developed and executed an AI strategy that transformed the function into a CommsTech-forward operation that other organizations now study. She later led PwC’s presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos, supporting CEO engagement and driving client leads through tailored thought leadership programs.

Her teams have earned industry recognition, including Ragan’s 2024 Top Places to Work in Communications honor, and she has served as a PR Week Awards judge. Jordana Strosberg sets a high standard for strategic vision and execution.

Vice President, Public Affairs & Advocacy Relations

Exelixis

Lindsay Treadway builds bridges between patients, employees and partners

As vice president of public affairs and advocacy relations at Exelixis, Lindsay Treadway designed and led communication strategies that connect patients, employees, and external partners, and turn clinical and corporate milestones into meaningful moments for communities affected by cancer.

Through deliberate partnerships, Treadway expanded the Advocacy Relations program to improve education, grow peer support and increase access to resources for people coping with neuroendocrine and other tumors.

Inside the company, Treadway has grown financial support for charitable giving since 2023 and reoriented internal advocacy efforts to strengthen long-term relationships with patient organizations and community leaders.

In May, Treadway organized and moderated an advocacy panel at the Alameda headquarters that featured a neuroendocrine tumor patient and a foundation leader and that showed employees how advocacy can empower patients and caregivers and create tangible hope.

Under Treadway’s leadership, employee volunteer hours rose 91 percent this year as part of a broader effort that included corporate matching, paid volunteer time and targeted outreach to employee resource groups. Treadway also launched the Volunteer Ambassador Network to amplify employee giving and volunteer opportunities across departments and employee resource groups and to build local nonprofit relationships.

Across corporate milestones, Treadway directed communications for FDA approvals in two NET indications and for multiple clinical updates — coordinating with advocacy partners to ensure patient perspectives informed external messaging. The team produced a documentary-style video series under Treadway’s oversight to elevate a NET patient’s account of self-advocacy, daily life and family responsibilities while navigating treatment and follow-up care.

With a hands-on approach and empathetic leadership, Treadway strengthened the communications infrastructure at Exelixis, mentored colleagues and created an internal community that advances the company’s mission to help cancer patients recover stronger and live longer.

Chief Communications Officer

First Horizon Corporation

Elizabeth Ardoin transforms associate communications at First Horizon

As chief communications officer at First Horizon, Elizabeth Ardoin led a reinvention of internal communications by designing and launching Internal News, a digital hub that replaced fragmented channels and outdated newsletters with a unified, modern experience that delivers timely business updates, empowers leaders to communicate with clarity and supports the company’s growth strategy.

The team set bold goals to create a single source for key business updates, streamline content for clarity and brevity and foster a digital culture that could evolve with company needs while reducing email clutter and improving cross-team alignment. To achieve that, Ardoin applied Smart Brevity tactics to refine message craft, introduced user tips, training and editorial standards for concise writing and directed a bold rollout that prioritized intuitive navigation, mobile readiness and rapid adoption across functions and levels.

The hub reached 95% initial adoption, and utilization continued to rise even as article volume increased, while open rates and read times held steady, showing that associates accessed essential content without sacrificing depth or context.

Associates praise the platform’s intuitive search, layout and timeliness, calling it “straightforward and easy to use,” and noting faster access to critical information for decision-making, collaboration and day-to-day work. Platform data informed the next phase, and Ardoin directed plans for curated content for targeted groups, dashboards for leaders to track engagement and a mobile app to put critical content in every associate’s hand anytime, anywhere.

Beyond internal channels, Ardoin reorganized public and media relations into a dedicated function to drive proactive outreach, executive thought leadership and consistent promotion of business milestones and community investments, and launched toolkits to equip local teams with clear, on-brand messaging. The strategic focus strengthened the associate experience, elevated external visibility and positioned the company to engage teams, customers and communities with clarity and purpose while creating a scalable model for communications that supports growth.

Managing Director, Integrated Strategy & Services, Inkhouse, an Orchestra agency and Head of Innovation, Orchestra

Orchestra

Tiffany Darmetko drives an AI-first way of working at Orchestra

As AI reshapes search, storytelling and client expectations, Tiffany Darmetko has led a companywide shift at Orchestra that turns disruption into measurable progress. In 2025, she co-founded the two-person Orchestra Product Team and unified nine agencies and more than 750 employees around a shared AI-enabled framework known as The Orchestra Way. The model aligns tools, workflows and playbooks so teams can move faster and deliver stronger work across the network.

Darmetko believes change sticks when the right path becomes the easiest one. She embedded AI into daily work across three levels: personal productivity, agentic workflows and enterprise platforms. Her first major milestone came with the rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise. Within 30 days, every employee had access. In the first month alone, 477 employees used the platform more than 66,000 times and built 200 custom GPTs. By September 2025, adoption reached nearly 100%, with 87% of employees reporting neutral-to-positive sentiment.

The productivity gains are clear. Employees reported a 20% increase in meaningful time savings. Nearly one in three said they save six or more hours each week using AI tools. Darmetko supported that lift with structured training, a self-built resource library, Slack peer forums and recurring AI Office Hours that made learning visible and routine.

She also made experimentation part of the culture. Her AI Innovation Challenge, modeled after “American Idol,” spotlighted creative use cases and drew engagement across the company. The winning idea, a GPT that automatically summarizes media coverage, now saves teams hours each week and improves reporting accuracy. A monthly GPT recognition program further reinforces that innovation can come from any level.

Beyond internal change, Darmetko strengthened Orchestra’s market position. She co-created Prompt Fuel 360, an AEO offering that helps clients shape how AI engines describe their brands, driving measurable gains in visibility.

By aligning operations, legal, culture and IT, Darmetko built trust alongside speed. Her steady leadership ensures that transformation benefits everyone.

Global Head of Communications

OneSchool Global

Sarah McCarthy unites global communications to build capacity and align engagement

In October 2024, Sarah McCarthy accepted a newly created global communications role at OneSchool Global to unite regional messaging, build positive brand sentiment, and align engagement across staff, parents and students who span different continents and time zones.

McCarthy launched a people-centered communications strategy grounded in listening, research and collaboration and created a single framework that set clear priorities, clarified roles, standardized governance and gave regional communicators shared tools and processes for consistent delivery.

Early work included visits to a wide set of campuses and extensive focus groups with principals, teachers and regional leaders to surface local issues, test messages and ensure the first global communications plan reflected on-the-ground realities and community expectations. McCarthy created a centralised a dispersed communications function with regional capacity to provide executive-level counsel, build capacity through mentoring and professional development and deploy consistent brand toolkits, editorial guidance and digital resources that local teams could adapt quickly and reduce turnaround time for urgent messaging.

To scale reach and save time, McCarthy implemented a create-once, publish-everywhere internal content model, consolidated social channels under a single identity, oversaw a website redesign with campus pages and established media protocols to redirect the public narrative, increase visibility and free the team to focus on strategic storytelling.

Internal engagement rose 250% after the intranet redesign and the relaunch of targeted internal communications, demonstrating restored trust, sharper staff alignment with core values and faster dissemination of key operational information.

Those results translated into higher confidence among educators, improved conversations with families, clearer employer branding and more practical tools for recruiting and retaining talented staff in a competitive international market. Leadership from McCarthy shows empathy, evidence and quiet determination while continuing to scale the strategy, mentor the team, secure dedicated development budgets and embed consistent culture, pride and clearer storytelling across the global school community.

Senior Vice President and Client Relations Director

The Mach 1 Group

Caroline Payne drives statewide safety campaigns and media strategies

At The Mach 1 Group’s Houston division, Caroline Payne leads communications that connect policy, politics and/or public safety. With policy work at the University of St. Thomas and years of campaign consulting behind the strategy, Payne builds rapid response plans for lawmakers, school leaders and community advocates.

Across dozens of markets, Payne designed integrated earned media plans — press releases, media advisories, op-eds, LTEs and/or training spokespeople — and coordinated closely with marketing and government affairs teams to translate technical solutions into human stories that resonated with local communities and that prompted local leaders to act.

Those efforts generated more than 2,500 media placements in 2024 and moved conversations from local news cycles into legislative briefings, community town halls and/or school board rooms.

For the CENTEGIX campaign, Payne organized coordinated state collateral, spokespeople training and/or targeted local outreach and developed briefing materials, crisis plans and/or media training to prepare partners for high-pressure moments and to brief top staffers ahead of legislative votes.

On Feb. 14, 2025, multiple states joined MOSS Day, and Payne secured widespread coverage in a single day, prompting lawmakers, school administrators and parents to engage on digital alert systems and on legislative pathways, and to request demonstrations and pilot programs.

In work with families and leaders, Payne coaches executives, helps bereaved parents advocate for safer schools and/or volunteers with nonprofits to sustain community momentum, to prepare spokespeople and to keep emotional truth at the center of policy debates and to help shape testimony at hearings.

Looking ahead, Payne focuses on storytelling that drives policy, moves public opinion and/or produces measurable results, scaling campaigns that preserve safety, lift lived voices and advance practical reform across state capitals and local communities, while embedding practical playbooks for local implementation.

Senior Manager, Corporate Communications

USG Corporation

Maureen St George transforms companywide communication and engagement

A need for clearer, more consistent communication stretched across the company and threatened to dilute engagement among field teams, plant personnel and office staff who relied on timely operational and safety information. USG Corporation’s Maureen St George designed and led a strategic program to centralize executive messaging, standardize employee forums, and scale transparent updates so that leaders and frontline workers received the same timely context, action items, and follow-up across regions and time zones.

St George planned and executed quarterly town halls that moved to plant locations, integrated business unit leaders and subject matter experts and created predictable channels for operational, safety and strategic news that reduced duplicate messages and shortened decision cycles. Post-event surveys rated the meetings highly for timeliness, transparency, relevance and accuracy, with over 90% positive responses, while qualitative feedback praised clear next steps, honest leadership dialogue and practical information employees could act on immediately.

St George serves as the primary contact for the leadership team and oversees executive communications, cross-functional campaigns and product launches while aligning media opportunities, supporting recruitment and retention efforts and advising managers on message discipline and change communications.

St George led a companywide mental health awareness campaign that combined internal messaging, executive participation, resource connections and large programming to open dialogue, reduce stigma and deliver practical support to employees. Employees responded with strong engagement, thoughtful questions and notes of appreciation that communicated how valued they felt and how the conversations influenced their willingness to seek help and support colleagues.

Leaders credit St George with raising engagement, improving transparency and strengthening retention through disciplined planning, meticulous execution and the development of repeatable templates, agendas and facilitator guides. Teams now rely on the rhythms and tools St George established, plan to expand the approach to align additional business processes and continue to elevate leadership reach and the employee experience across the enterprise.

Senior Director

FTI Consulting

Kate Pulio-Deighton guides organizations through high-stakes crises

In high-stakes crises, more than 100 organizations have sought counsel from Kate Pulio-Deighton, relying on proven strategies to protect reputations while addressing urgent operational demands and the needs of affected people and communities.

As a senior leader on FTI Consulting’s Crisis and Litigation Communications team, Pulio-Deighton designs people-first messaging that balances legal risk, stakeholder expectations and the imperative to provide clear, factual information under intense public scrutiny.

Following a major critical infrastructure disaster that caused loss of life and widespread supply chain disruption, Pulio-Deighton mobilized a team within hours to manage intense media attention and to stabilize narratives amid local trauma and national scrutiny.

Pulio-Deighton reframes client focus from the urgency of the moment to long-term reputation management, advising on the ramifications of engaging or holding back and steering leaders toward decisions that protect credibility over time. The team executed a robust communications strategy that clarified timelines, corrected inaccuracies and positioned clients as responsive partners rather than targets of blame, while Pulio-Deighton maintained an on-the-record role throughout the response and aftermath.

Complex litigation and politically sensitive matters often prompt the first call to Pulio-Deighton, as the firm blends tactical response with strategic counsel to protect long-term interests and to shape public dialogue. When a leading internet service provider faced a consequential copyright verdict, Pulio-Deighton led a sustained communications campaign that highlighted broader legal implications, secured accurate media representation and amplified third-party voices to keep stakeholders informed.

As a long-tenured leader on a specialized crisis team, Pulio-Deighton builds response groups, mentors counselors and sets standards for calm, disciplined practice that scale across industries and time zones.

Clients credit calm composure, clear counsel and steadiness under pressure, and Pulio-Deighton continues to prepare organizations for their worst days by developing crisis plans, leading tabletop exercises and reinforcing systems that reduce disruption and restore public trust.

Pulio-Deighton advised a multinational chemical manufacturer through multiple plant fires and other environmental, health, and safety incidents, guided communications regarding its market listing, and navigated high-profile legal matters and competitor litigation.

Vice President, Communications

Purdue University

Julie Rosa leads strategic communications that steady Purdue through change

A career at Purdue University that began in 1993 gave Julie Rosa rising responsibility and influence, and she used that standing to align communications strategy with the university’s land-grant mission, strategic priorities and public engagement goals across research, extension and student success.

Central University communications cover internal and external work, executive messaging, earned media and crisis management — and Rosa directs the teams, channels and executive counsel that protect reputation, advance research and connect with diverse constituencies, including donors, policymakers, alumni and industry partners.

When federal funding fell, a communication plan from Rosa balanced transparency and intentional discretion, kept faculty, staff and students informed through a central website and regular updates, and helped leadership maintain focus on teaching, research and community service while minimizing confusion and morale loss.

The Brand Studio expansion incorporated multiple campus units into a 100-member team, and Rosa smoothed structural, operational and interpersonal challenges while building relations and buy-in across colleges, departments and administrative units to make the changes stick and to improve efficiency, save staff time and reduce duplicated work.

That people-first approach and servant-leadership style raises colleagues, celebrates team achievement and turns potential obstacles into practical solutions by asking what is best for the university and the people affected and by modeling curiosity and patience in high-pressure negotiations.

By mentoring direct reports, modeling calm in crisis and cultivating long-term relationships across campus, Rosa helps leaders accept change, resolve conflicts pragmatically and keep communications consistent during sensitive moments that could otherwise erode trust and slow progress on strategic goals.

The result is clearer messaging, steadier operations and sustained progress toward the university’s mission while colleagues feel supported, achievements receive visible recognition, and the institution remains focused on impactful research, student success, community engagement and sustained fundraising.

Chief Strategy Officer

HUNTER

Heddy DeMaria turns agency data into a strategic advantage

When Heddy DeMaria looked at how communications plans came together at HUNTER, she saw an opportunity. Data often appeared at the end of the process — a report card instead of a roadmap. She set out to change that.

DeMaria launched HUNTER: Intelligence with a clear mandate: make data the engine of strategy. She embedded research into planning from the start, standardized how teams gathered and applied insights, and required every recommendation to connect to measurable business outcomes. What began as an analytics function quickly became the backbone of campaigns across practice areas, client verticals and the full lifecycle of brand work.

Rather than hand teams spreadsheets, DeMaria translated raw analytics into repeatable workshops, proprietary methodologies and practical tools. Account leads used them to shape narratives and brief creative. Media teams used them to align channel strategy and set KPIs. Senior leaders adopted the framework as the standard campaign brief, ensuring that insight — not instinct — guided decisions.

Her team’s major research initiatives pushed the work further. An annual trends analysis expanded category coverage, while a study of influence along the purchase path examined how consumers make decisions, with specific testing against Gen Z motivations. Those findings informed media and creative choices, future-proofed planning and guided investment decisions with greater precision.

By bringing survey capabilities in-house, DeMaria cut timelines and deepened segmentation. Clients moved from broad assumptions to targeted experiments, making faster, more strategic decisions grounded in consumer data. Turnaround times shrank, while cross-segment insights grew richer.

A custom study for TurboTax exemplified the impact. The research decoded Gen Z attitudes and behaviors, reshaping programming, partnerships and communications. The insights shifted media targeting, refined influencer selection, adjusted creative tone and increased campaign relevance among younger audiences.

Beyond client work, DeMaria elevated the role of data in the industry. She presented on AI’s impact at an insights conference, discussed Gen Z trust on a podcast and joined a Museum of PR panel exploring food and influence. Those conversations prompted clients to adopt new measurement frameworks and rethink how they define success.

With more than 30 years of experience across consumer insights, brand strategy and advanced analytics, DeMaria has built a practice that decodes culture, informs strategy and turns insight into measurable brand advantage — making data not just informative, but transformative.

Director Enterprise Reputation & Risk

Target

Lauren Melcher modernized corporate affairs data to shape reputation

When Target formed a Corporate Affairs function, Lauren Melcher reframed the brief and shifted the team from basic media tracking to an insight-led practice that links communications activity to business strategy, stakeholder priorities and measurable reputation outcomes. That work produced a clear strategy that prioritized impact measurement, predictive listening and decision-ready dashboards so leaders could anticipate issues, prioritize resources and connect daily work to long-term trust and stakeholder confidence.

To scale those capabilities, Melcher rebuilt the data architecture — consolidating signals from marketing, strategy and Corporate Affairs into a single platform that supports faster synthesis, consistent tagging and cross-functional access to the same evidence base. Melcher layered AI-powered analysis on top of that platform to surface trends, quantify emerging risks, highlight opportunities and deliver near real-time briefings that enable leaders to act with speed and evidence.

In parallel, Melcher audited investment across paid, earned, owned, and influencer channels to measure returns and to realign budgets toward integrated partnerships that improve reach, message relevance and the ability to demonstrate measurable value for communications investments. Melcher’s recommendations changed how the team buys media and partners with business units, and they created clearer metrics to show how communications choices move outcomes.

