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President’s Letter: Grateful for 2025, Excited for What’s Ahead

Dear WWPR Community, as we close out 2025, I’m feeling incredibly grateful—for the unforgettable experiences we’ve shared, the relationships we’ve deepened, and the continued momentum we’ve built as a community of women in communications.

It has been an absolute honor to serve as President of WWPR during such a meaningful year. From day one, our focus has been on strengthening connections, growing member value, and celebrating the power of this network—and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished together.

A Look Back: Highlights from 2025

✨ Woman of the Year
Our signature event was nothing short of spectacular. We honored three extraordinary finalists and celebrated our 2025 Woman of the Year at a sold-out luncheon filled with energy, inspiration, and community. I’ll never forget the joy in that room.

✨ Emerging Leaders Awards
Fifteen years in, the ELAs are still one of the most moving events of the year. The rising talent in our field is nothing short of extraordinary, and it’s a privilege to honor and support the next generation of powerhouse communicators.

✨ Executive Communicators Dinners
These remain one of my favorite series we offer—intimate, off-the-record conversations among senior communicators that sold out each and every time. Thank you to MiQ for making them possible.

✨ Scholarships & Support
I’m especially proud that we were able to offer 30 annual memberships to women who were impacted by layoffs this year. It’s just one way we continue to walk the walk when it comes to building a supportive, inclusive, and resilient community.

✨ Professional Development That Inspires
From our AI & Credibility panel that I had the pleasure to moderate to Crisis Comms Workshops, book talks, and public affairs discussions, we tackled some of the most pressing topics facing communicators today. Thank you to all of our incredible speakers and moderators.

✨ A Year of In-Person Connection
Whether it was our media roundtable, our Summer Social, or earlier this week at our Holiday Happy Hour, this year reminded us that the magic of WWPR is in the connections we make face to face.

And of course, we started the year strong with an inspiring keynote from Debbi Jarvis at our Annual Meeting Luncheon—and I couldn’t be more excited to already have next year’s event on the calendar.

What’s Ahead in 2026

I’m thrilled to pass the baton to our incoming President Charmaine Reilly and Vice President Vanessa French, two incredible leaders with a deep commitment to our mission. With the talented Board and Advisory Council they’ve assembled, I have no doubt 2026 will be our strongest year yet.

A few exciting events already on the calendar:

🗓️ WWPR Annual Meeting Luncheon
January 21, 2026 | The Hamilton
Keynote: Erica Loewe

🍷 The One Party (co-hosted with AMADC, AAF, PRSA, & IABC)
January 22, 2026 | Royal Sands Social Club

To our incredible Board, Advisory Council, volunteers, partners, and sponsors—thank you for your time, your energy, and your belief in what we’re building together.

And to every single member: thank you for being part of this community. It’s been the greatest privilege to serve you this year.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season—and an even more inspiring 2026. I can’t wait to see where we go next.

All my best,

Colleen Lerro Gallagher
WWPR President (2025)

Author and AI: The Perfect Pair for Advocacy Communications

LeAnne DeFrancesco

By LeAnne DeFrancesco, vice president at Vanguard Communications

When I joined my company’s AI Task Force in early 2024, I knew I was going to be the skeptic on the team. I had an open mind about AI tools for other tasks, but for writing? I was not enthused, mostly because I assumed AI outputs would be stale, cold and only tell half the story.

To me, writing is a sacred process that not just anyone can do. You may learn technique and pick up style, but I still believe that people are born with a storytelling brain, or they aren’t. They know how to thread together thoughtful content that keeps readers interested, or they don’t. They can put themselves in the shoes of their audiences and deliver what they need to know and care about, or they can’t.

So to ask a machine to create a very original, nuanced piece of content seemed ludicrous.

At the same time, I saw — like everyone else did — the media headlines that gave me pause:

Dynamic Duo

The more I researched, read, talked to colleagues and consulted with peers about how they use AI to help them generate ideas or be a sounding board for their content, the more my stance on AI softened. Particularly in an industry with unforgiving deadlines and late-breaking curveballs, if AI could help me deliver for my boss or my clients by providing small, research-y shortcuts — without being dishonest or misleading — why not give it a go?

