Katie Garcia Delivers Keynote and Workshop at Northwest Communicators Conference

On April 16 and 17, 2026, Logos Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff Katie Garcia delivered a workshop and a keynote at the Northwest Communicators Conference in Portland, OR. Presented by PRSA Oregon in partnership with PRSA Puget Sound Chapter, the conference brought together more than 150 professional communicators from across the Pacific Northwest to connect, collaborate, and strengthen their skills.

The focus of this year’s conference was how to reach the summit of leadership in public relations. In addition to four keynote addresses delivered over the course of the conference, the event also featured multiple workshops from industry leaders across the region on topics including crisis, strategy, tactics, ethics, and navigating career pivots.

Photo by Josh Kulla

On Day 1, Garcia delivered a workshop on Mental Readiness for a Crisis and Core Principles of Crisis Communication as part of the crisis track. In the workshop, she explored the importance of mental readiness the ability to make smart choices quickly in a crisis and several of the common patterns that predictably play out in a crisis. She also covered the dynamics of trust in a crisis and best practice decision criteria for what to do and say — and when to do and say it — in a crisis.

Photo by Josh Kulla

 On Day 2, Garcia delivered a keynote address on how to reverse the marginalization of the communication function. Garcia shared how the common refrain within the industry “Communication deserves a seat at the table” was flawed. She explained, “The truth is, we don’t deserve a seat the table where decisions are made. Rather, we have to earn that seat at the table.” She explored why the communication function in general has been marginalized, and how professional communicators unintentionally marginalize themselves to non-communicators. She shared how communicator’s unique value proposition and superpower is the ability to make connections across seemingly disparate ideas and to predict and influence outcomes. And she unpacked a five-part strategy for how to reverse marginalization and better demonstrate our value to leadership to earn a seat at the table.

Other keynote speakers included Elizabeth Edwards, CEO of Volume PR & Engagement Science Lab, on artificial intelligence and the new trust economy; Nigel Jaquiss, Senior Investigative Reporter at the Oregon Journalism Project, on the state of modern media; and Mark Mohammadpour, founder of Chasing the Sun, on the importance of leading with empathy in the public relations profession.

“Thank you to everyone at PRSA Oregon for putting on this spectacular event. It was an honor and a privilege to be part of this conference, and to have the opportunity to connect with so many gifted communicators,” Garcia shares. “Conferences such as this remind us that we are not alone in this work. We have the skills, resources, and clarity of purpose we need to be effective and gifted advisors to the organizations, clients, and communities we serve.”

Photos by Josh Kulla