Drawing on experience in PR, product and library science, Melcher designed taxonomy and tagging systems that connect disparate datasets, reveal narrative threads and let teams surface the stories they need to reinforce trust and to support strategic decisions. Melcher also built processes for partners to translate asks into analytics, turning informal requests into repeatable workflows that accelerate insight delivery and reduce friction between Corporate Affairs and the business.

The result changed expectations about reputation — leaders now treat it as a shaping exercise rather than a measurement afterthought, using evidence to guide choices about messaging, partnerships and risk mitigation as conversations evolve. Those shifts increased clarity, raised Corporate Affairs’ influence across the enterprise, and left the function better positioned to shape outcomes rather than just report them.

Senior Vice President and Client Service Director

The Mach 1 Group

Talan Tyminski reframes how Texas conversations become policy

A crisis communication expert and public affairs professional at The Mach 1 Group, Talan Tyminski has built a career around outcomes that matter, combining deep knowledge of Texas government with an appetite for turning communications strategy into real policy progress, durable systems and smoother operations inside a leading public affairs firm. Tyminski joined the firm as a senior strategist, rose twice in her first year, and now oversees two-thirds of the firm’s clients while redesigning workflows and creating development pathways so junior staff can run accounts independently.

At the start of a legislative session, Tyminski produced a Texas Media and Influence report that mapped how policy conversations form behind the scenes and showed which early signals predict whether an issue gains momentum. Tyminski collected social and newsroom data, traced influence among outlets, journalists and platforms, and converted complex findings into one-pagers and playbooks that communicators can deploy immediately.

The analysis reframed timing, messenger selection and platform choice as tactical levers and clarified how local trust patterns differ from national narratives. The report has informed media strategies in the Capitol and prompted teams across the state to adopt the one-pagers and coalition templates as standard practice, speeding response times and increasing message clarity.

Beyond that publication, Tyminski builds practical tools — from legislative messaging systems to operational templates — that reduce friction for client teams and make strategic thinking repeatable. Tyminski’s tools helped communications teams shape narratives that advanced policy outcomes and strengthened the capacity of junior staff to lead under pressure.

Lobbyists, communicators and legislative staffers have changed day-to-day tactics because of the work, and leaders inside the firm now measure campaign choices against the report’s benchmarks while teaching the approach to new teams. That combination of strategic clarity, durable tools and on-the-ground results shifts how public affairs gets done and helps communities see conversations translate into consequences.

Associate Professor, School of Communication Sciences

ITESO University

Daniela Villa turns communications into a data-first strategic function

Facing persistent executive demand for measurable results, Bitso shifted its communications to a data-first model under the leadership of Daniela Villa, who reframed reputation work as a source of strategic insight rather than a supporting cost center across Latin America and beyond.

To change that, Villa built a robust methodology that requires the communications team to quantify impact and to present measurable KPIs in strategic board meetings. The approach lets the team compare performance with other internal disciplines and benchmark against competitor brands across the FinTech and crypto landscape and emerging regulatory markets.

The methodology taps proprietary transaction and behavior records and includes analysis of up to 9 million Bitso users in near real time to surface user profiles, purchasing patterns and regional trends that inform both product and policy conversations.

An in-house report series, now in its fourth edition, blended communications workstreams with data science to translate raw business data into concise, media-ready insights under Villa’s direction, and it reached new audiences across the region. Villa expanded that format into a Stablecoins Landscape timed to a major regional conference to shape market debate and to spotlight rapid adoption of stablecoins among businesses.

The reports became a go-to source for press and for industry firms, and they elevated the company’s voice in conversations with regulators, investors and prospective partners. Internal teams use the findings to prioritize product launches and to tailor messaging by customer segment, which accelerated time-to-market and improved alignment between communications, product and commercial teams.

Executives now receive regular quantitative reports and use communications metrics to inform investment, product and market decisions, and journalists and industry firms rely on the reports as reference points. The work sets a precedent by converting a traditionally qualitative discipline into a measurable engine for business growth and market influence, a model led by Villa as the methodology scales across markets.

VP, Public Relations

AMC Networks

Kathryn Brenner elevates franchise storytelling and fan engagement

Kathryn Brenner has spent seven years shaping AMC Networks’ reputation as a leader in premium storytelling. As vice president of public relations, she leads strategic campaigns for some of the company’s most recognizable franchises, from The Walking Dead universe to Anne Rice Immortal Universes. Her work also spotlights standout titles across Shudder and Acorn TV, expanding audience reach and strengthening brand visibility.

One of Brenner’s most notable achievements came with the press campaign for season two of The Walking Dead: Dead City in April 2025. She coordinated a multi-platform launch that included a Canneseries world premiere in France, an international press tour across a dozen territories and high-profile fan moments such as a Citi Field takeover where cast members threw out the first pitch at a Mets game. The campaign also featured an Empire State Building photo experience, a Paley Center panel and multiple Comic-Con appearances. Together, these efforts generated more than 1,000 press hits and over 7 billion impressions.

Brenner continued that momentum with the third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in September 2025. Filmed in Spain, the campaign leaned into the show’s European setting with a red-carpet premiere, global press junkets and Comic-Con activations in both the United States and Spain, keeping fans engaged through timely releases of exclusive assets.

Beyond franchise work, Brenner led promotion for season two of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches in January 2025, securing major placements on national morning shows and digital platforms such as ELLE.com. The campaign earned more than 50 million impressions.

Her impact extended to Acorn TV with Irish Blood in summer 2025. The campaign delivered nearly 6 billion impressions and helped the series become Acorn’s top performer in viewership and subscriber acquisition, earning a season two renewal.

Through festival panels, global premieres and record-setting results, Brenner continues to raise the bar for entertainment public relations.

Marketing Director

ECMSI

Lauren Butka elevates community-focused marketing and industry collaboration

At ECMSI, Lauren Butka spearheaded a strategic marketing transformation that introduced a more human-centered voice, overhauled the company’s website, refreshed collateral and unified messaging across channels. Her work made managed services more relatable to clients, partners and prospects while driving stronger buyer engagement.

Across the year, Butka planned and executed a month-long cybersecurity awareness campaign with downloadable resources, interactive quizzes and custom video content that simplified complex topics, improved resource adoption among partners and created repeatable assets for future education programs.

In partnership roles with a national security vendor and a local sports franchise, Butka served as marketing liaison and translated product benefits into community education programs, executive briefings and business-facing outreach that strengthened organizational cybersecurity posture and encouraged cross-sector collaboration.

Through a nationwide peer group of MSP marketing leaders, Butka convened collaborators, shared best practices and amplified the collective voice of marketers, which increased joint initiatives, spurred content co-creation and lifted awareness of tactical marketing approaches across the industry.

Every holiday season, Butka organizes a corporate Toys for Tots drive that rallies employees and partners to support children in need, expands community goodwill and demonstrates a sustained commitment to employee and partner wellbeing that reinforces ECMSI’s local presence.

Each year, Butka also plans ECMSI’s flagship event for more than 200 attendees, bringing partners, vendors, prospects and employees together to forge business connections, showcase solutions, surface customer stories and accelerate pipeline development for sales teams.

By mentoring students, leading webinars throughout the year and authoring thought leadership content, Butka built a pipeline of talent and practical insights, improved partner enablement and translated marketing activities into measurable business results and stronger long-term relationships.

Director of Marketing

Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board

Nikia Deveaux-Christie leads communications that link tourism and community

Nikia Deveaux-Christie brings a journalist’s instincts and a marketer’s precision to her role as director of marketing at the Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board. A former newscaster, she helps shape the destination’s overarching marketing strategy, advertising and cooperative campaigns that drive travel demand for Nassau and Paradise Island, the heart of The Bahamas’ largest industry.

As the board’s lead for domestic communications, PR and media relations, Deveaux-Christie strengthens the destination’s presence on the ground and online. She guides social media content and supports tourism-related events across arts, culture, culinary experiences and sports. She also plays a key role in producing press releases, photo shoots and video storytelling that spotlight the destination through a truly local lens.

One of her standout achievements includes supporting the board’s award-winning Storytellers initiative, which brings Bahamian voices to the forefront of destination marketing. The effort highlights history, culture, food and adventure while creating engaging content that resonates with both residents and visitors.

Deveaux-Christie also leads the organization’s corporate social responsibility work, where her impact extends well beyond promotion. She spearheaded the full restoration of the Queen’s Staircase, a historic landmark in downtown Nassau. The project, completed in partnership with the Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation, now serves as a catalyst for revitalizing other heritage sites and enriching the visitor experience while preserving community pride.

Her leadership also drives environmental initiatives. Through partnerships with the Bahamas National Trust, she supports efforts to promote the National Land and Sea Park System, encourage sustainable tourism and elevate conservation messaging. She coordinated stakeholder engagement for the Coral Is Calling Initiative, which mobilized locals and travelers to help rehabilitate coral reefs, a vital ecosystem for the nation.

Deveaux-Christie’s work reflects a commitment to community, culture and sustainable growth, making her a standout communications leader in tourism today.

Creative Director

Tri-State Generation and Transmission

Julia Eshleman redefines creative leadership in the energy sector

Julia Eshleman brings bold imagination and sharp strategy to one of the most complex industries in the country. As creative director at Tri-State Generation and Transmission, she turns technical issues in the electric utility sector into stories that inform, engage and inspire. She anticipates trends, simplifies dense topics and builds campaigns that move audiences to action.

Eshleman expanded Tri-State’s reach with the launch of the Western Watts podcast, which she founded and hosts. The show breaks down complicated energy issues into accessible conversations that resonate beyond industry insiders. She pairs electric infrastructure discussions with unexpected cultural references, making even reliability planning feel relatable. Eshleman also built the podcast’s brand from the ground up, sourcing local art and materials to transform a basement conference room into a vibrant recording studio and fully realized creative suite.

Her storytelling extends far beyond the studio. Eshleman visits wildfire sites to document the human and environmental toll of disasters, highlighting resilience and recovery efforts across the communities Tri-State serves. She captures authentic voices and elevates them, helping members understand both the challenges and the progress shaping the energy landscape.

When Tri-State prepared to launch a 100-seat employee advocacy program, Eshleman created a distinctive brand identity called “The Inner Circuit.” Inspired by collegiate secret societies, the campaign introduced bold colors and a fresh visual system that stood apart from the company’s traditional palette. The program generated nearly $750,000 in equivalent ad spend, delivered more organic impressions in four months than Tri-State’s social media channels produced in an entire year and strengthened recruitment and engagement across the cooperative.

Eshleman also leads with humility. On a seven-person team, she champions new ideas, supports promotions for direct reports and advocates for strategic hires. Her analytical mindset and creative instincts shape communications that influence education, policy and growth in a rapidly evolving field.

Senior Director, Media Relations

Travelers Insurance

Chesleigh Fowler clarifies complex insurance topics for media and consumers

A persistent knowledge gap separated technical insurance risks from everyday consumers, and Travelers Insurance’s Chesleigh Fowler redesigned external communications to translate policy language, risk models and coverage options into plain, actionable guidance that reporters and customers could use to make decisions about protection, preparedness and risk transfer.

A promotion in April to senior director of media relations expanded Fowler’s remit, placed responsibility for high-profile media engagement on Fowler’s desk and allowed Fowler to align earned, owned and executive communications with broader business priorities to reinforce reputation and trust. The expanded remit gave Fowler direct oversight of crisis communications and executive positioning, increasing strategic alignment with product and claims teams.

Integrated campaigns generated top-tier business, trade and consumer coverage, and Fowler led a national Risk Index survey of more than 1,200 business decision-makers that turned complex cyber data into straightforward narratives about attacks, mitigation and cyber insurance uptake.

Ahead of peak wedding season, Fowler synthesized public data on wedding claims and structured timely media outreach that educated couples and families about common pitfalls, timing and insurance options, making insurance relatable and prompting practical decisions about planning and financial protection.

For hurricane season, Fowler developed guidance on property resilience, preparedness plans and emergency kits — and Fowler prioritized clear explanations of maintenance and coverage reviews and urged homeowners and businesses to take concrete steps to safeguard assets before storms arrive.

Inside the company, a growing team received clear guidance and purpose from Fowler, with Fowler fostering collaboration across business units and serving as a go-to advisor to senior leaders facing sensitive issues and media scrutiny.

The media approach continues to evolve as Fowler pilots new storytelling formats, applies data-driven tactics and strengthens journalist relationships to increase visibility, shape public understanding and keep complex insurance topics accessible to both businesses and everyday consumers. Those experiments shifted coverage toward practical takeaways and helped reporters translate technical findings into stories that resonate with policyholders and business leaders.

Vice President of Marketing and Membership

Information Technology Industry Council

Natasha Goodwin expands membership and strengthens engagement at ITI

As Information Technology Industry Council’s (ITI) vice president of marketing and membership, Natasha Goodwin reshaped external and internal communications to help the association respond quickly to rapid AI adoption, heightened regulatory scrutiny, market consolidation and rising cybersecurity threats. Goodwin translated industry insight into a clear value proposition, prioritized member needs and redesigned outreach to highlight policy influence, practical resources and networking opportunities.

New additions included industry leaders such as OpenAI, CoreWeave, Nvidia, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers, recruitment led by Goodwin that filled membership to capacity and created a robust pipeline of prospects ready to join as openings arise. Affiliate memberships strengthened engagement after Goodwin expanded the Sustainability Policy Group, supported The Green Grid and grew the Space Enterprise Council, actions that enabled a New York Climate Week roundtable, wins related to the EU’s Green Claims Directive and an international space industry mixer in partnership with the Commercial Space Federation.

Member engagement and satisfaction rose — Net Promoter score increased from 50 to 59 — while interest in event sponsorship and active participation in working groups grew, producing more policy contributions and shared solutions. That work tied recruitment, communications and relationship building to measurable member value by driving higher sponsorship involvement, boosting working group contributions and enabling companies to collaborate on policy and technical challenges.

Those efforts helped member companies influence regulatory conversations, shape standards and respond together to cybersecurity and market disruptions across global markets. The approach combined targeted outreach, personalized engagement and trust building with key decision-makers to convert prospects into active participants and to deepen long-term commitment among existing members.

Building on this momentum, Goodwin plans to scale member activation, expand affiliate programming and continue positioning the association as a central platform for companies navigating complex policy and technology shifts, and to amplify member voices in policy, standards and collaborative frameworks that will shape the industry’s future.

Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing

PubMatic

Ashley Jacobson repositions PubMatic as an AI-first industry leader

In a year of industry upheaval, Ashley Jacobson led strategic communications that aligned product launches, crisis response and advocacy with PubMatic’s business goals and investor priorities — helping reposition the company from a legacy supply-side provider into an AI-first platform built to compete across both buy-side and sell-side markets.

During an antitrust filing, Jacobson framed the dispute as a fight for fair competition and an open internet, protected investor sentiment through decisive messaging, placed leadership commentary in top-tier outlets and secured sustained coverage in Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Adweek, AdExchanger and The Wall Street Journal.

Over 12 months, Jacobson ran communications for product and partnership launches that anchored the company’s AI transformation and broadened commercial opportunity — including buyer and publisher platforms, a live sports marketplace, a strategic NVIDIA partnership and founding membership in the Model Context Protocol to advance transparency and interoperability across the industry.

One launch window produced a 10× surge in inbound partnership requests and catalyzed new streaming and sports collaborations, while integrated storytelling across channels amplified interest among buyers, publishers and potential partners and accelerated commercial conversations.

Through the #FundedbyAdvertising campaign and live activations at Advertising Week UK, Possible and Cannes Lions, Jacobson built a cross‑industry coalition that linked the value of ad-funded journalism and entertainment to business outcomes and created opportunities for joint marketing and policy conversations.

Across owned channels, Jacobson elevated C-suite visibility with a 12-episode Executive Dialogues series pairing the CEO with leaders from Coca-Cola, WPP, dentsu, Roku, FreeWheel, IPG and Instacart, and Jacobson placed bylines in trade outlets to articulate company positions on AI, transparency and fair competition. Leading a five-person team, Jacobson unified brand storytelling and cross-functional alignment, which shifted analyst and client perception, opened co-marketing doors and strengthened investor narratives — outcomes that demonstrate measurable communications-driven business impact and a clear roadmap for scaling AI-first messaging.

Senior Vice President

Lot Sixteen

Alissa Koay expands integrated communications across mining and water sectors

Since joining Lot Sixteen in 2022, Alissa Koay has expanded issue expertise to include tech, mining and rare earth minerals while leading integrated communications and government relations strategies for water, energy and industrial clients across state and federal arenas. Koay designs campaigns that combine opinion research, targeted messaging, strategic media relations and paid media to influence regulators, educate community audiences and coordinate advocacy on complex infrastructure and resource issues.

When a new administration shifted the political landscape, Koay reset the Hermosa project’s narrative to highlight both local economic benefits and national strategic value and to preserve project momentum amid intensified scrutiny. Koay deployed ongoing opinion research to refine messaging, launched a bilingual website, trained employees to speak with authenticity, secured thought leadership placements and executed the project’s largest paid media buy to strengthen public trust and media relationships.

