Explore every episode of the podcast Pitch Perfect: the PR Podcast

Timothy Coombs is editor-in-chief for the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management and senior parter at the Center for Risk Communication. As an author, his works include the award-winning book Ongoing Crisis Communication. As a theorist and academician, his research and thinking has shaped modern crisis communications, winning multiple awards from professional organizations including the 2002 recipient of Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations Society of America and the 2013 Pathfinder Award from the Institute of Public Relations.

Tim and I spoke about crisis comms, and how it's changing in a world increasingly defined by groups actively seeking to escalate any situation into a societal or political crisis. We also spoke about academia: as a longtime professor, we talked about an academic sector that is too often disconnected from the real world of communications practitioners, and which is - at least in my opinion - in the throes of a full-on existential crisis.

Cynthia McCafferty is President and CEO of Hawthorne Strategy Group, a Chicago-based PR agency with a wide range of clients and a particular focus on non-profit work for public and para-public agencies. Before joining Hawthorne in 2015, Cynthia spent nearly two decades at FleishmanHillard International Communications in St. Louis, where she served as a senior vice president and senior partner. 

Cynthia elevates communication programs for clients across sectors, applying her Solutions-focused mindset to organizations such as the Women’s Business Development Center, Chicago Dental Society, Choose Chicago and Washington University as well as national and global brands including McCormick Place, Organogenesis SAC Wireless, Evinrude and Red Bull. Cynthia began her career as a grassroots organizer for a statewide environmental organization before moving into lobbying and electoral politics—early experiences that sharpened her instincts for public sentiment, policy dynamics, and the fast‑moving nature of issues management.

We talked about politics and the intersection with PR, the realities of working with non-profits, the state of journalism in 2026, career management, and a bunch of other topics.

This is the second in a two-parter about public affairs. Hans Hack is a Senior Managing Director and the head of the Brussels office for the public affairs practice at FTI Consulting. Hans' background is in policy making and strategic advocacy and he supports clients facing challenges with governments, regulators and the wider stakeholder environment. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Hans was the Dutch financial attaché to the EU. Previous to that role he was a coordinating policy officer at the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Hans has a background in financial services regulation and policy and has more than 15 years experience covering all sub-sectors of financial services: banking, capital markets, asset management, retail financial services, financial infrastructure, insurance and audit.

We talked about Brussels and the challenges of lawmaking and regulation, including contrasting the American and European approaches. We also talked about skills and career management for those looking to build a career in public affairs. 

Stephen Aaron is the Founder and CEO of Perspective Strategies. He is a public affairs strategist and influence expert with almost twenty years of experience in Washington D.C. transforming the way his clients are understood by elected officials and the general public. With a career that has included stints at top DC public affairs firms, Stephen talked to me about how companies try to get heard in Washington, the real vs. the perceived influence of money in politics, and how to launch and manage your career in communications if politics is something that excites you. We converged on our sadness about the political divide, and on our shared belief in the importance of personal contact vs. e-mail (or worse, social media).

Samantha Flynn is president of Junipr Public Relations in Chicago, and has been featured in PR Week, Forbes, The Wrap and Authority Magazine, sharing expertise in best practices in public relations, reputation management, crisis communications, entrepreneurship and the continued advancement of women in the workplace. She and I talked about career progression, including her time as an in-house resource and the differences between in-house and agency work. We also talked a fair bit about what young people can do to stand out and survive in this very tough business. For someone so young Sarah is a little bit old school in her approach, and she and I bonded on that: some things in PR have changed, but some very crucial things have not. She's the author of the recently-released The EntrePReneur Advantage: Turning Chaos into Clarity, so check it out. 

Ron Culp is a Chicago PR legend. Currently the lead of DePaul University's brilliant PR program, he joined DePaul after a long and storied career in politics, corporate communications and agency leadership. Prior to joining DePaul, Ron held senior public relations positions at four Fortune 500 corporations and two major agencies, as partner and managing director of Ketchum’s Midwest offices and head of the agency’s North American Corporate Practice, and also as founder and managing director of the Chicago office of financial comms powerhouse Sard Verbinnen and Company (now FGS Global). Earlier in his corporate career, he held senior communications positions at Sears, Sara Lee Corporation, Pitney Bowes, and Eli Lilly.

We discussed the state of the business, his brilliant career, how students get taught PR, ageism, and a bunch of other topics. Ron is a legend.

Anushka Seth is the head of communications for the Asia-Pacific region for The British Council, the UK's international organization for cultural relations. Her career has seen her move from her native India to America to pursue education and then career opportunities, moving from the tech to the financial industry and then to crisis communications, then returning to India to work with a top agency and then go in-house. As impressive as her career trajectory and her capabilities is her incredible humanity, questioning herself, working tirelessly to improve herself, and embracing the uncertainty that is such a hallmark of the public relations business... and such a challenge for many of us working in it. Listening to this podcast episode will make you a much better practitioner and perhaps a better person. 

