Justine Adelizzi is an award-winning speechwriter and executive communications leader who has dedicated her career to creating fearless communicators. She is the founder of FEARLESScomms—a communications, coaching, and consulting firm—and a senior advisor for One Strategy Group.

Jean Card is a speechwriter and mindset-based speaking coach who helps her clients translate complicated issues and stories into compelling, persuasive English. Jean spent six years in the executive branch of the U.S. government as a speechwriter for the Secretaries of Treasury and Labor as well as the Attorney General. Since her time in government, she has been a columnist for U.S. News & World Report, a spokeswoman for national organizations, a political commentator in national and global media, and a podcaster. She is a graduate of Middlebury College—where she majored in English—and has also studied at the University of Kent at Canterbury in the U.K.

Claire Craanen works at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. She’s served as a speechwriter for the NATO Secretary General and NATO Deputy Secretary General since 2018, and writes speeches, press statements, op-eds and other written material in both English and French. Claire is a member of the non-profit organisation Women in International Security (WIIS) in Brussels. She co-founded WIIS-Brussels in 2015 and served as its first Secretary General from 2015 to 2022. She has a master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, and a certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Claire is Dutch and French. She is married and has two children.

Amber Epling-Skinner is Director of Communications for the Columbus (Ohio) City Auditor and a school board member elected to her first term in 2023. Prior to serving in local government, Amber worked for the state overseeing the strategic communications for the Minority Leader and the 37 members of the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. She has counseled candidates running for office as well as university presidents, college deans and university administrators on message development, media relations and reputation management. With three teenage daughters at home, she has gotten even better at persuading an audience and finding common ground in a challenging climate.

Dan Gerstein, the CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, has been writing and communicating professionally for more than 30 years. He started his career as a local sports and news reporter at the Hartford Courant. He then went on to spend more than a decade as a speechwriter and communications strategist on Capitol Hill and for two presidential campaigns, serving as a senior advisor to Senator Joe Lieberman from his home state of Connecticut. In 2004, Gerstein moved to New York to become a political consultant (primarily working with issue advocacy groups) and commentator, serving as a contributing columnist for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Politico and an occasional TV analyst for Fox News, MSNBC, and NY1. In 2008, he launched Gotham, which has become the country’s premier ghostwriting agency, featuring a network of 4000+ accomplished editorial specialists. Gerstein, 56, lives in Manhattan with his wife Simona, their daughter Ella, and their dog Ugo.

Sarah Gruen is a speechwriter and humorist based out of New York City. She currently serves as the Director of Speechwriting for the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, overseeing all speeches given by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, official delegations, civil society events, and more. Before joining team USUN, she was a Senior Director at the speechwriting firm West Wing Writers, where she co-led the firm’s humor practice, and wrote for EGOT winners, Fortune 500 CEOs, and visionary leaders in government, social justice, and philanthropy. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal—as well as in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and Points in Case under her own name.

Dr. Lindsay Hayes is the President and CEO of Free the Facts. Previously, she served as a writer and communications consultant in the White House, the U.S. Senate, a Cabinet-level agency, and on several political campaigns. Hayes was the director of speechwriting for Romney-Ryan 2012 and part of the McCain-Palin writing team in 2008. Through her firm, Redpath Writing, she has assisted corporate, political, and non-profit clients with a wide range of projects, including former Speaker of the U.S. House Paul Ryan’s NYT bestseller The Way Forward. Hayes holds a B.A. from Boston College and received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in political communication from the University of Maryland, where she taught undergraduate courses for over a decade.

Jim Holtje has been in the speechwriting, corporate communications, and adjunct teaching arenas in the U.S. and overseas for more than 30 years. His experience includes speechwriting for the CEOs of IBM, Siemens, McGraw-Hill, RGP, as well as UNESCO’s Director General. The author of six books—including The Power of Storytelling for Prentice-Hall—Jim recently founded Speak Up International, LLC, a New York-based consultancy specializing in speechwriting and delivery coaching for non-native English speakers. Jim’s been teaching speechwriting and public speaking at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs since 2016 and won SIPA’s 2019 Outstanding Teaching Award, among other honors.

