Emily Lenzner, Vice President, Global Communications, Atlantic Media
Emily is one of the smartest, most creative communicators in the PR industry today. Having worked across the media, political, Hollywood and non-profit industries, she is adept in crafting communications and guiding major companies and projects to PR success. As the head of the communications team, she oversees all PR efforts for The Atlantic, National Journal, Quartz and Government Executive Media Group. She has played a major role in guiding Atlantic Media to digital success and is relied on by many for her intuition and PR mastery.
A small team at Atlantic Media did the walk with the families of the four American hostages held by ISIS. Each team member had a role to play. But, Emily played two roles. She worked with media around the world to keep the hostages out of headlines—when ISIS threatened to kill them otherwise—and she helped the families work with media when the time came to tell their stories. With the whole of the world focused on these tragic stories, Emily's communications role was as intense as as it could get. However, the second role was the hardest. The hostage families attached to Emily, and she to them, the way soldiers do in combat. Emily ended up sharing and even carrying some of the unimaginable grief brought on by ISIS and its brutality. Emily need not have taken on the emotional role, but as a credit to her fineness, she took it on in full.