Facing organized opposition to privatization, Koay built a 57-member network that included former cabinet officials, academics and local leaders to amplify credible voices and to create a coordinated defense of favorable state policies. Koay also shaped a proactive communications plan that secured extensive editorial coverage, engaged community influencers and deployed targeted outreach in critical municipalities to head off legislative rollbacks and to improve customer and stakeholder sentiment.

Across industries, Koay uses data-driven research to rebrand messaging, to guide integrated advocacy strategies and to build sustained media and policymaker relationships that move debates and unlock political support. Koay’s campaigns helped translate shifting attitudes into bipartisan engagement and into concrete public investments and regulatory outcomes that protected client interests and advanced community priorities.

Colleagues describe Koay as a steady leader who mentors teams, opens doors across public and private sectors and elevates quieter voices to strengthen long-term collaborations. Koay balances a busy professional life with family responsibilities and consistently refines playbooks that help clients navigate complex public affairs while centering community impact and long-term resilience.

Senior Manager, PR

City of Hope

Zen Logsdon transforms complex science into national conversations

At City of Hope, communications turned complex cancer research into clear, urgent narratives that national outlets could explain and patients could trust, shaping public understanding, prompting clinician conversations and guiding donor interest toward practical research priorities across broadcast, print and digital platforms.

At major oncology conferences, Zen Logsdon secured more than 60 top-tier media interviews for research colleagues and placed physicians on Netflix, The New York Times and People, packaging technical results into concise human stories, coordinating spokespeople, embargoes and live interviews and integrating social video and patient testimony to deepen engagement across platforms.

In a single year, coverage led by Logsdon reached more than 808 million people, placing clinical advances in front of clinicians, patients and policymakers and creating increased appointment inquiries, new research collaborations, elevated philanthropic support and shifts in public discourse around care choices and clinical trial enrollment.

Using newsroom rigor and plain-language strategy, Logsdon built enterprise reporting, launched new communications workflows and trained executives to own media moments, which accelerated response cycles, reduced misinformation, enabled consistent messaging across campus and partner networks and produced executive-ready analytics for leadership decision-making.

A campaign on sickle cell disease amplified a patient voice, turned a press release into national coverage on NPR, CNBC and Wired and raised public awareness about cell therapy enough to open new referral pathways, inform families and move policy conversations at state and federal levels.

Continuing that work, Logsdon scales storytelling, social video and crisis response to help patients, clinicians and institutions translate research into real-world outcomes, mentors communicators across health systems and, drawing on a Medill master’s and newsroom experience from Beijing to Los Angeles, builds capacity so more organizations can respond with clarity and care.

Director, Corporate Communications & ESG

Encore Capital Group

Eloisa Orozco reshapes communications and elevates culture at Encore Capital Group

In April 2021, Encore Capital Group tapped Eloisa Orozco to lead strategic internal and external communications during a pivotal moment. Orozco went on to transform brand building, reputation management, ESG, community impact, corporate giving, and enhanced the employee experience across business units and leadership teams.

Within months, Orozco implemented clear frameworks and streamlined workflows that turned a tactical support function into strategic counsel trusted by the C-suite, business leaders and subsidiary teams while building training and coaching programs to raise executive readiness and cross‑functional alignment.

Across multiple countries, Orozco drove global C-suite communications, elevated external storytelling to humanize debt collection with the guiding phrase “we’re people helping people,” and created shared messaging frameworks that kept narratives consistent and adaptable for local markets.

Notable initiatives include the Colleague Corner web series and an employee social ambassador group that spans the U.S., Costa Rica, India, Portugal and the U.K., which grew to feature leaders and frontline colleagues sharing mission, values and career pathways.

In 2025, Orozco led the company’s Economic Freedom Study surveying more than 6,000 people in its largest markets. Orozco also guided the development and publication of an ESG report that translated complex data into actionable narratives for investors, regulators and colleagues.

To deepen employee connection, Orozco shifted the CEO’s quarterly earnings recap from written to video, refreshed internal update formats and introduced practices that improved clarity, timeliness and two‑way feedback while setting a model for C-suite engagement in local markets.

Beyond communications, Orozco refreshed corporate giving to focus on financial education, expanded partnerships with Junior Achievement into new countries, mobilized volunteers for community programs, and established scalable approaches that built lasting organizational capacity, elevated culture, strengthened reputation, employee engagement, and community impact.

Senior Vice President

Fahlgren Mortine

Heather Sheppard balances data-led operations and people-first leadership

As co-lead of Fahlgren Mortine’s largest department, overseeing more than 65 associates, Heather Sheppard balanced business performance with people-first leadership while shaping operational and strategic direction and embedding operational discipline to support sustainable growth during a year of rapid change.

Sheppard built a data-informed staff utilization tracker with a colleague to give managers visibility and actively enable smarter staffing decisions, which leveled workloads and improved allocation across projects. After an acquisition, Sheppard led change-management efforts to align new structures and expectations while preserving morale and collaboration and building trust at every level.

Sheppard strengthened talent resourcing and team development by creating clear pathways for advancement, identifying emerging leaders and tying professional growth to measurable client and financial outcomes, which improved retention and sped project delivery while protecting service quality. To protect associate wellbeing, Sheppard also launched an agency-wide initiative focused on resilience and empathy in high-stress roles to sustain long-term performance.

Sheppard directed integrated communications programs for local, national and global brands, translating strategic thinking into creative executions that delivered measurable business results and higher client satisfaction while tightening timelines and boosting return on investment.

A multi-channel roadshow activation that Sheppard planned and executed combined an immersive VR experience, strategic brand partnerships, targeted paid media, influencer engagements and high-impact earned media to shift perception and to model integration across the agency.

Sheppard serves as a lead strategist in new-business pursuits and guides teams whose nationally recognized work in media relations, social media and account management drives organic growth and elevates the agency’s reputation for operational discipline and creative excellence. Across dozens of accounts, Sheppard also tightened financial oversight to protect margins while preserving client services and team development.

Sheppard’s blend of strategy, execution and empathetic leadership created more agile teams, steadier client relationships and a clearer path for sustained growth.

Senior Manager, East Coast & Midwest Public Relations

Hyundai Motor America

Michele Tinson elevates Hyundai’s regional and national voice

Faced with the challenge of aligning regional and national narratives across safety, product innovation and executive initiatives, Hyundai needed a coordinated media approach that respected local market nuances while reinforcing corporate priorities. Michele Tinson directed a unified media strategy and served as the corporate spokesperson, synchronizing local, regional and global objectives, fast-tracking responses to breaking news and establishing clear talking points for executives and field teams.

The strategy coordinated national newswires, regional business outlets and top-tier automotive publications while aligning timing, messaging and on-the-ground engagement to generate timely reviews, technical coverage and business-focused stories in key East Coast and Midwest markets. Tinson orchestrated multi-state campaigns for the 2026 Palisade refresh and the IONIQ 9 launch, managing media drives, press events and outreach through NWAPA, MAMA, APA, IMPA and NEMPA to secure test coverage and executive interviews across target regions.

Coverage amplified Hyundai’s safety and technology narratives, increased executive visibility and deepened relationships with regional journalists, resulting in a steadier flow of informed local reporting that supported broader national placements. Tinson’s media engagement and targeted pitching helped Hyundai secure seven IIHS Top Safety Pick+ designations in 2025, providing independent validation she used to bolster consumer messaging and dealer communications about vehicle safety.

Peer reporters and association leaders singled out responsiveness, subject-matter knowledge and hands-on coordination, and those relationships converted to broad regional coverage, deeper feature stories and improved local consumer awareness. Tinson mentors colleagues and contributes industry-facing thought leadership, raising team capabilities and ensuring consistent, accurate narratives during launches and safety announcements. Plans emphasize sustained localized storytelling, continued collaboration with regional press associations and ongoing media engagement to maintain momentum, protect brand equity and connect consumers to Hyundai’s Progress for Humanity vision.

Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Erin McDonough drives patient-first campaigns to expand access and trust

In New York’s competitive media market, Erin McDonough oversees brand and strategic communications at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, including integrated marketing, editorial and content, digital strategy and patient education that support lifesaving cancer care and clinical research.

Through a patient-first advertising strategy, McDonough refreshed the flagship “It Takes MSK” campaign, produced three new television commercials in English and Spanish and launched a Hispanic cancer screening PSA on TV, digital and billboards to reach underserved communities nationwide.

By centering first-person stories, McDonough expanded the Gen: C social campaign and created a first-of-its-kind partnership with Self magazine that broadened awareness of rising cancer rates among young adults and surpassed campaign benchmarks.

A short film titled “Late” screened at five film festivals and received attention from Ad Age as one of the top creative campaigns, which helped the work gain national cultural traction and media pickup.

During breast cancer awareness month, McDonough led a multi-channel effort and redesigned the breast cancer guide, an update that drove an 87 percent increase in appointment requests and smoothed patient navigation.

On the institutional front, McDonough guided communications through a contentious public approval process for a major campus expansion — a high-rise pavilion meant to meet sharply rising demand — and shaped messaging during complex insurance negotiations to protect patient access amid public scrutiny.

The campaigns combined story-driven creative, targeted media placements and community partnerships to change behavior and encourage early detection across demographic groups. Those efforts connected more patients to early screening and treatment, focused outreach in minority and underserved communities and built the brand trust needed to sustain access as cancer incidence climbs nationwide.

The strategy aligned communications with long-term planning so approvals and operational growth translated into clearer pathways to care. The result was deeper engagement in key audiences, clearer pathways to care and stronger public support for institutional growth and mission.

Managing Director, Head of Account Excellence, Business of Health Co-Lead

The Bliss Group

Alexis Odesser reshapes how healthcare leaders connect

Facing a decline in public trust and rising costs across the sector, The Bliss Group’s Alexis Odesser redesigned how healthcare organizations and executives communicate by prioritizing clarity, accountability and audience-centered narratives that connect clinical, administrative and policy stakeholders to the people they serve.

In dual leadership roles at Bliss, Odesser runs a top-tier healthcare practice and leads account excellence efforts that align business strategy, operational efficiency and mentorship, including major accounts such as CVS Health, to deliver consistent client outcomes and scalable processes across complex enterprise relationships.

Client relationships strengthened under Odesser’s direction, producing a 90% retention rate over five years and prompting several marquee clients to expand scopes of work or return in new roles, which stabilized revenue, freed capacity to pursue higher-impact initiatives and reinforced a culture of excellence and mentorship.

A focus on talent development guided the rollout of an Account Excellence Academy, a seven-part training module for mid- and senior talent that standardized performance management, fostered peer learning and equipped managers with practical tools to handle client escalations and long-term strategic planning.

Through collaboration with HR and employee experience leaders, Odesser streamlined evaluation processes, designed learning pathways and personally led workshops that moved junior staff into management responsibilities and reduced onboarding time for new managers.

Media bylines, industry panels and client briefings amplified practical frameworks developed under Odesser’s leadership — frameworks that help organizations prepare for crises, manage security and control messaging around costs while restoring stakeholder confidence.

The result delivers steadier executive communication, more resilient client partnerships and a clearer pipeline of trained leaders ready to tackle the sector’s toughest challenges, and it positions teams to respond faster, make smarter decisions and maintain public trust over time.

Sr. Director, Communications & Activations

Children's Health

Virginia Oliva elevates pediatric care through strategic storytelling

A strategic communicator at Children’s Health, Virginia Oliva has raised the system’s visibility and built trust through purpose-driven storytelling, disciplined issues management and sustained efforts to connect with families, clinicians and community partners in ways that advance the mission to make life better for children.

At the system level, Oliva directs external and internal communications, media relations, systemwide events, employee communications and issues response, and integrates those functions to deliver clear, consistent messaging that supports operational goals, fundraising and community confidence.

That approach guided messaging and stakeholder outreach for the largest expansion in the system’s history — a multibillion-dollar pediatric campus in Dallas — and kept local leaders, clinical teams and media informed at each stage of planning, permitting and public engagement.

The announcement and follow-on activations generated broad coverage and attracted 332 million impressions across local, national and trade outlets, and the communications plan emphasized transparency, patient-centered narratives and rapid, factual responses to questions and concerns.

During the launch phase, Oliva planned and executed a major groundbreaking that brought together donors, civic leaders and clinical partners, showcased a key philanthropic milestone and created momentum for continued investment in regional pediatric services.

Beyond the campus initiative, Oliva leads the Beyond ABC report and symposium, translating research into actionable recommendations, convening cross-sector stakeholders and positioning the system as a trusted resource on child and family health.

Media attention from those projects shaped public discussion, informed local health strategies and opened doors to partnerships that strengthen access, prevention and care across the region.

Those results reflect Oliva’s mentoring of colleagues, steady stewardship in high-pressure moments and commitment to aligning communications with mission, outcomes that deliver practical benefits for patients, families and the professionals who serve them.

Deputy Chief Public Relations Officer

Northwell Health

Barbara Osborn leads communications through system expansion and transformation

During a year of major change, Barbara Osborn led a unified communications strategy at Northwell Health that brought clarity to a complex system merger and an executive succession, coordinated internal and external messages and aligned media relations, thought leadership and strategic communications across hospitals, research institutes and outpatient centers and increased internal alignment around patient experience.

For the merger with NuVance Health, Osborn built stakeholder briefings, community outreach and bilingual materials, coordinated spokespeople and local media and explained how the integration would extend services into new regions and ensure the integrated system would serve more than 13 million people.

When a long-serving CEO stepped down, Osborn designed and executed a communication playbook, organized interviews, hospital tours and executive media training and prepared talking points for clinicians and board members to preserve stakeholder trust and continuity.

For a major research milestone, Osborn led public communications when the FDA approved a vagus nerve bioimplant, translating trial results into clear patient stories, arranging expert briefings and working with regulators and clinicians to explain a new treatment option for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Across media and entertainment channels, Osborn amplified Northwell Studios content to surface frontline voices and spark national conversations about care in diverse communities and promoted the new Northwell School of Health Sciences to attract young people into healthcare careers and address workforce pipelines and highlighted workforce diversity challenges.

During a systemwide technology shift, Osborn managed communications for a digital migration to Epic, coordinated messaging for the Feinstein Institutes to sustain research visibility, led sustained campaigns that connected innovation to everyday patient care and communicated risk mitigation steps during the technical change.

The combined work positioned system leaders as trusted national commentators, kept clinicians, patients and community partners informed and strengthened institutional reputation beyond the region while laying a strategic communications foundation for future growth and improved patient access.

Senior Director, Corporate Communications

RxBenefits

Riddhi St. Clair drives communications for a new pharmacy benefits manager

A new pharmacy benefits manager launched at RxBenefits to give clients greater clarity and control while lowering costs, and the initiative answered strong client demand for transparency, sparking industry conversation about pricing, clinical integrity and the future of pharmacy benefits.

To introduce the brand, Riddhi St. Clair built an integrated communications strategy that honored a trusted 30-year clinical legacy while defining a distinct, market-facing identity for the new affiliate and preserving client trust across channels. The strategy linked clinical rigor to transparent drug-level pricing and customizable plan design, and it framed the offering around greater choice, measurable savings and the client experience.

The rollout used embargoed media outreach and coordinated launch-day materials to create momentum across channels and to control the timing of executive interviews and release windows. St. Clair produced executive videos, crafted dual-release materials and ran synchronized social campaigns across LinkedIn and Meta to amplify leadership voices, drive top-performing posts, support website content and grow new social channels with engaged early followers.

Media coverage secured placements in industry outlets, produced more than 360,000 impressions and positioned the new brand as a credible, differentiated pharmacy benefits manager in a crowded market.

Executive thought leadership expanded through high-profile interviews and a conference panel placement that pushed senior leaders into broader industry conversations, helped open doors to partner discussions and reinforced market trust. St. Clair aligned employees through internal videos and intranet coverage and created an enablement toolkit that included Q&As, a “Five Facts” reference and simple talking points so staff could champion the launch.

St. Clair’s work moved market conversation and strengthened brand trust while establishing a clearer, replicable model for how healthcare brands communicate with precision, creativity and measurable outcomes, and it provided a playbook for future product launches.

Managing Director, Strategic Communications

FTI Consulting

Teresa Stepic blends strategy and compassion to move healthcare policy

A visionary communicator, FTI Consulting’s Teresa Stepic approached a rapidly changing regulatory, media and public affairs landscape by translating technical science and complex policy into clear, emotionally resonant messages that moved policymakers, clinicians and communities to act and elevated public understanding of the stakes.

Stepic begins every client engagement with a strategic mapping exercise that aligns business objectives with message positioning, stakeholder influence and desired outcomes, and provides a clear measurement framework for follow-up.

In national advocacy work, Stepic combined evidence, patient testimony and policy analysis to craft narratives that elevated patient needs, framed technical issues in human terms and influenced legislative and regulatory conversations, and simplified technical trade-offs for nontechnical audiences. That work helped protect access to treatments for people with rare diseases, informed subsequent industry approaches to complex health policy challenges and helped sustain investment in research and development.

Coalition work under Stepic brought together third-party validators, op-eds, letters to the editor and grassroots voices into integrated, multi-channel campaigns that sustained public attention and pressure over time and amplified regional and national media narratives.

Those campaigns built durable advocacy infrastructures that converted public empathy into sustained policy engagement and preserved momentum beyond single media cycles and secured continued stakeholder commitments.