Dale Curtis is the founder and head of Dale Curtis Communications in Washington D.C, one of the very best boutique communications, public relations and public affairs firms in the city. He's a voice of normalcy and moderation in a city that is, certainly increasingly, anything but. A former journalist and White House communications staffer, we discussed his work, the post-facts world we live in, how he got his start in the business, and a variety of other topics. Apologies for the canine interlude at the end, my dog Jackson - a political name if there is one! - can't resist a doorbell. 

Katie Pierini is the founder of Mindset Agency in greater Los Angeles, a boutique agency at the leading edge of understanding how integrated communications is done today. Katie herself is a powerhouse, there's no other word to describe her: from her start in tech PR in Chicago to helping build and run a major agency office in San Diego to launching her own operation, she is an amazing combination of tougher-than-steel and relentlessly upbeat and optimistic. We discussed a number of things, including a master class she provided on integrated programs and brand-building, Me Too and being a woman in PR, her career progression and lessons learned, and - acting as an arc over the entire conversation - we connected on how much we LOVE the industry and our jobs within it.

Noah Dye is the principal at Spoken Voice PR, a tech-focused communications boutique, after having been EVP of LEWIS PR, one the top mid-sized agencies worldwide. Noah is a battler, and a competitor, and someone who is relentless about his work, his clients and his career. We spoke about the challenges of the agency model both in terms of what it delivers to clients and what it demands of its people, about his career progression overcoming multiple crises including the implosion of the dot-com boom just as he was getting started, about the state of communications, and about business development, a shared love of ours. 

Jackson Wightman is the head of Montreal agency Proper Propaganda, which specializes in consumer tech PR and marketing. A prolific contributor to LinkedIn and author, Jackson is especially informative on the topic of conducting PR campaigns with the specific aim of optimizing search results on AI platforms (GEO). We talked about fragmentation of media and reevaluating which platforms matter, AI and how it processes information and how that affects communications and marketing campaigns, and his own very interesting background.

Morgan McLintic is CEO of Firebrand Communications in San Francisco and one of the most experienced technology marketers and PR people, after having run US operations for a global agency before striking out on his own. As a brit who crossed over to working in the United States, he also brings a unique perspective. He and I discussed his career path, what works (and doesn't) in PR today, dealing with CEOs and especially tech entrepreneurs, what young PR practitioners can do to be successful, and business development (my perennial favorite subject!). 

Chris Kettmann is a partner at DGA Group, a global communications and public affairs consultancy, where he helps lead the Investor Relations and Financial Communications practice areas. He and I discussed how to get into IR, what the qualifications are and what the mindset needs to be, some trends in investor communications, and the state of affairs for areas like ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies, among other things. 

Kelly Capizzi Herring is Vice President, Corporate Communications at Lincoln Financial. The focus of the interview is about the college experience, and how to go about choosing a path, trying to get the most out of it, and lining yourself up for that first job. We also talked about finding areas of interest in various industries, the specific challeges of tech and financial services, managing internal stakeholders and advocating for the value of PR, and managing work-life balance and imposter syndrome - two constants for the PR industry.

Paul Nolan is the co-Managing Director for the UK of The Hoffman Agency and the Chief Operating Officer for CCGroup, a London-based tech PR agency. Paul takes us through his exerience as an entrepreneur, partnering to buy the agency relatively early in his career and then the work of building and growing it. A big part of our discussion was on the topic of neurodivergence, specifically ADHD, and managing it in your work and over your career. We also touched on the agency model, the value of relationships and geographic differences in PR work, hiring practices, and what young people can do to stand out as candidates and in agencies. 

One question PR people are always asking themselves is, "How do I get out of the grind of media relations and pivot to a role that uses my communications strengths?" Alexandra Priola is an answer to that question: she's a Managing Director in the People and Change practice at FTI Consulting, one of the world's foremost consulting firms, and a global leader in employee communications who was recognized by Ragan's PR Weekly as one of 2025's Top Women in Communications. We discussed trends in internal comms, how to build trust, scripting of executives, and other topics about consulting. We also discussed aspects of career management: how to collaborate, how to balance the demands of work and life (she's a mother of three), what choices to make as a junior person, and what she looks for in a resume. 

Harlan Teller is a legend in the PR business. Harlan led the corporate communications function at Burson Marsteller for America, for Hill & Knowlton worldwide, for Financial Dynamics (then FTI), and then was an Executive Director at APCO. Switching to the education sector, he's been C-level in comms and marketing for Northern Illinois University, Northern Arizona University, and now Central Michigan University. But it's not just about experience - lots of people put in time in this industry, but that doesn't make them Harlan Teller. He's a genius in comms and also career management, and a voice of calm and simplicity in an industry that takes itself way too seriously sometimes. We talked about his career, his ideas on being successful in agency as a young person, how to manage stress, how to best manage clients, business development and how to be successful at it. With Harlan, it's less about technique and more about mindset.