Laurel Hart is a partner at the Logos Consulting Group and a senior fellow at the Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership. She helps organizations understand how social media has changed – and is continuing to change – organizational communication.

Laurel counsels clients, both corporate and non-profit, about the evolution of social media and its relationship to organizational reputation, the role of social media in crisis situations, and the changing media landscape and its effects on corporate communication and media relations. She has led workshops, presentations and webinars across a range of social media topics for participants with varied backgrounds.

Laurel is an adjunct instructor in the Master’s in Public Relations and Corporate Communications program at NYU and will teach a new course on social media beginning in the spring of 2010. She has been a frequent guest speaker at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and the M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communications at NYU.

Laurel also works on client matters that involve crisis management, crisis communication and strategic communication.  Since joining Logos in 2007, Laurel has worked with clients in a range of industries, including pharmaceutical and healthcare, insurance, financial services, technology, consumer products, law and professional service firms, military and non-profit organizations."

Before joining Logos, Laurel worked inside both corporate and non-profit organizations over seven years. In her non-profit work, she managed the communications and press operations for the world’s largest gathering of religious leaders for the Eighth World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan in August 2006. She also directed the media relations and communications projects for New York City as the associate director of public affairs at Special Olympics New York. In her corporate work, Laurel served as communications manager from 2000 to 2004 for SSA Marine in Seattle, WA, one of the world’s largest operators and managers of marine and rail cargo facilities.

Laurel has a M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from New York University, where her graduate Capstone was on corporate blogs and reputation. She was the “Most Distinguished Graduate” of her class and recipient of the MS&L Outstanding Student Award.  She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in English from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Publications

• “Social Media,” in Reputation Management: The Key to Successful Corporate Communication and Public Relations, John Doorley and Helio Fred Garcia, Routledge, Taylor and Francis, second edition, publication pending 2010.
  
• “CEO Advisory: Beware (and Prepare For) the Blogosphere Era,” co-author with Helio Fred Garcia, Strategy & Leadership, a peer-reviewed management journal, special issue on Business Model Innovation, November/December, 2007.