Expertise
Thought Leadership PR & Crisis and Issues Management
I like to organize communications strategies around an organization’s key conversations. This approach integrates all communications into a coherent, cross-channel content strategy that enables more proactive positioning and more meaningful measurement of outcomes over time. It also supports more integrated, long-term reputation management as AI search reshapes how people discover and interact with brands.
I shape high-stakes conversations through two key specialties: thought leadership PR and crisis and issues management. Thought leadership proactively builds reputations while crisis and issues management defends them.
Thought Leadership PR
I enjoy making complex information accessible to wider audiences through compelling narratives. I started my career promoting research and experts in the press for one of the world's leading research universities. Since then, I've built a career helping organizations, executives, and subject-matter experts lead key industry conversations in the press.
My thought leadership PR expertise includes:
Executive visibility
Research PR
Spokesperson strategy
Financial communications
Thought leadership PR content strategy
Below is a sample of thought leadership media placements I have secured by proactively building relationships with reporters, leaders, and subject-matter experts.
Sample Thought Leadership Media Placements
Crisis and Issues Management
Over the course of my career, I’ve managed media relations in response to political controversies, shaped high-stakes industry conversations in the press, and managed media rapid response for global Fortune 200 organizations.
I began my career with a crash course in high-profile crisis and issues management in a highly political public affairs setting. At The University of Texas at Austin, I helped the Chief Communications Officer protect the reputation of a highly visible public institution and multi-billion-dollar brand amid intense public and political scrutiny. I also helped university leadership complete a high-profile update to crisis management protocols, modernizing practices for the Web 2.0 era.
Since then, I’ve spent my career in B2B services environments where protecting a firm's credibility is paramount because the high stakes of doing business make decision-makers risk-averse. There’s an old saying in corporate America that “no one ever got fired for hiring IBM,” which reflects how the most trusted brands maintain premium prices and market share because corporate decision-makers are incentivized to make safe bets.
Crises and issues I’ve managed include:
A U.S. Supreme Court challenge to a university’s affirmative action admissions policies
Implementation of a controversial state “campus carry” gun law
The removal of Confederate statues from a university campus
Tensions between a public institution and state government leadership over higher education policy reform
Large-scale public safety emergencies in the wake of fatal university campus attacks
Negative market narratives about office real estate, data centers, brick-and-mortar retail, and population migration
Workplace protocols throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Market scrutiny of regional bank stability following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse
Public opposition to data centers, public agency real estate operations, and transactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
My crisis and issues management expertise includes:
Issues management
Rapid response communications
Crisis communications
Executive crisis counsel
Regulated communications
Public Affairs