2024 Power Players in Public Relations & Lobbying

Alexis Grenell is the co-founder of Pythia, where she leads innovative issue campaigns for workers rights’, gender equality, climate policy, and democratic protections. Some recent wins include expanding laws allowing survivors of sexual abuse to seek justice in the courts, a moratorium on fossil fuel based cryptomining, and restricting how social media platforms use algorithms to target minors. Alexis is also a columnist for The Nation where she writes about gender, politics and power.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
 “Be so good they can’t say no”

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
You can make extraordinary change at an entry level job

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
More joy in politics

Evan Thies is the co-founder of Pythia, advancing agendas and causes for both public sector and private sector clients. A 20-year veteran of press and politics, Evan has won landmark improvements to public policy and achieved major land use changes – including the recent approval of NYC’s first soccer-specific stadium and its largest all-affordable housing development in a generation. He also served as lead strategist to Eric Adams’ historic 2021 campaign for mayor.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
“Talk less; listen more.”

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
You cannot rely on anyone else to work as hard as you for the things that matter to you – but your goal should still be to try and inspire them to.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
More sleep (I have two young kids)

With over 20 years of experience in campaign leadership and advocacy, Doug Forand has provided strategic guidance to many of New York’s leading elected officials and organizations. Forand has advocated for and built issue campaigns on behalf of working people, people with disabilities, and the environment. With RHS, Forand has helped elect officials at every level of government including serving as lead strategist for some of the highest-profile races in New York.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
You will always benefit from helping those around you move up.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
The people you know when you start will still be your peers in the industry 20 years later. Value those relationships.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
Advancing the view that governmental competence is a core progressive value that Democrats need to focus on.

Nathan has dedicated 25 years to developing innovative organizing and messaging strategies for causes, candidates and campaigns. A founding partner of Red Horse Strategies, Nathan has worked on hundreds of campaigns including helping to elect New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Congress Member Grace Meng, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, and District Attorneys Ken Thompson, Eric Gonzalez, Melinda Katz and Darcel Clarke. Recently, Nathan helped lead the team that delivered NYC’s first professional soccer stadium.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
Being the one who is right, or having the right idea, is never what is most important. Any moron, on any given day, can have the right idea. Getting a group of people to agree to an idea, formulate a plan and then take action – that is what is important and where genius lies.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
The difference between organizing and activism. Organizing is about working with communities, listening to where people truly are, and working together for a collective vision. Activism is about self, about telling communities what you think they need and how they should accomplish it. Organizing is a collective action, activism is egoism.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
We should all be focused on doing whatever we can to elect the first female president, to ensure that Leader Jeffries is Speaker Jeffries and to give the second African-American Mayor a second term.

Hazel is a vice president at Risa Heller Communications, specializing in crisis and strategic communications. She has nearly a decade of experience at the highest levels of New York government and politics. Hazel previously served as press secretary to Governor Kathy Hochul, leading press strategy from the Governor’s transition into office through two legislative sessions, as press secretary to New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, and as first deputy press Secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Julie Wood is a managing director at Risa Heller Communications, where she advises companies and high-profile individuals on strategic and crisis communications. Most recently, Julie served as communications director for New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Prior to that, she was senior director of communications at Lyft. She served as press secretary on Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign, as senior spokesperson on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and as first deputy press secretary to Mayor Bloomberg.

James is managing director at Risa Heller Communications and runs its Real Estate Practice. Over the past decade, he has overseen strategic communications on behalf of some of the highest-profile real estate projects and issues in New York City and around the region, including rezonings, park and building openings, high-stakes litigation, and industry-wide policy matters. He earned an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.