Logos Leads Sixth PRSA Master Class in Crisis Communication

On July 24 – 25, 2025, the Logos team led its sixth two-day, immersive Master Class in Crisis Communication for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in New York City.

This two-day Master Class brought together 30 seasoned communication professionals from across the United States, as well as from Israel and Jamaica. The Master Class was designed to equip PR professionals on how to maintain the trust and confidence of critical stakeholders when things go wrong. It focused on the business decisions, management processes, and leadership skills necessary to anticipate, plan for, manage through, communicate about, and recover from crises affecting companies and other complex organizations.

Logos president Helio Fred Garcia and Logos Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff Katie Garcia served as faculty for this program. This was the sixth Master Class in Crisis Communication that Logos led for PRSA – with prior Master Classes occurring in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023. In 2024, Logos led a Master Class on strategic communication for PRSA.

The first day of the Master Class began by focusing on the concept of mental readiness in a crisis. We defined crisis and crisis response. We discussed the patterns of crisis and crisis response, the importance of asking the right questions to guide thinking and decision making, and the dynamics of trust in a crisis. And we took a deep dive into the best practice decision criteria for what to do and say in a crisis and when to respond in a crisis.

We then turned to how to obtain public forgiveness when there are victims in a crisis. We discussed the role of victims and the dynamics of victimhood in a crisis. We unpacked what was required to obtain forgiveness, barriers to effective and ineffective apologies, and how to balance an apology with legal risk. We also explored the criteria for when to apologize and how to craft an effective apology.

On the second day, we began by taking a deep dive into how to become a trusted strategic advisor to senior leaders. We discussed the barriers to getting executive buy-in and the need to earn a seat at the decision-making table. We explored how professional communicators marginalize themselves and described five strategies to overcome that marginalization. Participants also learned a method for how to effectively give advice to non-communicators.

We closed the day by focusing on how to build operational readiness for a crisis. We discussed the importance of taking risks seriously and the need to mitigate risk. We explored how to recognize and quantify risk, the need for clear and easy-to-follow procedures, and how to develop crisis response plans for a specific crisis.

Throughout the Master Class, participants also put their skills to the test as they were given a simulated crisis event and completed in-class exercises to master concepts, techniques, and industry best practice tools covered in the class.

The two days featured robust discussion, learning, reflection, and network building that participants described as transformative. We are always grateful to have the opportunity to teach, learn from, and be in relationship with participants in PRSA programs!