#WeLeadComms: Jennifer Riley

Today’s #WeLeadComms honors go to Canada-based communication leader Jennifer Riley.

Jennifer is a values‑driven professional communicator whose work is grounded in respect, relationship, and responsibility. Living and working in a part of Ontario on Turtle Island that lies within the treaty territory of the Williams Nations—and the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee—Jennifer opens her practice with acknowledgement, gratitude, and a commitment to reciprocity. Aaniin.

Born in Toronto and of Italian ancestry, Jennifer is also a national of Aotearoa New Zealand, where she lived and worked for more than a decade alongside “tangata te whenua”, the people of the land. These experiences shape her communications worldview: one that honours place, centres people, and recognizes her role and responsibility as a settler.

Jennifer has led and delivered a wide spectrum of communications work. Her experience includes serving as Communications Leader at Te Puawaitanga ki Ōtautahi Trust, where she shaped brand identity, led communications strategy, and built multimedia outreach for Indigenous programs and services; and as Head of Communications and Marketing at SAFE for Animals, where she led impactful advocacy and education campaigns, organizational messaging, and team guidance across digital and print platforms. Earlier roles across public health deepened her strategic planning, reputation management, and multi‑channel storytelling expertise.

Jennifer’s communications practice is fundamentally relational – built on listening deeply, honouring lived experience, and shaping narratives that help people feel seen, connected, and empowered. Her work demonstrates how communications, when grounded in trust and guided by shared purpose, can strengthen relationships across sectors and communities. This relational approach continues to anchor her leadership as she partners with organizations to advance justice, decolonisation, and meaningful, people‑centred transformation.

+++

#WeLeadComms is a partnership between IABC and Strategic.

The communicator’s role is evolving, and #IABC26 is where we’ll explore what’s next.

Join a global network of communication professionals 14-16 June in Toronto for practical insights, peer learning, and new ideas you can take back to your organization. https://wc.iabc.com/