The same is true in advocacy communications. More often than not, probably, staff at advocacy organizations are stretched. There is a lot to do, to develop, in a short window of time. Breaking news on their issue changes their day in an instant. Response time must be quick, yet messaging must be on point. They need shortcuts without sacrificing the message.

If your goal is to change people’s hearts and minds about something, it’s not enough to just deliver the facts and summarize, which is what AI is good at. You need context, emotion and a personal story. You need impact, examples and turns of phrase that resonate with people. You might need humor, you might need shock. This is what humans are good at.

So really, combining robot with writer (or AI with author) is a perfect coupling.

Don’t Be Talked Into Breaking Up

There have been many threads on social media, blogs and podcasts pitting writers against AI. But in my view, there is no fight here, as long as leaders know how to use AI ethically and provide guidance for their employees to do the same.  

  • AI is good at some things, like searching online information quickly, and should be embraced for that quality. It can be clutch.
  • Humans are good at other things, like providing the “color commentary” around issues and making things personal, relatable and memorable.

Writing is indeed an art, and AI is a science. A tool. A technology that can help us get to our beautiful prose and thoughtful executions more quickly.

Which for those of us in PR and in advocacy communications, sounds dreamy.

LeAnne DeFrancesco is a vice president at Vanguard Communications in Washington, D.C., where she leads the firm’s Design and Editorial practice. She joined WWPR’s Pro Bono Committee in 2018, where she has helped several D.C.-based organizations enhance their PR and communications activities.

President’s Letter: Celebrating Growth and Looking Ahead

Dear WWPR Community,

Spring is in full bloom, and so is the momentum within our WWPR network! 🌸 I continue to be inspired by the strength of this community and the incredible energy we’ve seen at every turn this year.

Last month, we hosted a dynamic professional development event and happy hour, and we were blown away by the response—over 100 RSVPs, with registration closing early due to demand! It’s clear that our community is eager to connect, share, and grow together, and we’re thrilled to keep building on that excitement.

A Few Important Updates and Upcoming Events:

✨ Emerging Leaders Awards – June 11
We are officially counting down to our 15th Annual Emerging Leaders Awards! Nominations are still open through May 9, and I encourage you to nominate a rising star in your network and know that we love seeing self-nominations as well! This event is such a powerful celebration of young women who are making an incredible impact in our field, and we can’t wait to honor them this June in Washington, D.C.

✨ Woman of the Year – October 3
Mark your calendars for our next signature event of the year—our annual Woman of the Year celebration returns to the beautiful Salamander DC this fall. Stay tuned for more details in the months ahead!

✨ Upcoming Programming
Stay tuned for some exciting updates about our professional development programming coming in May! And don’t miss the next dinner in our Executive Communicator Series on June 12 at Café Riggs. Registration is open now, and these dinners have been a huge success for building real community among senior communicators. A big thank you to MiQ for making this series possible!

✨ New Peer Mentoring Program: WWPR LINK
We’re thrilled to be launching WWPR LINK: A Peer Mentoring Network this summer! LINK will connect members through small, curated groups focused on shared learning, candid conversations, and career growth. Applications are open now for the pilot cohort running July–December 2025.

👉 Apply here by June 1!

✨ Member Scholarships Coming Soon
In the spirit of community support, I’m excited to share that we’ll soon be offering a limited number of scholarships for WWPR members who have recently been laid off, thanks to a generous donation from a past Woman of the Year honoree. Stay tuned for more details soon.

Finally, I want to take a moment to highlight the incredible work our Pro Bono Committee is doing alongside our 2024-2025 pro bono client, Running Start. It’s inspiring to see how our members are making a difference by supporting young women in their journey toward leadership. You can learn more about the partnership and ways to get involved here.

Thank you for being part of WWPR’s vibrant community—and for everything you do to lift one another up. I can’t wait to see what we continue to accomplish together this year!