Jennifer L. Jackson is a Managing Director in CRA | Admired Leadership’s Strategic Communication Practice. Jennifer has a passion for advising leaders and teams at the intersection of leadership, strategy, and communicating for results. She helps people and organizations drive outcomes through clear articulation of vision and strategy, executive visibility, effective team dynamics, and deliberate stakeholder management. Before joining CRA | Admired Leadership, Jennifer spent more than a decade at Kimberly-Clark Corporation, navigating roles in Internal and Executive Communications. She built a strong reputation for advising established and emerging leaders during transitions, including CEO succession, CFO integration, and significant leadership changes across regions. Before Kimberly-Clark, Jennifer worked at the American Red Cross, Edelman, and the Texas Business and Education Coalition. An alumna of Georgetown University, Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, complemented by a Master of Science in Leadership and Organizational Development and a Graduate Certificate in Executive and Professional Coaching from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Brent Kerrigan launched Global Speechwriter after serving five years (2017 – 2023) as the head speechwriter at UN Climate Change. This built on his decade of writing speeches for the Government of Canada (Departments of Agriculture, Transport, Infrastructure & Communities) where he wrote for ministers, MPs, and provided speech content for two prime ministers. He currently provides executive speechwriting and communications support for government and business leaders throughout the world on sustainability and climate change issues.

Peter Loge has nearly 30 years of experience in politics and communications, including a presidential appointment at the Food and Drug Administration and senior positions for Sen. Edward Kennedy and three members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently leads the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and continues to advise advocates and organizations.

Mike Long is a speechwriter, author, and ghostwriter. In addition to his own books The Molecule of More and Taming the Molecule of More, he has worked behind the scenes with authors on a dozen published titles, most recently the memoirs Three-Time World Champ (BenBella) and A Bushel of Beans and a Peck of Tomatoes (Post Hill Press). Mike is also an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. He teaches writing at Georgetown University and leads writing seminars around the world.

Larry McEnerney was for 30 years the director the University of Chicago’s writing program, a program which specializes in the most advanced academic and professional writing. Beyond the campus, Larry has consulted worldwide for law firms, consultancies, financial institutions, non-profits, government agencies, and individual political, professional and business leaders.

David Murray is founder and executive director of the Professional Speechwriters Association and the Executive Communication Council. He is an award-winning journalist and is editor and publisher of Vital Speeches of the Day, one of the world’s longest continuously published magazines. Murray is author of several books, including this year’s communication blockbuster, An Effort to Understand: Hearing One Another (and Ourselves) in a Nation Cracked in Half (Disruption Books, 2021). He lives with his wife Cristie Bosch and daughter Scout Murray, in Chicago.

Eleonora Russell is the Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Advisor to the Military Committee and International Military Staff at NATO. Which is a longwinded way of saying: she communicates about what is happening in the biggest and most successful political-military Alliance in the world. After working as the speechwriter for the President of the Dutch Senate, Eleonora spent the last 7 years writing for the military. First on the top national level, and now on the top NATO level. Eleonora won the Grand Award for the 2024 Cicero Speechwriting Awards.

A former White House speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore and Director of Executive Communications at GE, Eric Schnure now advises high-profile leaders across sectors, helping make their messages more memorable, their stories more compelling, and their delivery more effective. A sought-after humor writer in Washington, Schnure is also renowned for teaching. He is a long-time Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at American University and conducts popular workshops all over the world. He is the co-author, along with Bob Lehrman, of The Political Speechwriter’s Companion, 2nd Ed. (SAGE, August 2019). And he’s the dean of the Professional Speechwriters Association’s Speechwriting School.

Terry Szuplat is a speechwriter with more than 25 years of experience helping leaders in government, business, advocacy, philanthropy, and entertainment inspire audiences around the world. His new book Say It Well: Find Your Voice, Speak Your Mind, Inspire Any Audience (September 2024) shares the lessons he learned as a White House speechwriter and how anyone can use these lessons to become a better speaker. As one of President Obama’s longest-serving speechwriters, from 2009 until 2017, Terry helped craft nearly 500 speeches on global security, international economics, U.S. foreign and defense policy, entrepreneurship, development, and human right—in that time joining the president on visits to more than 40 countries, overseeing and editing a team of speechwriters and assisting with State of the Union addresses. Today, Terry runs his own speechwriting firm, Global Voices Communications, and he teaches political speechwriting at his alma mater, American University’s School of Public Affairs.

Renell Wynn has more than 15 years of substantial executive experience, driving the communications and marketing strategies of some of the most prestigious universities in the United States by helping research institutions advance the human condition through service, care, research, teaching, and learning. Currently, she is vice president for Communications at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Her passion for learning and service as a marketing executive has been extended to the support of community organizations that are dedicated to helping young people thrive. As a board member of many Boys and Girls Clubs, Girls Scouts of America, and Parent Teacher Association, Renell believes these groups build young people’s character, confidence and positions them for successful lives.