Honored for her voice, vision and exceptional leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooke Federico, Public Information Officer for the county of Riverside, leads the COVID-19 crisis communication efforts for Riverside County’s 2.4 million residents.

Throughout the County’s response, Brooke led a team that was charged with translating complex public health information into digestible, easy-to-follow messages. Brooke’s leadership and guidance produced communication that was unified, deliberate, and collaborative. In addition, Brooke ran the County’s Joint Information Center and marshaled the County’s “Masks are Medicine” initiative — a countywide effort to give away 10 million masks.

Brooke continues to play a vital role on the Economic Recovery Task Force, an initiative that aimed to keep Riverside County residents safe and thriving in the workforce and ensuring that businesses would remain afloat. Under Brooke’s leadership and guidance, the county of Riverside has been at the forefront of providing actionable public information. Throughout the pandemic, and even as it continues to evolve now, Brooke has led the communicative efforts of Riverside County from response to recovery and now resiliency.

Brooke is a seasoned crisis communication professional, having spent several years as an emergency management public information officer in Orange County and at the county of Riverside Emergency Management Department. She holds a master’s degree from California State University Fullerton.

Established in 2017, the Frank Potter Cowan Crisis Communications Leader award recognizes a Public Information Professional (or Team) who demonstrated extraordinary success in leading a team during a natural disaster, act of terrorism or a reputational crisis.

For more information about the Frank Potter Cowan Crisis Communications Leader Award presented by the California Association of Public Information Officials, visit our awards page at www.capio.org.