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.