The CEOs of Leadership: Clarity, Example and Optimism

Karen Hughes

Thursday, 03 Oct 2013 at 12:00 pm – Great Hall, Memorial Union

Ambassador Karen Hughes worked for more than thirty years in public administration, public policy and communications. As Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2005 to 2007, she dramatically reshaped the State Department's communications efforts. As counselor to President Bush from 2001 to 2002, Hughes was a strategic adviser to the president on policy and communications and managed the White House offices of communications, media affairs, speechwriting and press secretary. In 2008, Hughes joined Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and communications firm, and currently serves as worldwide vice chair. Mary Louise Smith Chair for Women and Politics

Karen Hughes is a trusted counselor to corporate, nonprofit and political leaders providing strategic communications, corporate positioning and messaging advice. At Burson-Marsteller she has worked with clients as diverse as AVON Products, Inc., Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus, LIVESTRONG and the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

In addition to her work Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and Counselor to the President, Hughes was President Bush's Communications Director in 2000, helping lead his successful presidential campaign, and served as a senior communications strategist on his 2004 campaign. She served as Director of Communications in the Texas Governor's office (1995-1999) and directed communications during Governor Bush's successful gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998.

Hughes was Executive Director of the Texas Republican Party from 1992 until 1994 and served as a consultant and frequent spokesman for the Party throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. She was the Director of Media Relations for Halcyon Associates, a Dallas-based public relations firm, from 1987 until 1990. She has worked on numerous political, issue and bond campaigns in Dallas and was Texas press coordinator for the Reagan-Bush '84 campaign.

Hughes began her career as a journalist, working as a television reporter for KXAS-TV (NBC affiliate) in Dallas-Fort Worth from 1977 until 1984. She is the author of ï¿½Ten Minutes from Normal,ï¿½ a book about working for President Bush and her decision to leave the White House to return with her family to Texas in 2002. Hughes is a Phi Beta Kappa and received a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Journalism from Southern Methodist University in 1977.

Cosponsored By:

Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women & Politics
Women's Leadership Series
Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)

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