#WeLeadComms: Lauren Lawson-Zilai

Today’s #WeLeadComms honoree is Washington-based communication leader Lauren Lawson-Zilai.

Lauren’s focus is on how to use communications as a force for good. As Founder and Principal of Zeal Communications, she has dedicated her career to helping mission-driven organizations find their voice, navigate crises and connect authentically with the communities they serve.

The throughline of Lauren’s professional journey is simple: use communications to make things better for people who need it most. At Goodwill Industries International, she elevated the brand, including a top inspiring companies listing in Forbes and 300,000 stories per year — reshaping how society values people who deserve opportunity and connecting them with jobs, skills and a path to financial independence.

At Shatterproof, she built the organization’s first national storytelling strategy from scratch, transforming public perceptions of substance use disorder and expanding awareness of treatment options nationwide. Most recently, at the National Head Start Association, she increased media coverage 600% year over year during one of the most turbulent policy moments in the program’s 60-year history — securing placements on CNN, the TODAY Show and in the Los Angeles Times, where a single op-ed reached more than 37 million readers.

Lauren’s contributions extend well beyond the organizations she has served. She is the only communicator in the Washington, D.C. region to have served as President of both the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter and Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR). She also founded the WWPR Emerging Leaders Awards — now in its 15th year — creating a permanent platform to recognize and elevate young women in communications who are making a significant impact early in their careers.

Her ambition is clear: to build Zeal Communications into the go-to strategic communications partner for organizations that put purpose before profit and to keep proving that the right story, told the right way, can genuinely change lives.

 

 

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