During a court-appointed bankruptcy, Stepic led public affairs for a healthcare transportation and social services client, shaping a human-centered narrative grounded in first-person experiences to reassure residents and stakeholders and maintain essential service continuity during legal proceedings. That narrative clarity focused conversations on continuity of care, helped restore public confidence and guided transparent engagement with regulators, courts and communities and created a roadmap for transparent updates to the public.

At a growing Northern California hospital system, Stepic realigned owned, social and earned content to ladder up to expansion goals while ensuring communications reflected the region’s diverse needs through appropriate validating voices and supported outreach that improved patient access and recruitment for services.

Stepic’s integrated, empathetic approach demonstrates how communications, public affairs and community engagement can converge to build trust, advance business priorities and create measurable impact in healthcare and offers a repeatable model for other health systems and agencies.

Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Goldie Taylor led communications that helped reshape cancer care in Boston

As senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Goldie Taylor led the communications strategy for a generational project: a new 300-bed inpatient cancer hospital in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area that will expand access to innovative treatments, accelerate discovery and model compassionate, patient-centered medicine.

Taylor crafted a clear narrative that tied scientific ambition to patient experience, coordinated messaging across institutional teams and external partners, and steered communications through complex regulatory, zoning and community processes to maintain trust and forward momentum. Media placements on local and national platforms amplified Dana-Farber’s voice, elevated philanthropic and policy conversations, and broadened public understanding of cutting-edge care.

Taylor’s leadership combined empathy, precision and storytelling to improve internal alignment, simplify complex science for diverse audiences and move stakeholders from skepticism to constructive engagement. Programs built under Taylor celebrate staff, spotlight clinicians and mentor a new generation of communications leaders, with intentional emphasis on women and people of color aspiring to leadership roles, and those efforts helped retain talent during times of change.

Taylor’s speaking engagements at Harvard, Princeton and Duke School of Law, among others, helped frame regional and national conversations on leadership, equity and the public role of medicine. Taylor drew on a national profile from journalism and strategic communications work at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NBC News and CNN Worldwide to bring credibility, media savvy and clear editorial judgment to institutional storytelling.

Those shifts translated into clearer institutional purpose, faster stakeholder buy-in and broader community support — momentum that has helped move the hospital project from vision to reality and sharpened operational planning.

Colleagues describe Taylor as a leader who blends courage with strategic discipline, and that reputation has attracted talent, inspired cross-disciplinary collaboration and sustained hard work through complex change.

Patients, staff and regional partners now encounter a more connected narrative about cancer care, and the institute appears better positioned to deliver on its next chapter with greater compassion and impact.

Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Compassus

Kathy Winn drives person-centered expansion and trusted communications

A mission-driven approach guides communications at Compassus, led by Kathy Winn, who has aligned marketing and communications with the organization’s mission to advance wellbeing and honor quality of life by delivering person-centered care where people live, and to build clarity for patients, families and care teams.

A centralized communications function now serves leaders and business teams after Winn restructured the department, protecting brand integrity, enforcing purpose for every message and/or developing rising communicators through hands-on mentorship and clear performance goals tied to clinical outcomes and employee experience.

During a complex partnership that expanded services and integrated new teams, Winn directed communications by designing phased plans that addressed clinical and operational messaging, training, benefits alignment, cultural onboarding, talent retention and/or union representation issues while managing fast timelines and high stakeholder scrutiny.

Transparency and trust with internal and external stakeholders followed when Winn deployed tailored newsletters, localized intranets and/or town halls and launched a responsive system to field new team member questions, which helped preserve continuity, morale and referral relationships during rapid change.

National profile rose through strategic thought leadership and media engagement under Winn’s direction, placing executives in national conversations about home-based care, securing more than 100 media placements and contributing to conversations with policymakers and potential partners.

Distinct brand identities for joint ventures emerged under Winn’s leadership, crafting values, positioning and/or differentiation strategies that honored partner cultures, produced co-branding guidelines and toolkits and simplified adoption for leaders and field teams.

Beyond the company, Winn’s board service, participation in professional groups and/or mentorship programs extend her impact, and the communications model she built provides a repeatable playbook for purposeful, measurable communications in complex health systems.

System Director, Internal Communications

City of Hope

Sarah Andrews transforms internal communications for a national health system

As City of Hope integrated a national treatment network, Sarah Andrews rebuilt the internal communications framework to create a unified, systemwide approach that connected clinical, research and support teams, spanned inpatient and outpatient settings and administrative functions, reduced confusion and sped decision-making across a complex organization.

To unify communications, Andrews designed and launched Inside Hope, a centralized platform for news, tools and operational guidance, and assembled a multidisciplinary team of communicators, technologists and content owners, building governance, a content taxonomy and an editorial calendar while running stakeholder workshops to shape rollout and adoption.

Facing a fragmented technology environment, Andrews partnered with information technology and external vendors to resolve integration challenges, to create single sign-on and consistent user access and to normalize disparate data formats — the lead vendor called the work the most complex it had handled, and Andrews negotiated custom integrations while preserving security and compliance.

The new platform reached 87% of employees in its first year, accelerating internal news delivery, improving access to HR and operational tools, supporting crisis communications during operational disruptions and setting a new baseline that helped leaders make faster, more informed decisions.

To align communicators across a matrixed organization, Andrews convened regular cross-functional calls, developed shared editorial standards and rebuilt strained relationships, which restored trust, improved coordination during change, provided templates and training for local content and amplified consistent messaging.

During the intranet transition, Andrews led consolidation of legacy content into a Resource Hub, completed migration before the old platform went offline, cut duplication and simplified access, and established clear ownership, metadata standards and search optimization to make information findable while freeing resources for other priorities.

While managing day-to-day responsibilities, Andrews guided teams through wildfires, restructures and competing priorities, kept team engagement high, maintained rapid response capability and continues to iterate on governance, expand self-service tools and use analytics and user feedback to shape the next phase of systemwide collaboration.

Director of Strategic Communications

BOK Financial

Cristi Goettel anchors communications during major transformation

During a period of rapid growth and strategic change, Cristi Goettel designed and implemented a unified internal communications strategy that connected daily work to company priorities, clarified leadership intent, reduced message fragmentation across business units and regions and strengthened ties to corporate citizenship and community partnerships. Goettel joined BOK Financial in 2020, built governance for messaging and channels, enforced project management practices and advanced internal storytelling and executive communications to ensure every message reinforced strategy, supported employee engagement and drove operational clarity.

That strategy brought leaders, managers and frontline teams into a single communications framework that shortened the cycle for critical updates, streamlined decision making and increased transparency, which improved trust across functions and locations and accelerated cross-functional responses to emerging issues. Goettel partnered with senior leaders, human resources and cross-functional teams to raise executive visibility through thought leadership, executive roadshows and town halls, directly tying leadership messages to measurable business priorities and accountability. She also coordinated with legal, compliance and operations to accelerate approvals and execution.

The work moved financial conversations beyond reporting and into dialogue when Goettel developed a novel earnings town hall format that demystified results, invited questions, improved tone and accessibility and prompted cross-business follow-up that led to clearer resource decisions. Results included clearer alignment between communications and strategy, improved employee understanding of business objectives and a more cohesive culture that supported performance, and the program attracted industry attention as well as companywide recognition for advancing engagement while surfacing frontline insights that influenced product and service decisions.

Looking ahead, Goettel plans to scale storytelling on the internal platform The Statement, expand executive engagement and community narratives and continue to position communications as a strategic enabler of growth, culture and employee experience through leader development and practical toolkits.

Vice President, Internal Communications

Dow Jones

Debbie Greene reshapes internal communications at Dow Jones

Facing multiple acquisitions, restructuring and a shift from legacy media to a diversified information business, Debbie Greene took over internal communications at Dow Jones in January 2024 with a mandate to align people and purpose across global teams and time zones.

With steady, transparent and empathetic leadership, Greene simplified messaging, clarified priorities and created channels that helped employees make sense of the transformation, find pride in progress and stay connected to the company’s long-term vision.

Building a core function staffed with experts in video production, design and employee engagement, Greene positioned communications as a strategic partner to the business, delivering high-quality storytelling and seamless communications that inform, inspire and empower employees every day.

That revamp transformed the quarterly global All Hands from a basic Zoom call into a one-hour, broadcast-quality experience — complete with a branded set, live and pre-recorded segments, graphics, executive interviews and interactive Q&A, and it incorporated production standards, subtitles and regional feeds to reach diverse audiences. The production upgrade drove an 85% increase in employee engagement scores and generated sustained positive feedback from staff around the world.

Beyond events, Greene modernized the internal comms ecosystem with short-form vertical video from executives, a refreshed intranet that emphasizes dynamic storytelling and Slack as a community platform, and launched structured content pipelines and governance to keep channels fresh and relevant.

Every initiative rested on insight with clear metrics tied to engagement, reach and sentiment so leaders could see what worked and why, and Greene used that data to iterate quickly and scale successful programs.

Leading with empathy and conviction, Greene pushed senior leaders to embrace authenticity and approachability and modeled those behaviors across the communications team while mentoring staff and elevating diverse voices. The result is stronger alignment across the business, clearer leadership connection and a more engaged workforce poised to support the company’s transformation.

Global Communications Director

JLL

Kristyn Kerr reshapes global communications for a complex Google account

A global communications transformation reshaped how a complex Google account shares strategy, stories and resources across the Bay Area, the Americas and APAC while balancing the distinct brand requirements of two Fortune 500 companies. Kristyn Kerr stepped into a global role, expanded oversight to three major regions and led a team of five communications professionals with a collaborative leadership model that empowered regional teams to preserve local approaches while aligning to cohesive global standards at JLL.

Project Ascend became a fully integrated campaign that combined weekly video storytelling, interactive study guides and branded materials with a dedicated microsite and a sustained content cadence to move people through change, and Kerr designed and launched it.

The campaign drove deep engagement, averaging 3,162 weekly views across a dispersed workforce and surpassing prior internal benchmarks for regular content consumption. Kerr’s phoenix-prism-mountain brand gave the transformation a clear narrative of reinvention, clarity and growth and helped executives, managers and individual contributors align around purpose and next steps.

Technology amplified reach and accessibility — Kerr added audio versions to every newsletter and used Google’s AI tools to produce animated content, music and podcasts while creating Romper, an animated character that simplified space management concepts. Kerr built culture-forward programs from yearbook-style superlatives to themed town halls, and curated a Customer Service Week experience with recognition campaigns, a wellbeing newsletter, an AI in customer service panel and a restorative sound-healing session that staff rated highly.

The combination of strategic execution, creative branding and team development translated into measurable business outcomes, stronger client trust and improved internal alignment while Kerr continues to mentor emerging communicators and scale best practices across regions, and Laura Beebe, Kerr’s supervisor, credits that approach with turning chaos into order and boosting engagement and performance, and driving measurable improvements in retention and productivity across client and employee metrics.

Sr Manager, Internal Communications (U.S. Stores)

The Home Depot

Hannah Kisling transforms internal communications into a business driver

Internal communications for The Home Depot’s U.S. stores shifted from a support role to a strategic business function after aligning storytelling with store operations, leadership expectations and measurable performance goals tied to sales and customer service. Hannah Kisling led a team that translated executive strategy into leader-ready messages and practical tools across channels such as the mobile app, email and in-person events, and she set clear operational measures to track adoption and impact.

To align store managers, Kisling created and executed three large-scale events that energized leaders, included personalized commitment emails and partnered with operations and learning teams to deliver post-event mobile content for sustained action. Ninety-five percent of attendees said the meetings helped them understand company sales strategy, and leaders reported clearer priorities on the sales floor.

To deepen product knowledge and drive selling, Kisling launched a yearlong Focus Class campaign that spotlighted priority items, distributed curated resource links and delivered training modules, manager guides and frontline scripts to simplify selling. The campaign strengthened associate engagement quarter over quarter and converted greater resource use into measurable sales gains in focus categories such as decking and chemicals.

To cut noise and improve clarity, Kisling designed communications governance with a centralized calendar, approval workflows and a weekly Store Communications Digest that became a one-stop source for leaders to start their week and act with confidence. Leaders now use communications to cascade sales expectations, reinforce customer service priorities and sustain behaviors that improve the shopping experience.

Across the organization, Kisling built trust with store and field leadership and cross-functional partners through empathy, operational rigor and a relentless focus on business outcomes — an approach that scales as a blueprint for embedding communications into how the business drives sales and serves customers.

Sr. Manager, Executive and Employee Communications

Intel

Sarah Martin leads employee communications through transformation

During Intel’s multiyear transformation, Sarah Martin redesigned employee communications to simplify complex technical shifts, tighten leader alignment and drive faster adoption of new strategies across the company, and aligned messages with product road map, manufacturing investment and talent strategy, and clarified employee policies and expectations during change.

The team adopted a leader-first communications model, and Martin drove executive narratives, editorial standards and analytics while coordinating messages across business units, including engineering, manufacturing and sales, as a senior manager three levels from the CEO, and Martin established weekly executive briefs and cross-functional meetings to keep momentum.

To guide execution, Martin mapped stakeholder journeys, prioritized key moments and built message maps for technical and nontechnical audiences so leaders could speak with a consistent, human-centered voice. Rapid response playbooks and tailored briefings enabled timely action, and Martin led those efforts to reduce turnaround time for executive statements and maintain trust during breaking developments.

As a result, senior leaders navigated transitions with clearer messages, employees cited improved understanding, and teams moved from uncertainty to focused execution that kept projects on track.

Across the organization, Martin mentored direct reports, championed confidence and established coaching and feedback rhythms that accelerated professional growth and raised collective capability. Colleagues describe Martin as brilliant, fast and unflappable, and they credit the editorial clarity, consistent cadence and energy that kept employees informed and engaged during pivotal moments.

Analytic insights guided message timing, channel selection and measurement, and Martin used dashboards and testing to refine content and to demonstrate impact to senior stakeholders. The work strengthened executive visibility, rebuilt trust and helped position the company to pursue its next phase while preserving morale and momentum across teams. Going forward, Martin plans to scale the approach into new business units, deepen coaching programs and continue translating technical change into human stories that sustain alignment and fuel long-term results.

Director, National Communications

Trinity Health

Rachel Nelson unifies communications across a sprawling health system

Trinity Health, a national health system with 130,000 employees across 25 states, faced fragmented internal messaging that undermined alignment, clarity and colleague engagement across hospitals, clinics and support services. Rachel Nelson led a systemwide overhaul to unify communications, build a single source of truth and create an omni-channel model that scaled across clinical, administrative and support staff while applying strategic vision, deep empathy and relentless execution.

The strategy used a hub and spoke model with a single intranet as the primary source of truth, and it created clear governance for local and systemwide content, reducing duplication and conflicting messages. Nelson established systemwide standards for style, SharePoint templates, email design and internal comms best practices through collaborative working groups that produced internal champions, scalable processes and faster time to publish.

Project execution included targeted messaging and personalized flows for major rollouts, such as a Workday implementation and a radiology imaging platform, with content tailored by role, location and phase to reduce help-desk tickets and supervisor escalations and to improve user search success and navigation. Nelson designed and executed internal storytelling campaigns for a new nursing model and synchronized internal and external communications for a payer initiative to increase recruitment, awareness and advocacy while aligning leaders across functions.

Many markets exceeded a 30% unique open rate on FY25 email sends, and the coordinated campaigns produced high-performing social posts that supported recruitment and policy advocacy while raising external visibility and helping hiring in hard-to-staff markets. Daily huddles, morning Teams chats and virtual interactive sessions strengthened belonging, coordination and trust across a widely dispersed communications team and cut meeting overhead by consolidating updates into brief touchpoints.

Colleagues report clearer expectations, faster adoption and stronger alignment around mission, and Nelson championed professional development by ensuring team members completed FEMA 1 and 2 training and pursued ongoing learning through PRSA and other forums. Nelson’s strategic rigor and human approach deliver measurable returns on communications investments and create a replicable model for large, distributed systems.

SVP Corporate Communications

Advantage Solutions

Gladys Roman steadies communications during company transformation

During a year of big change at Advantage Solutions, Gladys Roman positioned communications as a stabilizing force by centering clarity, empathy and consistent cadence to help teams navigate layoffs, leadership shifts, the merger of several businesses and preparations for growth as clients adjusted their retail strategies.

After promotion to senior vice president in 2025, Roman stepped into the senior communications role and immediately focused on aligning leaders behind a shared vision to reduce uncertainty, maintain employee confidence and reestablish communications as a vital organizational asset.

To align leaders, Roman created toolkits, FAQs and talking points, trained senior leaders to have candid conversations, launched monthly recap emails for the Leadership Council to ensure consistent messaging and equipped leaders to listen, respond and build trust at every level. A redesigned newsletter encouraged feedback, fostered engagement and reinforced transparency across regions and functions.

For town halls, Roman reimagined the format with live Q&A segments — and coached moderators to run real-time dialogue so employees could ask questions, receive direct answers and feel heard by leaders.

Employees called one session the best town hall in more than two years and praised executive candor, authenticity and a renewed sense of hope for the company’s direction.

To support the field, Roman sustained a connection by backing Centralized Labor Management, which improved scheduling flexibility, reduced shift volatility and gave frontline workers greater stability and opportunity. Roman also pushed to inform staff earlier about the Instacart partnership, changed announcement protocols so employees are treated as key stakeholders and established recognition practices to ensure frontline contributions are visible.

Communications moved from a support function to a strategic driver that rebuilt trust, kept employees informed, strengthened credibility with clients and helped reshape the organization for sustainable growth. Leaders now cite communications as central to decision-making, and employees report clearer priorities, faster responses to concerns and a stronger sense of inclusion.

