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Anna Smith is the Public Information Officer for Morehead City, NC, and has more than a decade of professional communications experience. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in Print Journalism and Spanish before moving to North Carolina in 2011.

She enjoys disseminating information on the city’s departments, including Fire-EMS and Police. When she isn’t covering everything from community events to crisis communications, you can find her baking, reading a good book, or spending time with her husband and their cat, Otto.

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Captain John Vik is a native of Lancaster County, Nebraska and began working in law enforcement through the military. He served in the 155th Security Forces Squadron of the Nebraska Air National Guard from 2001 – 2007 including time on active duty in support of Operations Noble Eagle & Enduring Freedom. He joined the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office in 2007 and graduated from the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center’s 167th Basic Training Academy.

 During his career, Captain Vik has served in all sworn divisions within the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, including assignments as a Patrol Deputy, Field Training Officer, Criminal Investigator, Crash Reconstructionist, and Instructor. He was promoted to Sergeant in 2013 and then to Captain in 2017.  Today, Captain Vik commands LSO’s Patrol Division, overseeing uniformed patrol operations throughout Lancaster County.

Captain Vik has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is a certified instructor for Georgetown University Law Center’s ABLE Program (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) and a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Captain Vik’s proudest accomplishments are his marriage and his fatherhood. He and his wife, Heather, live in Lancaster County with their four children.

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Kristi is a former newspaper reporter with 15 years of experience leading and supporting crisis communications, cofounder and executive communications, external and internal communications, community relations, media relations, and more for Fortune 500 companies, local government, in-house, and agencies. She is the director for the Office of Communications & Media at Contra Costa County.

Email - [email protected]

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Lisa Glass is the Team Lead of communications & Engagement for the Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management Group office in New Zealand. She is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and a National Emergency Management Response Team (NZ EMAT) member. Lisa is the first person outside the United States to be selected for the FEMA Master PIO program, which she will complete in September. Lisa has graduate qualifications in business and public sector communications. Before joining emergency management, she worked in corporate comms and PR after a long stretch as a reporter, correspondent, and producer in TV News and Current Affairs.

Bay of Plenty Emergency Services

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Our premiere sponsor, Social News Desk, has an exclusive offer for PIO Podcast listeners. Head over to socialnewsdesk.com/pio to get three months free when a qualifying agency signs up.

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Sonu Wasu is currently working as a Public Information Officer for the City of Chandler Police Department. She previously worked as the Public Safety, PIO for the Town of Queen Creek, where she helped put together a campaign to launch the Queen Creek Police Department and served as the Town’s first PIO for Police & Fire.

Sonu has also worked in the private sector, handling internal and external communications for executives at a Fortune 200 company. She served as a Brand Ambassador for Avnet and helped launch the Asian-American & Pacific Islander employee resource group.

Prior to that Sonu was a broadcast news reporter for 25-years. She has worked for multiple networks around the country reporting on everything from breaking news to city, county and state government, courtroom trials, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, extreme heat and Haboobs. Sonu also spent months at the U.S.- Mexico border in Arizona covering immigration issues, drug & human smuggling, and the plight of migrants repeatedly trying to illegally enter into the United States. 

Sonu has won multiple journalism awards for her work on immigration issues, human trafficking, and other feature and spot news stories. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Bioengineering and is currently completing a B.S. in Strategic Communications.

She is an FBI-LEEDA and FEMA certified Public Information Officer, working toward her certification as a Master PIO through FBI-LEEDA.

Sonu's email 

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Our premiere sponsor, Social News Desk, has an exclusive offer for PIO Podcast listeners. Head over to socialnewsdesk.com/pio to get three months free when a qualifying agency signs up.

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Maren McKay is the Public Affairs and Communications Manager for the Lynnwood Police Department! She comes from a strong broadcast journalist background after reporting in two bureaus in Northwest Montana. She reported during the height of COVID and BLM and broke stories to people around the state. After reporting, she switched to public relations and was the PR Manager for Whitefish Mountain Resort. Her favorite thing about that job? Snowboarding every day in the winter and Huckleberry picking in the summer. There, she led DEI conversations and re-structured the resort's newsletter. A few years ago, Maren moved to Seattle, where she was the PR Manager for the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass. She coordinated high-profile commercial shoots there and led the first New Year's at the Needle show since COVID. In her current role as Public Affairs and Communications Manager,  Maren oversees all external and internal messaging. She's created crisis communications plans, established the department's brand and voice, and strengthened internal communications. No day is the same at the department! Outside work, Maren loves traveling with her husband, spending time with friends, and wrangling her 9-year-old Pit mix, Jackson.

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Cynthia McLaughlin serves as the Public Information Officer for the Sarasota Police Department under the Office of the Chief of Police, a role she assumed later in 2023 after joining the department in January of the same year.

