The HT&A Team
Principals
Principal Associates
Senior Associates
A strength of HT&A is that we are not committed to a fixed set of employees. Over the years we have established collaborative relationships with a senior group of associates, many of whom are independent consultants or work for other organizations. In addition to their primary relationship, they work with HT&A when their particular skills and experience help respond to a client’s needs and expectations. This flexibility allows HT&A to bring to a client senior competence and skill sets that are usually found only in the larger, high overhead, more expensive firms.
Peter H. Hollister
Principal and Counsel
Peter Hollister’s career has included assignments in the corporate sector for an electric utility, in the not-for-profit sector where he served as vice president for three different universities, and as a consultant, originally with Jackson Jackson & Wagner. He simultaneously spent 33 years in military public affairs. He co-founded HT&A with Patricia Trubow in 1986.
During the 20 years Hollister spent with universities, his communications responsibilities expanded to include fund raising and fund development. He has co-designed and led three capital gifts campaigns and many other funding initiatives. In 1975, he developed the first strategic communications plan for a university and since that time has served as the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) primary strategic planning teacher, conducting seminars internationally. His areas of specialty include strategic planning, fund raising and fund development and leadership and team development.
Hollister is a charter member and past president of the Yankee Chapter of PRSA. He was a chapter officer and member of the state board of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA). He is the author of the study guide Successful Strategic Public Relations Planning and has contributed articles and chapters to a number of publications. He is a Certified Public Relations Counselor (CPRC) through the FPRA and was inducted into PRSA’s College of Fellows in 1992.
Patricia A. Trubow
Principal and Counsel
Patricia Trubow has served as head of communications for a multi-hospital healthcare system, as communications coordinator for a regional planning council and as public relations coordinator for a major electric utility. Since co-founding Hollister, Trubow & Associates in 1986, she has counseled corporate, not-for-profit, governmental and professional services clients, large and small.
Several communications projects for which Trubow has been responsible have won major awards, in part, because of her commitment to proving their value by measuring their effectiveness. She is the co-designer of the communications effectiveness study process pioneered by the firm and considered to be the industry standard. Trubow’s specialties in addition to communications effectiveness studies are communications research and strategic planning.
Trubow has served as a chapter president and state president of FPRA, as a two-term chair of the North American Public Relations Council (NAPRC) and a past officer of the Cincinnati Chapter of PRSA. She earned her APR from PRSA, was inducted into that organization’s College of Fellows in 1993, and earned FPRA’s highest accreditation, Certified Public Relations Counselor.
Judith Bogart Meredith
Principal Associate
Judith Bogart Meredith has served as public relations officer with a national public relations and advertising agency, as the communications officer with a healthcare organization, as the public relations director for two Girl Scout councils and as a community relations consultant for several urban desegregation programs. She has also consulted with a wide range of clients and specializes in team development and leadership training, in strategic communication planning and in communication effectiveness studies.
Meredith earned her APR from PRSA and was inducted into that organization’s College of Fellows in 1990. She was national president of PRSA in 1983 and followed Trubow as chair of the North American Public Relations Council.
J.D. Rayburn
Principal Associate
J.D. “Jay” Rayburn, PhD, is an associate professor and head of the public relations and advertising sequence at Florida State University. A long-time leader among those who believe that communications programming should be based on sound research, he has been a pioneer in the development of research methodologies and strategies.
Rayburn counsels a wide range of clients and is a frequent speaker on the subject of communication research. His other areas of specialization include communication effectiveness studies and strategic communication planning. Rayburn has earned both PRSA’s highest recognition, Fellow PRSA, and the FPRA’s CPRC. He is a former state president of FPRA, the founding chair of FPRA’s Counselors’ Network, and a former chair of the North American Public Relations Council.
Laura A. Carr, Senior Associate
Laura A. Carr helps clients develop and implement strategic communication plans, marketing plans and public awareness campaigns. She is a skilled writer with a track record of published pieces. She also designs and delivers team and diversity management curricula. She uses her 30 years of experience and skills to enhance her community through roles on the marketing committee of the Urban League, the Cincinnati Arts Association Building Diverse Audiences Committee and the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce.
Suzanne Lagoni, Senior Associate
Suzanne Lagoni began her career in television news reporting primarily on environmental and land-use issues in the Northwest. She then served as communications director for a U.S. Senator, leading his reelection campaign and providing communications counsel on all communication and constituent relations.
Lagoni has also worked in the corporate sector managing the public relations, media and philanthropy programs for a major oil and gas producer in Alaska. Currently she is a partner in a boutique firm specializing in marketing and communication strategies for nonprofit organizations.
Among her strengths is her ability to help clients develop plans that stretch PR resources by integrating executive and employee community activities with philanthropy and community visibility.
Elise Oppmann, Senior Associate
Elise Oppmann’s career has encompassed most aspects of public relations; corporate communications, not-for-profit support, advertising, crisis and strategic communications planning, media relations and special events planning. In her 20 years as a communications professional, she has worked in Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. She began her career as public relations director for Kentucky’s largest Girl Scout council, worked as a senior account executive for a Burson-Marsteller affiliated firm in Houston, and provided communications support for hospitals and institutions of higher education in Houston and Cincinnati.
Oppmann is also a journalist and was a founding editor and writer for Hermann Hospital’s “H” Magazine, earning back-to-back Gold Quill honors for magazine writing from the IABC and the national MacEachern Award for feature writing from PRSA. She was the founding editor and writer for niche-audience magazines produced by Gannett Wisconsin newspapers; produced content for special advertising sections of the Cincinnati Enquirer; wrote a weekly column as the restaurant critic for the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser; and reviewed books for the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader.
Oppmann specializes in media relations, helping clients develop plans to disseminate information effectively through a variety of traditional and new media outlets.