Vice President of Public Relations

Seattle Storm

Sarah Alamshaw reshaped the Seattle Storm’s narrative

A season of national moments demanded a new communications approach that treated the Seattle Storm’s team as both a sports franchise and a cultural platform, prioritizing authentic player narratives, community connection and strategic partnerships to change how women’s sports are covered.

Sarah Alamshaw designed and led that approach, aligning message, creative and media tactics to amplify players’ voices, strengthen brand identity and expand national visibility across broadcast, print and digital platforms.

Key moments received coordinated rollouts to reach broader audiences and to reframe coverage around culture, equity and leadership rather than only wins and statistics.

Alamshaw orchestrated the rollout for the franchise statue unveiling, managed communications for a high-profile ownership addition and announced the first independently owned team sponsorship of a performance center — each sequence built to generate storytelling that resonated nationwide and to create lasting narrative momentum.

The national response included features in Bloomberg, Forbes, Sports Business Journal, Good Morning America and TODAY Show and long-form profiles that put players in contexts of motherhood, mentorship and personal expression across major outlets.

Alamshaw secured in-depth storytelling that explored Skylar Diggins’ balance of motherhood and elite competition, Gabby Williams’ tattoos as personal symbolism, Noelle Quinn’s path as the only Black female head coach in the league and profiles of Dominique Malonga and Nneka Ogwumike that revealed the athletes’ lives beyond the box score.

The work broadened fan engagement, shifted media frames to honor players’ agency and opened new sponsorship conversations that tie community values to revenue and program investment.

Community partners and sponsors responded to the narrative shift, pursuing collaborations that aligned brand values with player-led initiatives and that created new platforms for community programming, youth development and shared storytelling.

Alamshaw’s approach created measurable momentum and positioned the franchise to lead conversations about equity, leadership and the future of professional women’s sports.

Director, Head of Communications

Google DeepMind

Amanda Carl-Pratt reshapes AI trust and global leadership

A year-long communications campaign repositioned the organization as a pragmatic and cautious leader on AI safety, ethics and innovation across governments, academia and industry. Amanda Carl-Pratt, director and head of external communications for Google DeepMind, designed and led that campaign with strategic counsel, narrative control and rapid response, aligning spokespeople, research publications and live events to underscore safety commitments.

At Davos and the Paris AI Action Summit, Carl-Pratt orchestrated the CEO’s presence and messaging, which made him the most quoted tech CEO at both forums, generated sustained earned media and shifted global coverage toward cautious optimism. A high-profile interview gave the public a rare look at the company’s vision and safety work, and Carl-Pratt guided media access to magnify trust, translate technical work into clear priorities and reduce speculation.

The communications activation around the CEO’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry amplified scientific credibility and accelerated conversations about AI for societal benefit under Carl-Pratt’s leadership, driving new partnerships and researcher engagement. When bias allegations and platform controversies emerged, the crisis response kept reputational damage from taking hold by deploying transparent briefings, third-party reviews and corrective communications.

Trust in the company to develop AI responsibly rose from 48 percent to 62 percent in one year across key audiences, a clear indicator that the strategy restored confidence. Team development anchored the program, and Carl-Pratt built cross-discipline capability through mentoring, coaching and clear accountability, which accelerated decision making and strengthened external readiness.

The result delivered sustained visibility, stronger stakeholder trust and a repeatable playbook for responsible risk-taking as the organization scales its work and engages new partners in government, industry and research. Carl-Pratt continues to scale proactive counsel and narrative control to lock in momentum and deepen public confidence.

Senior Public Relations Lead

MyFitnessPal

Rebecca Casamayor drives MyFitnessPal’s global communications with strategy and precision

A yearlong push elevated MyFitnessPal’s global communications through celebrity partnerships, science-backed authority and cross-functional coordination that connected product, marketing and executive teams to clear external narratives and prepared the brand for high-growth moments. Rebecca Casamayor led the effort, building external communications infrastructure by vetting and hiring three global PR agencies and a dedicated contractor and creating measurement frameworks that tied reputation signals to business priorities.

Campaigns under that infrastructure generated more than 54 billion media impressions and drove unprompted U.S. brand awareness growth at a time when other market benchmarks stalled, positioning earned coverage as a primary driver of discovery and partner conversations. The New Year, New You campaign with Adam Devine paired celebrity reach with clinical credibility, and Casamayor coordinated satellite media tours and paid broadcast segments featuring registered dietitians and medical professionals to amplify trust across the U.S., Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

A Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl partnership translated cultural momentum into business coverage when Casamayor drove outreach to Tier 1 outlets and broadened conversations beyond core fitness audiences. Complex product and corporate milestones required bespoke stakeholder management and targeted business placement to reach investors, partners and technology reporters at key moments and to smooth integration and go-to-market planning.

Casamayor secured an exclusive with Bloomberg for an acquisition announcement and positioned Meal Planner coverage into business and technology channels that helped TIME recognize the product among its top inventions and attracted sustained national attention. To counter nutrition misinformation and unvetted AI tools, Casamayor created a Scientific Advisory Council, recruited premier nutrition experts and medical professionals and established protocols that feed product development and content strategy.

Casamayor also advised executive leadership on speaking strategy, secured executive placements in industry stages and business news and connected customer feedback and reputation reporting to marketing, product, customer happiness and the C-suite to drive measurable decisions and strengthen long-term brand credibility.

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Jennifer Davidson reshapes how the Academy connects with global audiences

With a strategic vision that blends creativity, inclusivity and innovation, Jennifer Davidson moved the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ communications beyond the Oscars to highlight cinematic artistry worldwide.

By building integrated campaigns across the Oscars, Governors Awards and Academy Museum, Davidson aligned programming, partnerships and digital storytelling. Those campaigns reached hundreds of millions across digital platforms and broadened the Academy’s narrative to international members, filmmakers and fans.

As a champion of representation, inclusion and equity, Davidson launched collaborations with international filmmakers, created new storytelling programs and increased member engagement worldwide.

Inside the organization, Davidson mentors teams, builds a collaborative culture and advises senior leaders while keeping the mission front and center. Drawing on experience at Sony Pictures Television and Babygrande PR, Davidson applied entertainment expertise to reenergize the Academy’s identity and set a higher standard for communications across the industry.

The result is a year-round public presence that makes film more accessible, inclusive and inspiring for global audiences and positions the Academy to deepen engagement in the years ahead. Measurement tracked sustained increases in global engagement, deeper social conversation and broader international media coverage, and internal analytics showed higher year-round traffic to Academy programming, greater participation in member initiatives and improved audience retention, which helped open new markets, grow membership across key regions, attract multilingual partnerships and increase opportunities for co-produced exhibitions, screenings and educational programs, including localized programming in Asia and Latin America, translated content and roundtable series with regional film leaders.

The outcome strengthened public trust in the institution’s mission, created durable pipelines for underrepresented storytellers, and fueled a culture in which Davidson mentors leaders, encourages creative risk and aligns communications with long-term goals that aim to keep cinema relevant and accessible to new generations, while preserving a respect for cinematic history and craft.

Senior Marketing Manager

Albertsons

Elena Harrington elevates Albertsons Media Collective’s voice on global stages

As a communications strategist and storyteller, Elena Harrington positioned Albertsons Media Collective at the center of retail media conversations by aligning message, moments and leadership appearances around a consistent customer-first narrative that executives could deploy across channels and markets. Harrington prioritized precision and creativity in campaign design, media outreach and onstage programming to make technical innovations accessible, to elevate executive expertise and to build relationships with business, trade and creative audiences worldwide.

At the Cannes Lions festival, Harrington organized a packed thought leadership schedule, coordinated media logistics and secured prominent placement for senior leaders along the Croisette to connect creative agencies, brands and journalists. That orchestration amplified Albertsons Media Collective’s role as an innovator in retail media, showcased campaign creativity and framed the brand’s voice within global conversations about measurement, media and shopper experience.

At GroceryTech, Harrington framed a keynote from Jill Pavlovich as a platform to demonstrate Albertsons’ customer-first approach, to translate omnichannel shopper insights into pragmatic experience improvements and to catalyze industry dialogue about the future of grocery commerce. At CES, Harrington led PR for the launch of the Media Collective API and the TransUnion partnership, crafting targeted messages, briefing trade and business reporters and timing outreach to maximize headline coverage and analyst attention.

Those integrated efforts secured broad coverage across outlets, sustained leadership visibility during high-attention moments and drew new interest from measurement partners and potential clients. Harrington’s work generated more than 300 million earned media impressions, reinforcing momentum for product development and partner conversations while creating durable narratives that company spokespeople could repeat.

Customers and partners responded with new engagement, leadership reported clearer alignment between communications and business priorities and creative communities began to place Albertsons Media Collective ideas into broader campaigns. Harrington continues to bridge innovation and storytelling and to champion the people and ideas that will shape the future of retail media while building repeatable platforms for senior leaders and measurable outcomes for the business.

Senior Vice President, Marketing/Communications

Sunrise Banks

Catherine Higgins Whiteside modernized marketing and communications at Sunrise Banks

Since joining Sunrise Banks, Catherine Higgins Whiteside has reshaped the marketing and communications function into a strategic driver of growth and alignment. She pairs clear vision with disciplined execution, positioning her team at the center of business strategy and decision-making.

Whiteside secured marketing and communications a seat at the table with executive and business line leaders at the start of major initiatives. In 2025, she launched a Quarterly Leader Summit that brings executive leaders together with business line heads to share quarterly team and individual goals. She also revamped the company’s Quarterly State of the Company program, turning a standard leadership update into a dynamic forum with in-depth discussions and candid Q&A between leaders and employees. These efforts strengthened transparency, clarified priorities and improved engagement across the organization.

She also led a multiyear effort to modernize marketing operations and elevate the Sunrise Banks brand. Her team sharpened storytelling, refreshed visual identity and aligned campaigns around customer-first messaging. In her first two years, those changes drove measurable gains in brand awareness, website traffic, social media sentiment and positive customer interactions, setting the stage for sustained growth.

Under her leadership, the team expanded the bank’s presence through earned and owned media and targeted marketing campaigns. The organization and its leaders earned recognition from local media and banking associations for their work in serving customers and communities. In 2025, Twin Cities Business named Whiteside a Notable Leader in Marketing.

Beyond Sunrise Banks, Whiteside advances the industry through the Global Alliance for Banking on Values and the Community Development Bankers Association. She serves on GABV’s MarComm Community of Practice and co-chairs CDBA’s Marketing Peer Group and Membership and Performance Standards Committee. She also shares her expertise as a speaker for the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota and the Minnesota chapter of the American Marketing Association.

President & CEO

Evolve PR & Marketing

Jennifer Kaplan redefines leadership through community and results

At Arizona’s largest public relations firm, Evolve PR & Marketing, Jennifer Kaplan has reshaped leadership by centering relationships, strategy and accessible mentorship to align client objectives with newsroom needs and community priorities, and Kaplan has turned the agency into a proving ground where clients, journalists and young professionals collaborate for measurable impact and shared purpose.

To put values into practice, Kaplan built daily routines around mentorship, media training, and client strategy that emphasize clarity, accountability, and measurable outcomes. Kaplan also personally mentors account leads to strengthen pitching, crisis response, and storytelling skills while modeling ethical decision-making. By staffing cross-functional teams, simplifying workflows and coaching leaders, Kaplan sped decision-making, protected brand reputations and accelerated business growth, translating creative ideas into campaigns that secured sustained coverage and commercial returns and that provided repeatable playbooks for account teams.

Under Kaplan’s direction, campaigns delivered results for clients and community partners across hospitality, consumer goods and nonprofit sectors, with an emphasis on culturally aware storytelling, reporter relationships and actionable metrics. Work for the Arizona Jewish Historical Society raised visibility that contributed to $40 million in fundraising for the state’s first Holocaust education center, demonstrating how strategic communications can unlock major philanthropic investment.

Media placements converted attention into business outcomes, including national broadcast features that drove rapid online purchases and local launches that refreshed brand identities, boosted web engagement, strengthened point-of-sale performance and supported long-term customer loyalty. Regional expansion efforts secured sustained coverage across new markets, generated partnerships with local stakeholders and helped clients capture customers while deepening connections to the communities they serve and unlocking new distribution opportunities.

Beyond campaigns, Kaplan funds an endowed scholarship, supports a dedicated meeting room, and mentors students and young professionals. It also directs those investments toward training opportunities, internships, and real-world assignments that prepare emerging communicators to lead with ethics, clarity, and operational confidence.

Senior Vice President, Employee Communications

Integral

Carolina Mata redefines internal communications as a strategic force

As SVP of Employee Communications at Integral, Carolina Mata has transformed internal communications into a strategic driver of trust, adaptability and purpose that guides leaders and employees through constant change.

Mata developed Next Practice — a philosophy and framework that shifts teams from relying on best practice to anticipating what comes next and planning for continuous adaptation. The approach keeps strategies relevant by tying daily execution to future needs and by training teams to spot emerging signals, test small experiments and scale what works.

Mata restructured and expanded the Employee Communications practice to align account teams in ways that amplify talent and trust and to create clearer roles, faster decision making and stronger collaboration. That new structure encouraged people to bring their best selves to the work and produced a more connected, empowered team that raised standards and consistently exceeded client expectations.

For a major consumer brand with frontline and office employees, Mata reimagined channel strategy to give employees control over their communication journeys, which reduced channel overload and helped engagement become more meaningful and sustainable.

For clients in healthcare and fintech, Mata moved measurement beyond clicks and feeds by building outcome-based dashboards that link communication activity to trust, confidence and measurable behavior change. Mata blended leadership coaching with communication practice to equip managers to become the most trusted channel in an organization, training them to deliver messages with presence, authenticity and clarity.

Mata integrates AI into creative and strategic work as a teammate for ideation, problem-solving and execution, modeling a future-ready mindset that invites experimentation and builds confidence in new tools.

Beyond client work, Mata advances leadership through wellbeing, coaching credentials and service on the International Coaching Federation Connecticut board, helping leaders align personal energy with professional purpose and shape workplaces rooted in empathy and adaptability.

Sr. Director of PR

Wolverine Worldwide

Megan McCarl reshapes global PR for five footwear brands

Faced with a fragmented public relations function across five global footwear brands at Wolverine Worldwide — Saucony, Merrell, Chaco, Wolverine Boots and Cat Footwear — Megan McCarl centralized strategy and rebuilt teams to align storytelling, resources and business goals, and to make PR a predictable, strategic contributor to product launches, seasonal selling and long-term brand equity.

The shift, led by McCarl, replaced nine external agencies with a lean in-house team and two strategic partners under a centralized model called The Agency, and reduced coordination overhead, clarified creative direction and freed budget for editorial campaigns, experiential activations and amplified media outreach.

The change sharpened storytelling, unified brand voice and produced measurable reach, delivering 281 billion earned media impressions that translated into sustained visibility and category momentum for the brands. Media placements ran in major outlets such as The Today Show, Vogue, Forbes, GQ and Outside, and PR-first launches drove significant, attributable sales lifts while informing assortment and retail decisions during critical launch windows.

A shared PR infrastructure introduced aligned KPIs, digital monthly reporting and collaborative briefing tools that simplified cross-brand coordination, provided consistent, data-driven insight for brand and senior leaders and accelerated decision-making across marketing and product teams.

Hiring, onboarding resources and playbooks built by McCarl expanded talent, created stretch roles and embedded mentorship that shortened ramp time for new hires, improved retention and elevated team confidence to own high-impact campaigns from brief to measurement.

Earned-first activations such as influencer retreats and coffee shop takeovers humanized product stories, generated sustained social conversation and strengthened retail and community partnerships. McCarl set a scalable operating model that ties creative instinct to strategic discipline and positions PR as a measurable driver of growth in a complex, multi-brand environment.

Executive Vice President, Professional Services Leader and Head of Employee Experience

The Bliss Group

Keri Toomey retools employee experience to drive client results

A dual challenge confronted The Bliss Group: accelerate professional growth to improve client outcomes and strengthen internal communication to increase transparency and align incentives with business goals. Leading the effort as head of employee experience, Keri Toomey designed a strategy that connected learning and development to client work, rethought performance systems and prioritized practical skill building to foster business-minded leadership.

The approach offered layered learning formats, including an account leadership academy, lunch-and-learns with industry guests and targeted leadership workshops that translated directly into improved day-to-day client service.

This work accelerated career progression, elevated midlevel staff into senior roles and yielded clearer client stewardship and stronger delivery on complex campaigns. Recruiting partnerships expanded to reach a wider set of colleges and regional schools and to introduce candidates from varied socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds into the talent pipeline.

Toomey also led the firm’s inaugural DEI&B report to make progress visible, to measure inclusion efforts and to focus resources on the most impactful interventions.

Responding to employee feedback, Toomey launched new transparency measures — business model training, midyear town halls with open Q&A and title-level CEO chats — to demystify performance and priorities. Those forums increased dialogue, reduced information gaps and gave more employees direct access to leaders to surface issues, propose ideas and test new approaches.

An expanded employee survey generated many actionable ideas and an Employee Net Promoter Score of 82, signaling strong engagement, rising advocacy among staff and a solid cultural foundation for growth.

