Donald Steel

Former Chief Communications Advisor, BBC

Vice President, Crisis Communications, Kenyon International Emergency Services

Donald Steel has built a global reputation as a crisis communicator.  For more than 25 years he has given strategic counsel to organisations and high profile individuals in a range of serious situations, including aircraft incidents, terrorism, kidnapping, serious accidents, executive and personal misconduct, fraud, litigation and inquests and serious regulatory and diplomatic issues.

He was for 11 years, the chief media spokesman of the BBC.

In his own practice, based in London, he worlds with a range of corporate, government, NGO and individual clients across the UK, Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific and Australasia.   His clients includes airlines, hospitals, universities, hotel groups, UN agencies, orchestras, the Eurovision Song Contest, arts venues and high profile artistes.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in London and of the Royal Society of Arts.  He is a regular guest lecturer at the London School of Economics and the China Media Centre of the University of Westminster.

Alongside his own practice, last year he was appointed Vice President, Crisis Communications at Kenyon International Emergency Services, the worlds longest serving and most admired responder to incidents involving fatality and injury.  Based in Houston, Berkshire (UK), Beirut and Santo Domingo, Kenyon’s clients range from leading airlines, cruise companies, hotel groups, governments, police forces, local authorise and companies across the world who work in high risk situations.  In this role, Donald leads a team of senior crisis communicators based around the world, ready to respond to clients.

He was a member of Aviation Futures, a recent think tank of the UK Civil Aviation Authority supporting the CAA on planning the regulation of future developments in aviation.

Keith McCluskey

Harvard Law School

Senior Director of Online Strategy, Office of Communications

Keith McCluskey is the Senior Director of Online Strategy for Harvard Law School. Keith is a seasoned digital, marketing and organizational strategist with more than sixteen years of experience across consulting, advertising, and higher education. He has worked at both MIT and Harvard University, and with more than twenty corporate clients while at Sapient. In both newly-created and established roles for each of those organizations he has defined strategy, built teams, and managed project delivery. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from MIT.

Across his diverse roles, Keith has always focused on four pillars to build success:

- Defining and iterating on the mission of the organization to build cohesion and clarity
- Building great teams by allowing good people the space and support they need to flourish and be recognized
- Making efficient use of people’s time through continual improvement of processes and tools via feedback and analytics
- Teamwork, curiosity, and optimism as foundational mindsets for success

Keith lives in the Boston area with his partner Maggie and when not working, he focuses on his interests in music and dance, photography, and personal analytics.

Alsy Acevedo

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Senior Media Relations Representative

As senior media specialist for Johns Hopkins Medicine International, Alsy focuses on global media relations strategies and outreach to position the Johns Hopkins Health System as a top-of-mind destination for complex diagnosis and treatment, and as a trusted resource for health information.

A former journalist, Alsy has written for the Orlando Sentinel and the Asheville Citizen-Times, produced two different radio shows, and was an adjunct professor of marketing, international business and communications in Puerto Rico. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Alsy worked for Catholic Relief Services, where she led international media campaigns, served as media spokeswoman and trained staff members on cultural competencies, media best practices and social media.

Alsy has been recognized by the Huffington Post as one of the 50 Top Latino Voices to Follow on Twitter, by Latino Leadership as an Outstanding Woman in Media and by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists with the Ruben Salazar Scholarship

Maxine Greenleaf

Jackson State University

Executive Director of Communications and Marketing

Maxine Greenleaf currently serves as executive director of communications and marketing at Jackson State University. Throughout her career, she has bolstered community relations, student enrollment, athletic ticket sales, and brand awareness to help Universities achieve established goals. Greenleaf, a native of Itta Bena, Miss. spent four years as the director of communications and marketing at her alma mater Mississippi Valley State. She has a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and received her master’s in mass communication and journalism from Kent State University. She is currently enrolled in the higher education administration doctoral program at the University of Mississippi. Previously, Greenleaf has served as the director of public relations for the Leflore County School District. Greenleaf is currently assistant governor for Rotary - District 6820 and has been since July 1, 2017. Also, Maxine serves as past president of the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi.

Rachel Colleen Smith

Columbia Business School

Associate Director, Social Media External Relations and Development

Rachel Smith is an Associate Director, Social Media in External Relations and Development. She strengthens School pride through online and digital engagement. Rachel manages, monitors, and builds strategy for the School's social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Before joining the Business School in October 2017, Rachel was the social media manager for Sesame Street and its parent company where she established an online presence for many of the program's beloved characters including Elmo, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster. Rachel also served as the fan engagement manager for TIDAL. She holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Anthropology and Media Studies. Rachel was born in Ithaca, New York, but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She lives in Harlem with her partner and their service dog, Banjo, who is the first full-time canine employee at an end-of-life hospital in the Bronx.

Hilary Katulak

Boston University

Associate Director Boston University Public Relations

Hilary Katulak is the Associate Director of Public Relations at Boston University where she leads media relations and content strategy planning and execution. Hilary specifically concentrates on building visibility for faculty research and thought-leadership and supports the University’s mission of becoming a global leader in research excellence. Hilary graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and a Master’s degree in Communications Management from Simmons College.

Timothy Bohling

University of Notre Dame

Chief Marketing and Graduate Enrollment Officer, and Teaching Professor of Marketing

Timothy Bohling joined the University of Notre Dame as Teaching Professor of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer at Mendoza College of Business in 2019. Prior to joining Mendoza, he was a Marketing Professor of Practice and the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. Professor Bohling is an accomplished global business leader, teacher and scholar, having held several Vice President and C-Suite positions leading marketing transformation and entrepreneurial business building at IBM, HCL Technologies, Stratasys, and Georgia State University while concurrently publishing several research papers in top scholarly journals. He is the founder of a marketing consulting company dedicated to elevating the growth and greatness of his clients.

Donna (Yanish) Lovell

Stanford University

Assistant Vice President, News and Content Production

Donna Lovell, Assistant Vice President for News & Content Production, joined the University Communications team at Stanford in 2009. Prior to that she worked at the San Jose Mercury News where she held several editorial roles during her more than 16-year tenure there.  A pioneer in online journalism, she was one of the first online editors at the newspaper, which began its digital presence as a site on America Online in 1993.  Lovell began her career as a business writer, working at several publications, and also worked at AltaVista, an early search engine company.  In her role at Stanford she manages the Stanford News Service and serves on university’s Emergency Management Steering Committee.

Molly Gluck

Boston University

Assistant Director, Public Relations

Molly Gluck is Assistant Director, Public Relations for Boston University, where she manages Boston University’s research social media channels and amplifies priority university initiatives, research, and faculty through targeted social campaigns, live social activations and media relations. Additionally, Molly oversees the BU Experts Medium blog which aims to promote the findings, viewpoints, and expertise of Boston University faculty and researchers on trending and timely topics.