With gratitude,
Colleen Lerro Gallagher
WWPR President

President’s Letter: Momentum, Inspiration, and Exciting Events Ahead

Dear WWPR Community,

We’re only a couple of months into 2025, but the energy and momentum within WWPR is already incredible!

Our Annual Meeting Luncheon in February was nothing short of inspiring. A huge thank you to Debbi Jarvis, who left us with so many powerful takeaways, including one of my favorites:

➡️ “Embrace who you’ve been because it’s going to lead to who you will become.”

Her wisdom set the perfect tone for the year ahead, and we are so grateful to have kicked things off with such an empowering conversation.

At the end of February, we gathered for Policy Influence in a Shifting Landscape—a timely and thought-provoking discussion on navigating today’s policy and regulatory environment. Thank you to our incredible panelists for sharing candid insights and practical strategies, and to Beekeeper Group for hosting us.

Looking ahead, I’m especially excited for the first dinner in our Executive Communicator Series this week! This new quarterly series is designed to bring senior-level communicators together for meaningful conversations in a private setting. A huge thank you to MiQ for sponsoring this initiative and helping us create a space for authentic dialogue among industry leaders. I also hope to see many of you at our Women’s History Month Happy Hour on March 27.

And if you’re already planning ahead, mark your calendars for our signature events:

✨ Emerging Leaders Awards – June 11 at the AT&T Forum, Washington, D.C.
✨ Woman of the Year – October 3 at The Salamander, Washington, D.C.

With so much happening, I’m beyond grateful to be part of this incredible community. Whether you’ve joined us at an event or engaged with us online, your presence and support make all the difference. I can’t wait to see what we continue to build together this year!

See you soon,

Colleen Lerro Gallagher
WWPR President

President’s Letter: Building on a Legacy of Leadership in 2025

WWPR January 2025 President' Letter

Dear WWPR Community,

Happy New Year! (Can we still say that the last week of January?!) It’s an honor to kick off 2025 as your President, especially during this milestone year as we celebrate 45 years of Washington Women in Public Relations. For over four decades, WWPR has been a cornerstone for female communicators in the D.C. area, cultivating connections, leadership opportunities and professional growth. I’m thrilled to build on this incredible legacy alongside our incoming Board of Directors.

We’re coming into the year on such a high note after closing out 2024 with an incredible Woman of the Year event and launching a fresh, new website designed to create a much better platform and experience for both members and non-members alike.

We’ve already hit the ground running with exciting events to kickstart the year! On January 9, we hosted Recharge & Reconnect: A Guided Meditation for PR Pros, a virtual session that emphasized the importance of well-being in our fast-paced industry. Thank you to Kristi Duncan for guiding us through a calming meditation and equipping us with practical tools to prioritize mental health.

Later, on January 23, it was wonderful to see so many of you in person at Burson Global for Next-Gen Comms: Strategies for a Shifting Media Ecosystem. This insightful panel explored the challenges and opportunities of today’s decentralized media landscape. A huge thank you to Burson for hosting and to our incredible panelists for sharing their expertise. Seeing a packed room of communicators engaging in such a timely discussion reminds me of the power of our community.

Looking ahead, we have even more in store:

  • WWPR Annual Meeting Luncheon – Join us on February 13 at The Hamilton as we gather to thank our outgoing board, welcome the 2025 Board of Directors, and hear from our inspiring keynote speaker, Debbi Jarvis, whose journey and insights will set an exciting tone for the year ahead.
  • Policy Influence in a Shifting Landscape – Save the date for our February professional development event on February 25 at the Beekeeper Group. Stay tuned for details as we dive into how communicators can adapt to the priorities of a new administration.
  • Executive Communicators Series – We’ll soon announce dates for this exciting quarterly series, designed specifically for senior-level communicators to connect in-person, build community and share strategies on navigating today’s challenges.

This year, we are committed to providing even more meaningful opportunities for professional growth, thought leadership and connection. Whether you’re joining us virtually or in person, I hope to see you at an upcoming event as we continue to grow this amazing community.

Thank you for being part of WWPR’s legacy and future. Here’s to an inspiring 2025!

Best regards,
Colleen Lerro Gallagher
WWPR President

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