That mix of operational rigor, inclusive hiring and elevated engagement strengthened the agency’s bench, improved client outcomes and matched the leadership profile that programs spotlighting top women in communications aim to elevate.

Senior Vice President

Gregory

Katie Vroom drives national momentum through strategic storytelling

Facing crowded news cycles and complex subject matter, Katie Vroom directs integrated media strategy for supply chain, logistics and nonprofit clients at Gregory, combining strategic counsel, narrative development and creative execution to elevate niche experts, win sustained national coverage and convert attention into tangible opportunity for clients across sectors and stages of growth.

The approach pairs editorial instincts with systematic outreach, and Vroom mines untapped story angles, crafts targeted pitches and sequences media engagement to create patterns of coverage that reporters follow, generate inbound interest and extend client credibility over time.

Clients value Vroom’s ability to make complex topics resonate, manage fast-moving campaigns and pivot strategically when results lag, preserving momentum, protecting reputation and unlocking new business conversations across disparate industries.

Campaigns under Vroom shaped public conversation and moved market perceptions across adtech, cleantech, crypto and education, turning technical detail into human narratives and shaping stakeholder conversations that supported partnerships, fundraising and policy engagement.

Leadership scaled beyond individual campaigns into team development, training and mentorship programs that raised confidence and media readiness among clients and staff. Vroom guided colleagues into leadership roles, established a cadre of trainers and embedded repeatable practices that strengthened the firm’s bench and improved campaign results. Vroom also founded a focused media training initiative to increase women’s on-camera confidence and help leaders become quotable sources in major outlets.

Business results followed, with Vroom exceeding business development goals by reaching 140% of the target while maintaining client stewardship and steady account expansion across key sectors.

The work balances bold thinking and practical leadership — combining curiosity, integrity and a commitment to developing others — and Vroom continues to pilot AI for ideation, media training and crisis preparation to sharpen creative thinking and lift client outcomes. Colleagues turn to Vroom for clarity and steady judgment, and that combination elevates teams, strengthens client relationships, and multiplies impact across the firm.

CEO

Marina del Rey Tourism Board

Janet Zaldua elevates Marina del Rey through people-first leadership

As CEO of the Marina del Rey Tourism Board, Janet Zaldua embraced a people-first leadership approach — grounded in compassion, collaboration and local empowerment — to reposition the waterfront as a premier Southern California destination. She strengthened her team, convened community listening sessions and championed inclusive planning to ensure tourism growth aligned with local priorities.

Through strategic partnerships with regional tourism boards, film industry representatives and local businesses, Zaldua launched coordinated event programming, streamlined hospitality outreach and amplified production-friendly messaging to attract visitors and on-location filming, while also directing targeted media and trade campaigns that increased bookings and coverage.

One signature program, the annual Marina del Rey Career Day, grew from 15 students to 40, and provided hands-on exposure to hospitality careers through partnerships with the Boys & Girls Club, a county supervisor’s office and local hotel leaders, while connecting students to internships, mentors and real-world job pathways.

At the regional level, Zaldua shaped visitor experience planning for major events, represented the destination on high-profile committees and presented Marina del Rey at global industry forums to expand planner and producer awareness, and Zaldua advised on accessibility and guest services improvements to boost readiness for international sports and film festivals.

Closer to home, Zaldua led the 60th anniversary celebration, extended the Dragon Boat Festival run to its fourth year and rallied hotel partners to coordinate the sheriff’s station toy drive, strengthening community ties, increasing seasonal charity participation and creating new cross-sector volunteer opportunities.

The result was higher community pride, stronger business relationships and a more confident team positioned to welcome major events and sustained growth while maintaining an authentic sense of place, and the destination now shows deeper local support, broader industry attention and clearer pathways for future talent.

Partner

Development Counsellors International

Susan Brake drives cultural change and leadership development

When the agency pursued certification as a Women-Owned Business through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Susan Brake led the effort, translated the designation into daily policy, practice and behavior, aligned hiring, procurement and advancement to expand representation and opportunity across teams and career levels, and reshaped recruitment panels and supplier choices to create clearer pathways to promotion for underrepresented staff.

During the annual culture survey cycle, Brake presented results to the full staff with clarity and care, facilitated honest conversations about strengths and areas for improvement, translated feedback into prioritized actions for leadership to adopt and set timelines to track progress.

Out of those conversations, Brake designed and launched Leads+, an internal leadership initiative anchored by a nine-course curriculum and a Capstone Project that requires teams to tackle real business challenges identified through the survey and deliver proposals for implementation, producing pilots that addressed staffing and service gaps.

Through Leads+, Brake mentored a new cohort through the curriculum, coached participants to define their leadership identity and taught emotional intelligence, integrity, decision-making, adaptability and design thinking while connecting participants with mentors and stretch assignments to accelerate readiness for senior roles.

By redesigning regular economic development meetings, Brake reshaped them to spotlight wins, surface challenges, and convert operational updates into shared learning that improves collaboration, clarifies service value and builds coaching skills across practice areas, and created a regular forum for cross-practice problem solving that reduced duplication and improved client outcomes.

At the international economic development conference, Brake delivered a session on unlocking creativity that drew repeated praise from attendees, led to sustained follow-up conversations and generated practical ideas attendees could adopt in community-facing projects, and those insights later informed sessions at the agency’s marketing summit and client workshops.

Across initiatives, Brake connects strategic vision to people development, turns feedback into implemented projects, strengthens trust across the agency and is preparing to scale Leads+ and extend Capstone outcomes into additional practice areas with the aim of embedding Capstone work into budgeting and operational planning so improvements scale sustainably.

Senior Vice President Marketing & Communications

Visit Lauderdale

Camila Clark transforms mentorship into measurable marketing impact

A culture change focused on mentorship and leadership development reshaped Visit Lauderdale’s marketing and communications operation over the past year, creating a work environment the team describes as fearless and safe where bold ideas move quickly into execution. Camila Clark, the SVP of marketing and communications, created a clear framework for talent growth, pairing formal training with hands-on stretch assignments and coaching so staff could lead major initiatives from concept to completion under her guidance while ensuring diverse perspectives had a seat at the table.

During the Michelin Guide Florida launch, Clark empowered the PR team to take ownership of a defining destination moment, and the team secured national coverage in Forbes, Eater and Travel + Leisure that amplified interest in the market. Clark kept decision-making close to the teams executing the work, and that trust accelerated response times, sharpened messaging and strengthened media relationships across trade and national outlets.

A previously local restaurant month grew into a countywide movement after Clark challenged staff to lead outreach, manage influencer partnerships and test new content strategies across social and earned channels. The initiative drove record engagement, expanded partner participation and created career-changing opportunities for team members who ran campaigns end-to-end and built new stakeholder networks.

Clark redefined success metrics by implementing data-driven campaign evaluation and creative performance tracking that paired storytelling with measurable outcomes and required every campaign to answer clear questions about audience behavior. That shift produced smarter marketing, stronger ROI and unprecedented audience growth while giving rising leaders the analytical tools to make creative choices confidently and improve campaign performance.

Mentors and colleagues across the industry credit Clark with building leaders who now run departments, manage campaigns and mentor others, and Clark’s philosophy — “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders” — continues to guide professional development and next steps for teams inside and beyond the destination.

Senior Director, Global Social Media

Merz Aesthetics

Julie Cochran refocused Merz Aesthetics on storytelling and strategy

Facing a crowded aesthetics market, Julie Cochran refocused Merz Aesthetics on storytelling that inspired, educated and connected audiences across regions, aligning global social teams around inclusive narratives that redefined confidence for patients, providers and employees.

During fiscal 2025, Cochran launched two signature campaigns — Heritage of Confidence and Pillars of Confidence — that married brand legacy with original research and practical resources to mobilize teams globally and create consistent narratives for clinical and consumer audiences.

Those programs produced multi-format content, toolkits and advocacy that raised visibility, strengthened brand reputation and helped drive tangible results, including 395 million total impressions across paid and organic channels.

A global study formed the backbone of the Pillars’ work, and Cochran translated findings into a phased, multi-channel strategy that combined organic and paid elements, employee advocacy and a toolkit for healthcare providers so clinicians could integrate messaging into consultations and patient education. Systems and governance scaled the practice under Cochran, establishing a Center of Excellence as a hub for governance, innovation and best practices, launching a social media scorecard to guide performance and creating unified tools for channel management and compliance.

Operational integrations tied social activity to business outcomes through CRM and search system links, a social media management tool pilot and a creator program that amplified employee voices across markets. Employees gained confidence in storytelling, leaders adopted shared standards and advocacy multiplied reach while mentorship prepared emerging communicators to lead strategically across departments.

Today, mentorship and cross-functional collaboration remain central to the work as Cochran continues to mentor talent, speak at industry forums and drive initiatives that keep social media a catalyst for change and a strategic driver of both business results and human impact.

Senior Vice President, Social Impact

Syneos Health

Sharon Gordon reshapes social impact communications

In a climate of skepticism about social impact and ESG, Sharon Gordon used strategic communications to show that purpose and profit can reinforce each other and prioritized authenticity, transparency and measurable results to rebuild trust among investors, employees and communities.

As head of social impact at Syneos Health Communications, Gordon guided healthcare and life sciences clients through shifting regulations and public scrutiny, helping them frame ESG as an operational and strategic priority.

At BIO 2025, Gordon organized and moderated a session titled “Shaping Strategies for Impact, Resilience and Lasting Value,” and convened sustainability leaders from Teva, Takeda, Thermo Fisher and Metrix Advisory for solutions-focused dialogue that drew strong audience praise and offered a practical blueprint for aligning social responsibility with business resilience.

Beyond the stage, Gordon crafted ESG narratives and reports for Regeneron, Teva, and Syneos Health that connected investors, employees, and communities and tied storytelling to stakeholder engagement plans that moved board-level discussions.

For a 120-year-old pharmaceutical company, Gordon helped define a Healthy Future strategy and launch a mental health access program that expanded care for uninsured patients and helped the company land on TIME’s inaugural list of the world’s most sustainable companies — a list limited to fewer than 500 organizations globally.

Within Syneos Health, Gordon elevated ESG communications and led development of ESG reports that united media, thought leadership and financial communications experts around empathy, environmental stewardship and purpose, and coached internal teams to integrate ESG into investor relations and talent strategies.

Beyond work, Gordon serves on the Young Leadership Board for the Migraine Research Foundation, on the Junior Board at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and on the Governing Board of Johns Hopkins Hillel, and uses those roles to advance access to care, mental health equity and youth empowerment as part of a practice that turns communications into programmatic change and lasting community impact.

Vice President, Global Communications & Marketing

Tent Partnership for Refugees

Haiwen Lu Langworth advances refugee hiring through bold global communications

Promoted to vice president of global communications and marketing at the Tent Partnership for Refugees, Haiwen Lu Langworth reshaped external messaging to advance a clear business case for refugee hiring, aligned communications with executive strategy and took a seat on the executive leadership team while reporting directly to the chief executive to ensure rapid alignment between communications and program priorities.

An international communications team executed coordinated campaigns under Langworth’s direction to surface human stories, compile company case studies and translate commitments into operational playbooks, while Langworth built toolkits, briefings and media assets that HR, operations and diversity teams could deploy to launch pilots.

Those efforts generated more than 1,080 meaningful global press hits in a year, secured front-page business coverage in the Netherlands, booked prime-time television in Sweden and placed op-eds and features across multiple countries, which accelerated employer inquiries, attracted multinational interest across retail, hospitality and pharmaceuticals and raised visibility with policymakers and corporate boards.

A measured multichannel LinkedIn orchestration built by Langworth prompted senior leaders and brands to post publicly, normalized corporate advocacy on refugee hiring in a polarized environment, translated online signals into frequent company outreach and partnership conversations and lifted visibility during flagship moments like World Refugee Day.

Working alongside the chief executive, Langworth developed a centrist, business-first policy framework and a timing strategy for earned media to reach across the aisle, land timely commentary in a major national newspaper and also helped shape a forthcoming book to amplify the policy vision and influence future administrations.

As the organization approaches a milestone anniversary, Langworth is directing a brand evolution and an expansion into consumer channels, scaling team capacity and refining global recognition strategy so communications will sustain growth, deepen employer participation and make hiring refugees a viable, mainstream talent strategy.

Chief People Officer

HUNTER

Dena Martini Toms builds an inclusive people strategy that strengthens HUNTER culture

After a 16-year career in public relations and brand strategy, Dena Martini Toms shifted focus to HUNTER’s 300-plus employees and assumed the chief people officer role in November 2020 to build a workplace where people thrive, careers grow, and teams deliver measurable business results across client accounts.

In partnership with executive leadership, Toms redesigned talent systems to attract, retain and develop top candidates, tying professional development to client performance, promotion readiness and long-term retention goals while streamlining performance reviews and career maps.

Making diversity, equity and inclusion a defining pillar, Toms supported new employee resource groups for AAPI and LGBTQIA+ staff, expanded support for Black and Jewish colleagues and layered inclusive hiring practices, bias interruption and equitable compensation reviews into everyday operations.

Through intentional recruiting and outreach at Howard University, New York Urban League events and other community programs, representation rose to 33% ethnically diverse staff by August 2025, reflecting measurable progress, deeper talent pools and an accountable, data-driven talent strategy.

To build capability and advance careers, Toms championed learning programs, mentorship circles and curated guides so staff had clear pathways for growth, matched mentors to goals and tracked outcomes through regular check-ins.

The social and cultural calendar evolved under Toms to create organic cross-functional connections through baseball outings, museum programs and participation in Pride and Stonewall events, which converted casual relationships into stronger teamwork and creative collaboration. Those rituals surfaced unheard perspectives, lowered silos, reinforced belonging across offices, departments and seniority levels and gave staff public moments to bring personal values into workplace life and to inform policy changes.

Combined, strategic hires, manager development, visible allyship and community-based outreach strengthened recruiting pipelines, improved employee experience, reduced turnover in key roles and drew industry attention that validated the approach while positioning the agency as a place where diverse voices shape work and leadership.

Partner, Strategic Communications

Bryson Gillette

Emily Schwartz drives tech accountability through strategic storytelling

Tech harms to children and families demanded a different communications playbook that put lived experience at the center and treated storytelling as a tool for policy, prevention and support. At Bryson Gillette, Emily Schwartz designs and executes multi-platform campaigns that elevate families, educators and community voices, shape media narratives and mobilize lawmakers and industry leaders.

On national cases, Schwartz managed sensitive media rollouts for high-profile whistleblowers, coordinating interview strategies, message testing and protective measures to keep families safe while driving public attention. On the Raine v. OpenAI initiative, Schwartz coordinated the Raine family, their legal team and child-safety advocates around a single narrative that balanced legal concerns, public education and policy advocacy.

That campaign produced 80+ national and international stories, including exclusives in The New York Times and NBC News, and established a sustained media moment that moved conversations from headlines to hearings. The coverage prompted bipartisan action in the U.S. Senate, new AI safety legislation in California and product changes from OpenAI, including parental controls that changed how companies present safety features.

The work built on earlier cases and legislative efforts that helped require tech companies to design digital products with children’s wellbeing first and that amplified family voices in policy debates. As a mother of young boys, Schwartz brings personal urgency to family-centered strategies and translates that urgency into tactical guidance for lawyers, advocates and affected parents.

Inside the agency, Schwartz helped shape a majority-women, majority-people-of-color culture, established mentoring programs and embedded evidence-based practices into client work to ensure equitable outcomes. Schwartz advises policymakers, collaborates with nonprofits and prepares families to share deeply personal stories with care — demonstrating how strategic communications can rebuild trust, inform regulation and restore humanity to public dialogue.

Senior Social Impact and Communications Specialist, Diversity & Sustainability Office Lead

Sony Electronics Inc.

Jessica Simington reshapes Sony’s community engagement into a purpose-driven engine

At Sony, Jessica Simington reoriented corporate community engagement toward measurable, purpose-driven impact that ties philanthropy to brand, employee action and long-term partner relationships. Simington’s leadership — guided by empathy, precision and deep knowledge of the communities Sony serves — combines heart and rigor to move work from the Diversity & Sustainability Office into everyday operations across the company.

Simington manages Sony’s $100 million Global Social Justice Fund and traditional corporate social responsibility spend, aligning resources to strategic goals and scaling programs that reach underserved communities. In the past year, Simington directed more than $5 million in donations to nonprofits working on social justice and anti-racist initiatives, prioritizing sustained partnerships and capacity building.

Through an internal giving portal, Simington activated Sony’s Matching Gift and Volunteer Rewards programs and motivated 1,400 U.S./Canada employees to volunteer and donate company-funded dollars to causes they care about. The Create Action grant program provides targeted funding, Sony products and personalized marketing videos to local nonprofits and builds a cohort of changemakers that Simington continues to support and evolve.

Simington founded and co-leads Asians @ Sony Inspiring Allyship to elevate Asian heritage, solidarity and intersectional allyship through programming, mentorship and cultural education for employees. Simington also launched the Voices of Impact giving campaign, distributing modest employee giving funds and using storytelling and weekly highlights to channel thousands of dollars to hundreds of nonprofits while amplifying staff-led philanthropy.

The company’s placement on Forbes’ Best Brands for Social Impact list reflected internal communications and employer brand work led by Simington and reinforced Sony’s reputation as a value-driven employer and partner. Simington’s blend of strategic funding, employee activation and hands-on nonprofit relationships changed how the company shows up in communities and created a durable model for corporate impact.

