Communications/PR leaders offer insights during first Abramson Leadership Exchange session

Audience members of Saturday morning’s inaugural session of the Abramson Leadership Exchange heard from a panel of some of Louisville’s most accomplished communications leaders about best practices for crisis communication and management, and the panelists offered multiple examples of how their organizations responded to past crises.

About 100 people attended the session at the Egan Leadership Center’s Troutman Lectorium to hear from moderator Jerry Abramson, the former Louisville mayor who now serves as Spalding’s Executive in Residence, and panelists Chad Carlton, President of C2 Strategic Communications; Laura Douglas, retired Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Community Affairs for LG&E and KU Energy; Phil Lynch, retired Vice President and Director of Corporate Communications at Brown-Forman; and Thomas Noland, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications for Humana.

Each panelist gave a presentation detailing a few real examples of crises they’ve encountered in their careers. Then there was a lengthy Q&A session with audience members.

“I’m really pleased with how our first Exchange session went, and our panelists provided so much wisdom and insight,” Abramson said. “I think the members of the audience were entertained and heard a lot of valuable information that they can apply to their own organizations should a crisis occur.”

The Abramson Leadership Exchange is presented by Spalding’s Ed.D.: Leadership program in partnership with the Young Professionals Association of Louisville (YPAL) and Ignite Louisville.

The panel discussions are designed to align with the kind of high-level dialogue and idea-sharing that takes place in the Ed.D: Leadership program.

All 2019 sessions of the Abramson Leadership Exchange will have topics related to media and communications. The next session is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 3 and will focus on finding authentic information in the era of social media and fake news. The final session of 2019 is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 9.

View more Abramson Leadership Exchange photos from the album on the Spalding University Facebook page.

The back of a man in the audience raising his hand to ask a question to on-stage panel — From left to right, panelists Chad Carlton, Tom Noland, Laura Douglas and Phil Lynch, and moderator Jerry Abramson. (Photos by Marty Pearl, Special to Spalding University)

An audience member raises his hand to ask a question to the on-stage panel — An audience member raises his hand to ask a question.

Jerry Abramson holding a microphone and speaking — Spalding Executive in Residence Jerry Abramson.