In this capacity, Cynthia develops, implements, and evaluates communication strategies and public information campaigns to inform Sarasota citizens about the department's services, programs, and initiatives. Her work is crucial in missing persons cases, crime prevention, and the identification of suspects. 

Cynthia ensures that the department maintains a quality reputation by effectively communicating with a wide range of audiences, including organizations, neighborhood associations, employees, news media, and other community partners through both social and traditional media. She is passionate about humanizing the badge and maintaining transparency with the community.

Cynthia brings extensive experience in social media and reporting from television news stations across the country, including East Texas and Bismarck, North Dakota. She served as the evening news anchor at SNN, The Suncoast News Network, which brought her to the Suncoast. Her quick and concise ability to disseminate news has earned her numerous state-wide and multi-state Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) awards for Investigative and Spot News Reporting, competing among all market sizes, including major cities. She was also a Lone Star Emmy award finalist for her relentless coverage during a severe winter storm that knocked out power to most of the state.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Cynthia graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in Journalism and Business.

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Kim Clark (she/her) helps communicators discover and own their unique DEI narrative. She works with communicators to combine the power of communications with the possibility of diversity, equity, and inclusion to create stronger and safer workplace cultures for every employee and increase trust and reputation with their audience.


She is the co-author of The Conscious Communicator: The fine art of not saying stupid sh*t, an Amazon #1 bestseller that features The DEPTH Model (TM). DEPTH is a strategic and proactive positional framework to guide organizations on DEI and social topics and messaging.

https://www.kimclarkcommunications.com/

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Our premiere sponsor, Social News Desk, has an exclusive offer for PIO Podcast listeners. Head over to socialnewsdesk.com/pio to get three months free when a qualifying agency signs up.

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Hillary Mintz serves as the Public Information Officer for Waukesha County. She joined the County in 2023 after spending over a decade as a trusted journalist for WISN-TV, the local ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, where she covered news across Southeast Wisconsin. In her role as PIO, Hillary works in the County Executive’s Office, where she collaborates with the County’s 17 departments, managing media relations and communications both internally for staff and externally for the community. She also oversees several of the County’s social media channels, posting creative video content about various departments, events, and urgent, critical information.

Hillary has been certified by FEMA as an Advanced Public Information Officer. Her passion for public service and dedication to keeping the community informed are qualities she brings from her background in local TV news. Prior to Hillary’s time in news and at Waukesha County, she grew up near Philadelphia and played Division 1 tennis for the University of Iowa.

Hillary continues to play tennis competitively and with her family.

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Our premiere sponsor, Social News Desk, has an exclusive offer for PIO Podcast listeners. Head over to socialnewsdesk.com/pio to get three months free when a qualifying agency signs up.

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Scott Thomsen has served on the board of the NAGC for eight years, including previous roles as president-elect and communications director. He is the director of communications and public affairs for the Ventura County (California) Fire Department, overseeing the public information officers, community education, and community engagement. Previously, he served in various communications roles, including director, for Seattle City Light, a municipally owned electric utility, after a 20-year career in journalism as a reporter and editor for multiple news organizations, including The Orange County Register and The Associated Press.


Lawrence J. Parnell, M.B.A., is an award-winning Public Relations professional and academic who is an Associate Professor and Director of the George Washington University Master’s in Strategic Public Relations program. He has served in this role for 14 years, and the GWU Master’s is now one of the best-known and most admired programs in the US.

He holds a BS in Journalism from Boston University and an MBA from the University of New Haven. He is pursuing an advanced Strategic Management and Public Policy degree from the GW School of Business.

He also operates Parnell Communications, a strategic communications and leadership training firm. He advises government, corporate, and non-profit organizations on executive development and strategic communications. 

Prior to coming to GW, he had a 32-year career in the private and public sectors. He has worked in corporate, agency, and government settings globally and in national and statewide political campaigns. PR Week recognized him as PR Professional of the Year (2003) and named him to the PR News Hall of Fame in 2009.

He is a frequent author and speaker on communications strategy, crisis and issues management, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at industry conferences and universities worldwide.

He is the co-author of a top-selling public relations textbook, Introduction to Public Relations, published by Sage Publishing. The text, now in its second edition, is used by over 35 undergraduate Mass Communications and Public Relations programs in North America.

He is a member of the Page Society and serves on the Board of the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Parnell is active on Twitter (@gwprmasters) and LinkedIn, posting commentary and sharing research and his insights on current issues in communications and politics.

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Support the show

Our premiere sponsor, Social News Desk, has an exclusive offer for PIO Podcast listeners. Head over to socialnewsdesk.com/pio to get three months free when a qualifying agency signs up.