Managing Director

Bobbie

Monica Caponigro (Khattar) builds influencer infrastructure that drives brand growth

Monica Caponigro (Khattar) has built a career around one clear mission: proving influencer marketing belongs at the heart of brand growth. From agency roles to in-house leadership and now guiding a dedicated creator marketing solution, she has shaped the discipline into a strategic driver for some of the world’s most recognizable brands.

A consistent trailblazer, Monica often stepped into roles that did not exist before. At HUNTER, she became the firm’s first vice president of influencer marketing, reporting directly to the chief digital officer while leading client work day to day. Her leadership delivered measurable growth. In just two years, she expanded the influencer team from two people to 13, responding to rising demand and strengthening service offerings, revenue opportunities and collaboration across the agency.

At Nordstrom, Monica tackled another challenge: breaking down silos. Influencer marketing had lived inside affiliate marketing and stayed tied to lower-funnel performance. Monica changed that mindset by launching the retailer’s first influencer center of excellence. She introduced a full-funnel approach that positioned creators as partners who drive awareness, content, consideration and acquisition. She helped leaders see influencers not as a side tactic but as a true brand-building force.

Monica continues to push the industry forward in her current role as managing director of Bobbie, HUNTER’s new influencer and creator marketing solution launched in April. Under her direction, Bobbie delivers end-to-end services at scale while keeping authenticity and trust at the center of every partnership.

She also shapes broader conversations in the field. Monica serves as a key voice behind the weekly Bobbie Brew newsletter, speaks on panels at the Influencer Marketing Show and earns recognition through interviews and coverage in outlets such as AdWeek and PR News.

Through every step, Monica has built teams, frameworks and communities that redefine how brands and creators connect. Her work strengthens communications, drives growth and sets the standard for the future of influencer marketing.

Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs

Syneos Health

Katie Conover reshaped client experience for a new corporate affairs practice

Katie Conover designed and launched a 50-person corporate affairs practice that integrates strategic foresight, reputation management and client experience to translate complex issues into clear, actionable strategies for clients during a year of rapid policy shifts and societal change.

As leader of the Client Service and Experience team at Syneos Health, Conover set the standard for delivering value by anticipating challenges, streamlining handoffs and aligning workflows with client needs across industries. A background at the FDA, C-SPAN, Janssen, Merck, Anthem, Medtronic, Nestlé and Yum! Brands gives Conover regulatory fluency and the instincts of a producer for framing complex topics with consumer-friendly messaging that motivates action.

At the outset of building the practice, Conover designed and led an internal insights survey that identified what client experience professionals and subject matter experts needed to serve clients best and to scale expertise across the team.

Those findings shaped team structure, clarified workflows and established consistent standards for communication, reporting and rapid escalation. Conover also develops client Points of View, distilling emerging trends into timely insights, tagging implications for tactics and advising leaders on how to deliver them to different audiences.

Beyond that, Conover leads large and complex accounts, including launching a corporate affairs office for a global aesthetics company, and aligns reputation strategy with business goals to strengthen trust, preserve brand reputation and drive measurable impact. Conover’s research into how emerging media influences physician and patient decision-making is laying the groundwork for a reputation model that links digital influence with real-world health behaviors, informs program design, and helps clients counter misinformation at the point of care.

In practice, Conover creates and drives forward-thinking media and advocacy campaigns, builds high-performing teams and advises leaders through transformation. Conover’s ability to connect policy, media and public perception with empathy, creativity and precision continues to shape client outcomes and the future of corporate communications across the industry.

Chief Global Communications Officer

Nextdoor

Kelsey Grady led a relaunch that reshaped Nextdoor’s purpose and media playbook

On July 15, Kelsey Grady led the relaunch of Nextdoor, transforming the 14-year-old neighborhood brand into a renewed platform focused on connection, trust and local relevance. The overhaul marked the company’s most significant shift since going public and drew immediate coverage from Bloomberg Technology, Fortune, Fast Company and TechCrunch, along with national broadcast and regional outlets.

Facing pressure for an exclusive from outlets eager to break the story, Grady refused a single-outlet approach and parceled reporting opportunities, offering unique data to one outlet, a board member interview to another and tailored angles so no story read like a duplicate.

A team that Grady assembled briefed dozens of reporters under embargo, built tailored media maps that matched reporters to interviewees and assigned outlet ownership based on relationship strength to maximize pickup and reporting depth.

That targeted approach prioritized newsletters as the new front page, cultivated reporters who curate high-influence daily digests and elevated the relaunch into editorial endorsement and sustained conversation beyond the initial headlines. The media plan generated broad global placements across print, broadcast and digital channels — and reached an estimated 300 million people.

The relaunch reintroduced a platform redesign that added real-time alerts from trusted providers, curated news from vetted publishers and AI-powered features, repositioning the company from an occasional-use forum into the essential neighborhood network for millions of neighbors and local agencies. The launch team prioritized results over credit, timed the embargo to hit both the UK and US news cycles, and coordinated spokespeople so that interviews delivered distinct narratives across outlets.

Beyond the relaunch, Grady mentors emerging communicators through advisory roles, contributes to an invitation-only community for senior brand leaders and has influenced other communications leaders to adapt elements of this playbook for their own major launches.

Vice President of Global Communications

Sotheby's International Realty

Kristina Helb modernizes Sotheby’s International Realty’s communications

Leadership from Kristina Helb repositioned Sotheby’s International Realty’s communications to meet today’s mobile and video consumption habits, shifting priorities from static press kits to mobile-first storytelling, short-form video and social-first distribution that mirror how affluent audiences discover luxury properties.

The team secured extensive global press coverage and built sustained conversations around high-end properties and market insight, aligning spokespeople, listings and data-driven narratives with national and international outlets to elevate the brand’s profile among buyers, sellers and advisors.

That strategy helped the brand command 29% share of voice in 2024, turning consistent headline placements into measurable influence that advisors could cite in client discussions and that kept the company at the center of luxury real estate coverage.

A flagship Luxury Outlook report became a central resource for buyers and for the brand’s global advisors, combining long-form analysis with succinct takeaways so the findings could inform pricing, timing and lifestyle advice across markets.

Design choices made the report mobile-friendly and video-centric, pairing executive commentary with visual summaries and short clips so the material worked equally well in press briefings, social channels and advisor meetings.

The January 2025 installment explored intergenerational wealth transfer, relocations of affluent buyers and the effect of “Best Places to Live” rankings on property values and inventory, giving advisors timely context to guide client decisions.

The midyear update examined major market drivers, financing options for wealthy buyers, natural disaster impacts and re-emerging luxury markets, and it included actionable takeaways advisors used in listings presentations and client planning.

Social and video-first content amplified listings, attracted celebrity viewership and produced viral placements that broadened exposure for high-end properties beyond traditional luxury channels.

In 2024, Helb introduced influencer collaborations to expand awareness, amplify reach and create aspirational original content, and ongoing innovation in communications continues to position the brand as a primary source of insight for buyers, sellers and advisors.

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

Entrada Therapeutics

Karla MacDonald advances inclusive communications for rare disease patients

With 25 years of experience across small biotech and large pharma, Karla MacDonald leads Entrada’s corporate communications, patient advocacy, investor relations, government affairs and employee engagement as the company advances intracellular therapeutics for neuromuscular diseases, prepares to launch three clinical studies by year-end and navigates a critical stage of development.

To answer how communications could be better for patients, underrepresented groups and employees, MacDonald reoriented strategy around clarity, authenticity and measurable improvement. In partnership with her nimble and impactful team, MacDonald intentionally sources feedback from patients, families and community members to ensure materials are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

After Spanish-speaking members of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community noted a lack of native-language resources, MacDonald expanded clinical trial and educational materials into multiple languages, including publishing the story of the Cabrera’s (a family living with Duchenne) in English and Spanish, and launching clinical study websites to remove language barriers while ensuring regulatory wording remained compliant.

Working shoulder-to-shoulder with families, MacDonald led the Entrada team as they diligently designed age-appropriate materials for children and young adults, from educational brochures and consent-friendly summaries to sticker books that mark study milestones, and tailored visuals and reading levels to different ages while simplifying technical content.

Recognizing that 61 million U.S. adults with disabilities face digital barriers, MacDonald partnered with Perkins School for the Blind to revamp Entrada’s website, implement accessible design, improve navigation, caption multimedia content and train study sites to maintain usability across platforms. To maintain momentum, MacDonald established ongoing audits, trained staff on accessibility best practices, and set a reporting cadence to share progress with leadership and external partners, so the approach remains reproducible for small companies.

By delivering people-forward, budget-conscious solutions, MacDonald demonstrates that smaller organizations can match larger peers in patient-centered communications, accelerate enrollment readiness and build trust with families who often feel overlooked by the health system, with measurable improvements captured through community feedback. Perhaps most important, MacDonald is committed to raising the bar across the industry. She regularly presents case studies at community and industry events to equip communicators with tactics they can apply immediately — and continues to guide Entrada through three upcoming clinical studies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Senior Manager, Global Media Tech and Governance

3M

Kirsten Salmanowicz modernized 3M’s media technology and governance

Across the enterprise at 3M, Kirsten Salmanowicz led a companywide modernization of media technology and governance to create scalable services, to unify brand standards and to reduce operational complexity across business groups, and the program emphasized clear policies, streamlined workflows and measurable efficiency gains.

After consolidating fragmented moderation practices into a single enterprise model, Salmanowicz removed regional silos and simplified decision-making across channels. The restructuring cut service level agreements by 50% and raised consistency in moderation, which accelerated response times, strengthened customer trust and lowered operating costs.

To tighten brand presence, Salmanowicz shifted social architecture from a country-led patchwork to a centralized model, consolidating duplicate accounts and aligning tone, creative and governance to present a coherent voice across markets. The move improved control over messaging and reduced friction for local teams.

By integrating social listening, earned media and organic and paid channels into a single insights platform, Salmanowicz enabled in-housing of public relations, reduced dependency on external agencies and launched an AI-driven dashboard that delivered faster, more actionable insights for marketing and communications teams. The platform also supported a refined AI model to sharpen measurement and to inform campaign decisions.

Leading AI initiatives, Salmanowicz introduced automated translations and applied AI to content optimization, while serving on the corporate AI governance committee to set standards and to ensure responsible deployment. Those actions scaled global communications and protected brand and legal compliance.

Through user-generated content programs, Salmanowicz increased authenticity and engagement while trimming content production costs and simplified the corporate website to improve findability and reduce maintenance overhead. The combined work raised relevance with consumers and streamlined operational effort.

Through mandatory policy training, regular learning sessions and an annual summit, Salmanowicz built a learning ecosystem that spreads best practices across marketing teams and that convenes leaders for peer learning, actionable case studies and strategic alignment — positioning the organization to sustain innovation in media technology and governance.

Senior Director of Corporate Communications

Inovalon

Whitney Swistock redefines healthcare communications through strategic leadership

At Inovalon, Whitney Swistock leads corporate communications and a broad portfolio that aligns brand, customer advocacy, alliance marketing, internal communications and corporate events with the company’s mission, strengthens executive messaging and drives measurable business outcomes across lines of business.

Programs designed by Swistock combine press, whitepapers, podcasts, video and social media to tell customer-centered stories, raise awareness for new solutions, support sales cycles and maintain regulatory clarity while preserving trust with providers and payers.

Those programs drove tighter customer relationships, clearer internal alignment and more consistent messaging during product launches, mergers and other large-scale organizational change, and sustained momentum during multi-quarter rollouts. Across prior roles, Swistock led teams of up to 26 people while steering crisis communications, guiding multi-channel rebrands and redesigning workflows to realize cost efficiencies, reduce cycle time and speed launches.

Beyond department walls, Swistock advances philanthropic strategy, co-chairs industry marketing initiatives and sponsors employee resource groups to expand community impact, foster cross-organizational partnerships and align corporate giving with community needs.

Colleagues point to a people-first leadership style — hands-on mentoring, clear expectations and investment in professional development — that has cultivated rising communicators and built resilient, high-performing teams. Those teams have translated strategy into measurable gains in campaign performance, event attendance and partner engagement while supporting customer retention and product adoption across diverse markets.

Priorities emphasize measurable results and scalable systems that enable faster response times, improved stakeholder alignment, and sustained audience reach across payers, providers and patients, with goals tied to adoption and retention. Planned next steps focus on scaling digital engagement, strengthening cross-industry data collaboration and amplifying impact on health outcomes and community programs through patient-centered storytelling and operational rigor. Swistock built formal mentoring and coaching tracks, instituted cross-functional rotations and created training frameworks that accelerated career progression and reinforced a culture of continuous improvement.

Director

TLG Communications

Molly Eisner drives strategic communications for high-stakes clients

A New York-based director at TLG Communications, Molly Eisner blends journalistic instincts with strategic clarity to guide clients through complex moments and to anticipate media dynamics across broadcast, print and financial outlets while aligning communications with legal and business counsel.

Eisner applies reporting experience and media acumen to craft clear, compelling narratives that reduce risk, elevate leadership and align communications with business goals to support major transactions, litigation strategies and executive transitions.

Across engagements, Eisner leads internal communications, stakeholder engagement and comprehensive campaigns for corporations, Am Law firms and nonprofits facing legal, regulatory and reputational challenges.

Eisner shapes positioning for executives and partners, counsels high-profile individuals and organizes reporter engagement that supports measurable shifts in public perception and stakeholder confidence and helps drive outcomes such as retained business and smoother regulatory reviews.

In one engagement, Eisner secured high-impact media opportunities for an Am Law Top 20 global law firm and managed executive-level reporting to keep leadership informed, aligned and ready for stakeholder inquiries.

Another project involved creating a media strategy for an influential investment and merchant bank that resulted in profile interviews in top technology outlets, amplified executive visibility during deal cycles and strengthened industry positioning.

Work with a global aerospace manufacturer included developing briefing materials for the CEO ahead of congressional hearings, coordinating counsel and preparing spokespeople to respond to safety and workforce issues.

Eisner also booked interviews and speaking engagements for a public figure, organized a targeted book launch with key opinion leaders and supported a nonprofit through restructuring with scenario planning and precise messaging to preserve public trust.

Beyond client results, Eisner mentors junior staff, runs the internship program, helps place students in meaningful roles and cultivates a calm, confident culture that empowers team members to accept and succeed on high-stakes assignments.

These actions translated into tangible media placement, clearer executive positioning and sustained stakeholder trust that advanced clients’ critical objectives and enabled them to pursue strategic growth, defend market position and attract talent.

Sr. Manager, Corporate Communications

Clarios

Sonny Franks Miller builds global communications that boost engagement

At Clarios, the newly formed global battery company with thousands of employees, leaders faced a fragmented employee experience across markets and lacked a unified communications approach to align people with the company’s mission, values and the new corporate identity. Sonny Franks Miller designed and launched the company’s first comprehensive internal communications program, established governance and channel standards, linked external positioning with everyday employee touchpoints and created a practical roadmap for consistent storytelling from corporate to frontline.

The Employee Value Proposition, “Your Power, Endless Possibilities,” became the program’s anchor and provided adaptable messaging, clear behavioral tenets and flexible assets that local teams could tailor to culture, languages and market needs. Miller crafted the EVP, produced engaging design assets, trained HR partners and managers and partnered with HR to weave the promise into onboarding, performance conversations and local campaigns so the message moved from presentation to daily practice.

For the company’s first global employee engagement survey after the spin-off, Miller led survey design, crafted the communications plan and coordinated translations while addressing privacy and access barriers that threatened honest feedback from shift workers and plant teams. Miller implemented a direct text-messaging channel to connect frontline workers with the third-party survey administrator, preserved anonymity, built trust through clear instructions and local outreach, and participation rose to 84%.

At the IAA trade show in Munich, Miller reimagined company participation by producing livestreamed booth tours with internal experts, hosting live Q&A sessions, organizing real-time translation and running a cross-site contest that brought employees and executives together in person. Outside the company, Miller launched a Candid Conversations series for emerging communicators, mentored committee participants, and wrote the foreword to “Heart First for Emerging Leaders,” sharing practical advice about leading by action rather than title.

The combined work strengthened culture, increased trust in leadership, accelerated talent development, amplified employer brand in local markets and connected thousands of colleagues worldwide to a clearer purpose and more consistent internal and external storytelling.

Associate Director of Communications and Public Relations

Mark-Taylor Residential

Madeleine Goff reshaped employee connection with MT Connect

Facing fragmented internal communication across sites and shifts in leadership, the team needed a single source of truth; Madeleine Goff led the design, development and launch of MT Connect, the company’s first employee app and intranet to unify information and daily workflows.

Goff drove a targeted communication strategy that delivered a 97% adoption rate within two months and kept usage high through onboarding, push campaigns and a steady content cadence so the platform became part of daily work.

The platform captured industry attention and set a new standard for employee connection, and Goff used analytics and feedback loops to refine features and boost relevance across roles and locations.

Goff led the 40th anniversary campaign, coordinating internal stakeholders, external partners and the employee experience team, and used storytelling, video and strategic placement to highlight CSR efforts and strengthen external brand narratives.

Goff mentored a direct report from a communications specialist to a manager, formalized coaching, growth plans and clear career pathways within the team. During a leadership transition, Goff expanded responsibilities to support the consulting department and other communications functions, kept projects on schedule and preserved stakeholder confidence during change.

