Laura Howe @InfoBabe @RedCross

Laura Howe is the Vice President of Public Relations for the American National Red Cross. Laura is responsible for planning and executing the Public Relations and overall corporate media strategies for the Red Cross. In that role she serves as one of the primary Red Cross spokespeople and oversees day to day corporate media relations and crisis communications efforts. In addition, she manages specialized communication teams for Disaster Services, International Services, Biomedical Services, Services to Armed Forces and Chapter Operations.

Laura also manages the team responsible for all Red Cross social media efforts and has led the organization’s effort to use of social media as means to get information to disaster victims. She often appears at conferences and on panels promoting the use of social media during disasters.

Prior to coming to Red Cross National Headquarters, Laura worked as the Communication and Government Relations Officer for the Southeast Service Area, assisting more than 100 local Red Cross chapters with their media training, capacity building, and communications efforts. An experienced disaster communicator, Laura led the Southeast Service Area Public Affairs response during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Laura is a long time disaster responder and corporate spokesperson and frequently provides interviews for national media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, Good Morning America and the Today Show. Laura began her Red Cross career nearly eight years ago as the Public Relations Director for the Birmingham Area Chapter in Birmingham, Alabama.

Laura learned the media trade while spending more than eight years a television news reporter and anchor in stations across the South. She is a proud graduate of the University Of Missouri School of Journalism.