Future-Proofing Corporate Reputation: Your 2024 Crystal Ball

Allison Carter has built her career around content in all its forms. She cut her teeth during the early days of social media, helping small businesses create and execute content strategies across platforms. After a brief stint as an advertising copywriter with companies including Microsoft and Chase, she joined her hometown newspaper, the Indianapolis Star. Over seven years she worked as a social media producer, a trending content writer, and in her happiest roles, as an editor to talented reporters and photographers, helping figure out what audiences really want to read and keeping the legacy paper’s digital strategies sharp. She played a small role in the 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning story “Mauled.” She joined Ragan in 2022 and currently works as executive editor for PR Daily. She lives in Indianapolis.

Riedinger leverages MikeWorldWide’s media relations and speaking engagement engines to drive visibility for brands and executives for professional services clients. During her tenure at MWW, Riedinger has overseen PR programs around marquee thought leadership programs, from surveys and research reports to leveraging LI for enhanced thought leadership presence among industry leaders, prospective clients, prospective talent, and reporters who increasingly use LI to source stories. Most recently Riedinger was the Congressional Affairs Liaison for the Inspector General’s Office at the General Services Administration. Before joining the federal government, Riedinger spent three years at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as a corporate relations manager for mid-market companies and in the political and federation division where she handled local chamber and trade association summits, as well as policy issues for small business members.

Linda Thomas Brooks, PRSA’s Chief Executive Officer, is responsible for all program, financial, and operational aspects of the organization. Reporting to and collaborating closely with PRSA’s Board of Directors, she guides the development and implementation of PRSA’s strategic vision and plan, as well as the programs and policy positions necessary to support the membership. Since joining PRSA in 2021, Thomas Brooks has had the opportunity to meet members from across PRSA’s 110 Chapters, 14 professional Sections, and interact with members of PRSSA, PRSA’s student organization. She has been able to bring her experiences intersecting communications, marketing, media and technology to the role, helping communicators navigate through current challenges in the profession. Through her previous role as President and CEO of the Association of Magazine Media, Thomas Brooks gained experience in driving systemic change and structural realignment. While there she led an organization which provided business, research, marketing and government affairs support to hundreds of media client brands. She has been at the forefront of industry change in her role as Executive Vice President, Managing Director of General Motors Mediaworks, a media strategy and investment unit representing all the divisions and brands within General Motors. She and her team were responsible for approximately $750 million in annual media spending. Other pivotal career experiences included serving as President, Ingenuity Media at The Martin Agency and working with innovative technology companies such as Trilogy and Gear Digital, an omni-channel, full-service agency which she co-founded and served as President. Thomas Brooks has been recognized with many industry awards, including being named an Ad Age Women to Watch, as well as one of Folio’s Top 100 Execs and one of the Leading Woman in Automotive Marketing. She has also been presented with an AWNY Impact Award for Mentoring and was inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Achievement. She is one of the founding executives of the nonprofit Institute for Advertising Ethics. Thomas Brooks graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in journalism. She resides in Westchester County, N.Y.

Lisa Kaplan founded Alethea in 2019 to help customers navigate the new digital reality and protect against threats stemming from disinformation, misinformation, and social media manipulation. Kaplan and her team drive new solutions to meet the dynamic threats facing brands, individuals, and organizations as disinformation continues to impact the public and private sector across all industries. Under Kaplan’s leadership, the Alethea team has built the technologies and capabilities to detect and expose threats at scale to market capitalization and shareholder value, customer bases, physical safety, and brand and reputation. This includes exposing foreign, domestic extremist, and for-profit disinformation networks that have targeted organizations, institutions, and brands. Kaplan has briefed US, NATO, EU, and G-7 policymakers and officials on disinformation. She writes for Brookings and Lawfare, and is frequently sought out by top-tier media outlets, such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, and the Washington Post and Alethea was named one of the hottest cybersecurity startups to watch in 2023 by Fortune. She was named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list of top entrepreneurs and leaders and the Washingtonian’s 2021 Washington’s Most Powerful Women list. Kaplan is a graduate of Colby College.