That broadened scope resulted in promotion to associate director of communications and public relations in 2025 and placed Goff in a position to lead integrated messaging across internal and external channels. Goff will complete a master’s degree in strategic communication management on Dec. 1, 2025, and continues to invest in professional development to bring new practices to the team.

Across initiatives, Goff strengthened employee connection, elevated storytelling and left a clearer roadmap for sustaining engagement, culture and community impact. Executives report clearer alignment between corporate goals and day-to-day work, managers cite faster decision making, and employees describe greater pride in the company, and Goff continues to refine measurement and scale the approach across new business units.

Account Manager, Growth and Media Operations

Theorem

Meredith Janeiro drives automation and client growth

An automation migration and a client-first account strategy reshaped ad operations across several major advertisers and freed Theorem’s teams to move from manual tasks to higher-value strategic work that directly supports product road maps, campaign optimization and customer retention. During that initiative, Meredith Janeiro led both the technical rollout and the client-facing transition, coordinating cross-functional teams, aligning timelines and expectations, translating technical requirements into business outcomes and maintaining trust while managing a broad portfolio of major accounts across North America.

The automation platform rollout included three large clients, where Janeiro redesigned workflows, trained staff and established ongoing governance so organizations could scale ad operations without adding headcount or sacrificing accuracy. For one streaming client, the transition cut manual work by 90%, which reduced operational drag, accelerated campaign velocity and freed teams to invest time in creative strategy and deeper subscriber relationships.

Revenue momentum grew as Janeiro contributed to new business, helping secure several client wins and turning introductions into trusted partnerships through proactive problem-solving and consistent delivery. Clients and internal stakeholders consistently cite Janeiro’s dependability, authenticity and client-centric approach, reflected in repeat engagements and a high satisfaction score that underscores sustained confidence in Janeiro’s work across client teams and internal partners.

Inside the company, Janeiro drives culture and inclusion as an active leader of the employee resource group, organizing events that bring people together, from wellness talks, training sessions and trivia to holiday activities and volunteer efforts. Colleagues call Janeiro the heartbeat of that group, crediting her with creating spaces where people feel seen, connected and empowered to contribute beyond their day-to-day responsibilities.

That blend of strategic execution, empathetic leadership and hands-on collaboration elevated client outcomes, supported colleagues and strengthened company culture in a single year, pointing to continued momentum and growing impact.

Account Director

Dreamday

Katie Landmesser elevates beauty brands through performance storytelling

A performance-driven PR model united earned, affiliate and paid media to build trust and deliver measurable business results for beauty and wellbeing brands, led by Katie Landmesser at Dreamday.

Guiding a roster of top-tier beauty clients, Landmesser blended strategic planning, creative storytelling and hands-on execution to translate cultural insight into sustained conversion and revenue growth. Landmesser anticipates category shifts such as Gen Z beauty and positions brands to capture new consumers through platform-native storytelling and creator-first education.

For the U.S. debut of LYMA’s Laser PRO, Landmesser orchestrated strategic seeding, expert education and a media lecture event that resulted in 36 mentions in one month, with placements in Forbes, PS, Town & Country and WhoWhatWear.

When an unexpected product issue threatened a KORA Organics launch — hours before rollout — Landmesser recalibrated the plan, mobilized a compact team and executed an intimate founder lunch with Miranda Kerr that generated coverage in Bustle, WhoWhatWear, Cosmopolitan, Byrdie and Glossy.

Founder storytelling for Glamnetic positioned Ann McFerran and Kevin Gould as category innovators, drove a marked rise in earned coverage and secured features in Inc., Entrepreneur, Vogue Business and Beauty Independent. The approach blends founder narrative with data-driven outreach to turn editorial momentum into affiliate partnerships and sustainable sales funnels.

Targeted desksides and thoughtful storytelling helped a viral brand break a new category with a Double Standard Mascara launch, placing a day-of-launch story in Business of Fashion, prompting widespread consumer demand and producing an immediate sellout plus a substantial waitlist.

The work demonstrates cultural intuition, empathy and creative precision, and Landmesser continues to refine integrated performance PR to deepen audience trust, increase affiliate revenue and scale long-term growth for the brands Landmesser partners with. Upcoming priorities include scaling affiliate programs, deepening creator relationships and expanding U.S. launches to capitalize on momentum.

Manager, Visual Communications

Disney Entertainment Television

Kayla Martin elevates entertainment storytelling across platforms

Demand for unified video messaging across multiple networks pushed the Disney Entertainment Television Visual Communications team to centralize creative and production workflows to ensure consistent executive and brand storytelling for flagship series and corporate initiatives, and for high-profile premieres and executive moments. Kayla Martin serves as manager on that team, directing video that elevates corporate and executive messaging across ABC, Freeform, Hulu, FX, Onyx Collective and Disney Branded Television and aligning on-air and digital narratives.

The team produced dozens of press junkets, several remote media tours and numerous productions including EPKs, red carpet and behind-the-scenes shoots, and Martin coordinated talent, publicists and executives while keeping budgets and timelines on track. A remote media tour around the 97th Oscars with Conan O’Brien leveraged seven ABC affiliates and a major international outlet and surpassed 21 million viewers across platforms, with Martin leading the effort and broadening executive reach on broadcast and social channels.

For Project Runway, the press junket and photoshoot brought marquee talent together, while Martin invited influencers to amplify the campaign and helped secure a high-profile digital cover for Entertainment Weekly, which expanded creative assets for publicity and internal use. Press programs for film and children’s initiatives attracted broad coverage across national and local outlets and produced bespoke content for employee communications, and Martin curated those campaigns to increase internal engagement and external visibility.

Operational upgrades improved pace and quality — Martin implemented smarter project-tracking systems, streamlined communication between publicity and internal stakeholders and championed AI-assisted workflows that accelerated output and sharpened storytelling across fast-moving campaigns. Mentorship and reliability kept the group resilient, and Martin mentors teammates, preserves morale and builds executive trust through dependable delivery while positioning the group to scale creative work that connects audiences, strengthens corporate reputation and sets a clear path for future innovation.

Associate Director of Marketing and Communication Operations

Muscular Dystrophy Association

Rachel Pikovsky drives strategic storytelling and operational change

Building national visibility and a unified brand narrative, the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Rachel Pikovsky redesigned the communications strategy to align marketing, fundraising and program priorities, introducing a mission-first framework that connected creative storytelling to measurable goals, clarified audience journeys and created direct pathways from recognition to deeper supporter engagement.

Streamlining PR and media engagement, developing executive briefing materials and overhauling the press room, Pikovsky maintained consistent, mission-aligned messaging across spokespeople, platforms and campaigns while coordinating athlete and influencer partnerships that amplified authentic stories and broadened reach among donors, families and clinical stakeholders.

Those strategic shifts helped lift national awareness to 72.8% while strengthening brand favorability, consideration and emotional connection through story-driven campaigns that moved audiences from passive recognition to active volunteerism, fundraising and advocacy.

In operations, Pikovsky built scalable project management systems that moved teams from task-based execution to strategic campaign planning, introduced measurable tracking and standard reporting, and established dashboards that give leaders near real-time visibility into campaign performance, resource allocation and impact metrics.

Those systems improved workflow efficiency, reduced duplication and encouraged collective planning across communications, marketing and program teams, which increased campaign throughput and clarified roles for faster decision-making.

Through mentoring and cross-functional training, Pikovsky raised team capability, coaching colleagues on storytelling, media readiness and measurement practices that improved pitch quality and campaign outcomes. Pikovsky’s emphasis on clarity and collaboration created predictable timelines, reduced rework and allowed staff to connect daily tasks to long-term mission priorities.

Colleagues cite Pikovsky’s clear planning and measured experimentation as reasons campaigns maintained momentum during leadership transitions and changing media cycles, preserving donor confidence and partner relationships. Looking ahead, Pikovsky plans to scale storytelling frameworks and measurement practices to ensure continued growth in awareness, engagement and long-term support for families affected by neuromuscular disease.

Public Relations Manager

Performing Arts Houston

Caroline Senter reshapes Performing Arts Houston’s public profile

As public relations manager, Caroline Senter reshaped Performing Arts Houston’s public profile in three years by combining fearless creativity, authentic storytelling and an instinct for what connects with audiences across communities and media markets locally, nationally and internationally, and by prioritizing relationships with artists, community leaders and reporters.

Senter led a strategic campaign mix that produced a 67 percent year-over-year increase in press coverage, from feature stories and reviews to broadcast segments and social amplification, and that seeded sustained audience growth across venues and digital channels. Those efforts brought Essence Magazine, Texas Monthly and The Grio to cover the organization for the first time in its 60-year history, expanded the roster of national partners and helped change the conversation about Houston’s creative identity.

A breakthrough came with Solange Knowles’s Eldorado Ballroom Houston homecoming series — Senter wrote the global press release, managed the photo shoot and coordinated the partnership launch with Ilya Cosmetics to frame a weeklong celebration of Black creative legacy that anchored global interest. The campaign generated worldwide coverage that honored Houston’s cultural roots and that elevated Performing Arts Houston as a national force in contemporary arts leadership, opening new doors for touring artists, partnerships and funding.

Colleagues describe Senter as a leader who rallies teams with clarity, intuition and care, who mentors emerging communicators and who moves quickly to seize the moment without resorting to hype. Industry peers invite Senter to speak on strategy and audience building, and the invitations span conferences, panels and workshops that amplify best practices across institutions and help deepen local cultural ecosystems.

Rooted in a background as a dancer and instructor, Senter centers empathy and rhythm in storytelling to bring real artist and community stories to new audiences, to convert curiosity into attendance and to build durable bridges between artists and patrons and to sustain long-term support for the arts in Houston.

Senior Marketing Manager

TRC Talent Solutions

Victoria Smith reshapes communications at TRC Talent Solutions

As TRC Talent Solutions navigated a rapidly changing labor market, Victoria Smith built a strategic communications program that elevated the company’s voice, amplified worker experiences and tied narratives to measurable business priorities such as client retention, candidate attraction and employer reputation, while aligning communications with talent and business goals.

The Q1 2025 Pulse of the Workforce Survey moved from concept to publication, gathering insights from more than 1,000 professionals and producing analysis that fed client strategy, helped recalibrate hiring forecasts and strengthened talent pipelines. Smith led the project end-to-end, turning survey data into clear recommendations, media placements and executive briefings that drove immediate client decisions and internal policy changes.

The resulting report informed client workforce planning, shaped internal policy and attracted citations across industry publications, creating ongoing editorial opportunities and speaking invitations for company leaders. Smith then translated findings into a steady cadence of thought leadership, media outreach and executive messaging that increased executive visibility in key markets and seeded new business conversations.

A focused revamp of employer branding and internal communications unified a dispersed team under a shared mission, increased recognition programs, improved employee engagement and lifted retention rates. Smith launched a monthly “Voices of TRC” series that showcased recruiters, account managers and support staff, humanized recruiting work, boosted internal nominations and gave frontline employees a platform to shape the brand story.

Mentorship and people development received equal weight through workshops for TRC’s Women in Leadership initiative on storytelling, career development and personal branding, which strengthened bench depth, clarified career paths and reduced time to promotion. Smith balanced public-facing responsibilities while becoming a mother to two daughters under 3, and Smith plans to scale the survey and internal programs next year to reach more workers, deepen organizational wellbeing and help clients anticipate talent shifts.

Associate Account Executive

H+M Communications

Camila Velayos drives culturally resonant PR and business results

Early responsibility for Camila Velayos at H+M Communications accelerated professional growth and placed day-to-day accountability in media strategy, event execution and cross-channel storytelling, creating repeated opportunities to lead complex activations and to tie creative work directly to business priorities and measurable momentum.

Within the first year at H+M, Velayos rose from intern to associate account executive and assumed leadership on accounts that include Gran Malo, Pinterest, Prime Video and Thoma Bravo, crafting plans that aligned editorial positioning, influencer engagement and experiential moments with clear objectives for visibility and conversion.

Editorial intuition and relentless outreach produced placements in People, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, US Weekly, Telemundo, Univision and EFE, and Velayos translated that visibility into earned momentum for product launches, timed promotions and client storytelling at the intersection of culture and commerce.

The team relied on Velayos to manage press days, red carpets and media trainings, and Velayos executed influencer and experiential activations that wove earned, owned and paid tactics into coherent campaigns to boost consideration and fuel consumer action.

New-business contributions helped secure major accounts as Velayos shaped presentation narratives, supported integrated Amazon Stores campaigns during Back-to-School and Prime Day, and connected creative thinking to partnership opportunities that expanded agency offerings and client pipelines.

Bilingual in English and Spanish, Velayos applies cultural fluency to reach diverse audiences, and Velayos tracks trends and digital innovations to keep client stories relevant in fast-moving cultural conversations while training across disciplines to scale integrated work.

Clients and senior leaders point to calm executive presence, strategic poise and an ability to anticipate questions during briefings and events as reasons for growing trust and expanded responsibility. Rapid promotion, cross-practice impact and a consistent record of converting coverage into tangible business outcomes signal a clear trajectory toward leadership and continued influence across entertainment and retail communications.

Account Director and Chief of Staff

Haymaker Group

Devin Walsh shapes client outcomes, culture and media momentum

As the Haymaker Group confronted rapid growth, a shifting market and higher client stakes, leaders needed someone who could translate business strategy into a clear narrative, steady internal practice and a people-first approach that keeps teams engaged under pressure. Devin Walsh advanced from an entry-level intern to account director and chief of staff by blending strategic thinking, narrative instinct, meticulous project management and a persistent investment in colleagues’ development, balancing fast-paced client work with the systems that keep an agency running.

At the client level, Walsh oversees communications programs for technology and emerging industry clients such as Keychain, ZenBusiness, Motus and SeaX Ventures, designing launch strategy, media relations and narrative road maps that help leaders tell complex stories and reach investors, customers and partners. For Keychain, Walsh shaped coverage for the company’s Series B and the launch of KeychainOS, generating 38 media hits across national and trade outlets that included placements in Axios, Fortune, TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal and created a surge of attention that opened conversations with investors and strategic partners.

Inside the agency, Walsh redesigned internal workflows, aligned priorities across account teams, introduced clearer decision paths and launched the agency’s first Media Happy Hour to build authentic connections between emerging fellows and veteran journalists, a program that the agency now relies on to strengthen relationships and recruit talent. Across the firm, Walsh mentors junior and senior colleagues in strategic thinking and media craft, creates room for others to lead and models a collaborative style that lifts client outcomes and preserves an agency culture of trust, curiosity and mutual support as the company scales.

Colleagues credit Walsh with creating a repeatable playbook for launches, media engagement and internal alignment that speeds decision making and protects reputation while allowing teams to grow. Her blend of strategy, empathy and execution reshapes how the agency approaches high-stakes communications and prepares the next generation of practitioners to lead with clarity and care.

Account Manager

Porter Novelli

Lindsay Waters turns media relationships into measurable client growth

An account manager at Porter Novelli, Lindsay Waters builds media strategies that turn complex technical and business topics into clear narratives that advance client growth and align communications with commercial objectives. Waters balances editorial instincts with active relationship building at Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Verge and Yahoo Finance to place stories that reach investors, buyers and industry leaders and to secure follow-on coverage that sustains narratives beyond launch windows.

At CES 2024, Waters helped produce more than 2,400 media placements across broadcast, print and digital outlets, creating broad awareness during a peak product cycle and driving product demos, inbound inquiries and downstream sales conversations. In 2025, Waters repeated high-impact results with smaller staffing by prioritizing pre-briefings, coordinating closely with EMEA colleagues and focusing resources on stories with commercial traction.

For Penske’s Catalyst AI launch, Waters designed a comms approach that combined product messaging with a transportation leader survey developed with PN’s Intelligence team to generate original market insights and compelling proof points. Those insights secured top-tier headlines, deepened client trust and expanded the client mandate — leading to budget increases, longer engagements and new six- and seven-figure scope renewals.

On-site at CFA Institute LIVE 2025, Waters managed all press operations and executed a live remote segment with Yahoo Finance independently, keeping the client visible and the program on schedule. Waters also aligns media, research and creative teams to translate placements into measurable sales leads and to boost campaign ROI for complex B2C accounts, with outcomes that feed client pipelines.

Across the Agency network, Waters regularly supports teams beyond the immediate roster to lift media outcomes and share best practices that replicate success at scale. Waters mentors junior staff, volunteers communication skills to nonprofits and models collaborative execution that positions Agency teams to sustain momentum and to convert coverage into business results through 2026.

Congratulations to Ragan’s Top Women in Communications, Class of 2026!

HONOREES

HALL OF FAME

Agency Leaders

Brand Storytellers

Bridge Builders

Change Agents

Crisis Navigators

Data Dynamos

Dynamic Do-ers

Healthcare Communicators

Internal Communications Leaders

Leaders

Mentors & Coaches

Tech Leaders

Visionaries & Trailblazers

Rising Stars (30 and Under)

Additional Awards

Congratulations to Ragan’s Top Women in Communications, Class of 2026!

HONOREES

HALL OF FAME

Agency Leaders

Brand Storytellers

Bridge Builders

Change Agents

Crisis Navigators

Data Dynamos

Dynamic Do-ers

Healthcare Communicators

Internal Communications Leaders

Leaders

Mentors & Coaches

Social Impact Leaders

Tech Leaders

Visionaries & Trailblazers

Rising Stars (30 and Under)

Additional Awards