When a crisis – whether a natural disaster or people-caused - hits your agency will you be prepared to respond transparently and effectively with your community, the media and internal audiences?

Join our panel of communications veterans, Scott Summerfield, Sonja Dosti, APR, and Joshua Dean, for this dynamic webinar. Their wealth of experience and knowledge will equip you with effective, cutting-edge risk and crisis communication tactics and strategies, using lessons learned from real-world events. This training will empower you to navigate communications when a crisis strikes.

Key takeaways from this webinar include:

• Crisis planning
• Proactive crisis response and strategy for communicating with agency leadership and other internal audiences
• Creating concise, accurate messages
• Anticipating and identifying an impending crisis
• Managing prolonged crises
• Managing post-crisis communications
• Recent case study, insights and lessons learned from the County of Fresno, CAPIO’s 2024 Frank Potter Crisis Communications Team award winner
• Crisis communications tools and trends for 2024 and beyond

Presenters:

Recorded: November 14, 2024

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This session qualifies for:
CAPIO Certificate in Communications – Crisis Communications
APR Continuing Education Unit

BIOS

Joshua Dean

Joshua Dean began his public sector career as the Communications and Media Production Specialist with the County of Fresno in June 2022. Before joining the team, he produced travel shows aired on HDNet and National Geographic (NatGeo). In 2015, he moved back to Fresno, where he worked as part of the top-rated and Emmy Award-winning news teams for Fresno’s local affiliate KSEE 24/CBS 47. During this time, he won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Creek Fire.

At the County of Fresno, Josh launched #MonumentMonday to showcase unique landmarks and has developed several I Lost Someone to Fentanyl Public Service Announcements. In addition, he has taken spectacular photos and videos of the County that have received significant attention on social media platforms, doubled followers, and increased job applicants to the County. His Juvenile Correctional Officers Promotional Video led to an 80% increase in applications and won the CAPIO Award of Distinction. He won another CAPIO Award of Distinction in 2024 for the Fresno County Water Flows & Flood Warnings video.

In 2024, he and his colleagues received the Frank Potter Crisis Communicator of the Year Award—he also received CAPIO’s inaugural Rising Star Award.

Sonja Dosti, APR

Sonja Dosti, APR is the Communications Director for the County of Fresno (County Administrative Office), which serves over one million residents.  She has more than nine years of experience in public sector communications and PR, having served as the head of communications at Central Unified School District before moving to the County of Fresno. Prior to working in communications and PR, she worked in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles as a production, studio, and network executive.

She’s passionate about sharing informative, compelling, and inspiring stories. Her years of working with Academy and Emmy Award-winning directors and writers have contributed to the work she does as a communications and public relations practitioner.  While at Central Unified, her communications team won the National School Public Relations Association’s (NSPRA) 2020 Award of Excellence for a video PSA titled, The Dangers of Sexting, and the 2020 Award of Merit for the video PSA, Hoax Threats. Her Fresno County communications team has won several awards. Both the CAO and District Attorney’s Offices received the 2023 CAPIO Epic Award of Achievement in the Preparedness/Public Safety Education Campaign category for their Fresno County Fentanyl Awareness Campaign as well as the 2023 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo). The Juvenile Correctional Officer Promotional Video won the 2023 CAPIO Award of Distinction for In-House Video Production. She and two of her colleagues won the Frank Potter Cowan Crisis Communicator of the Year Award in 2024.

She has served CAPIO for two years as the Central California Regional and Membership Director. She’s a proud Star Wars/Marvel/DC/Harry Potter geek, loves to travel, watch movies, read books, and spend time with her family and Golden Retriever, Buddy.

Scott Summerfield

Scott is a principal of SAE Communications. SAE has provided communications counsel, media relations, and Joint Information Center management for many of California’s most challenging recent crises, including the 2023 winter storms, 2020 Coronavirus response, 2019 Conception dive boat tragedy, 2018 Montecito mudslide, 2017 Thomas fire, 2016 Sherpa fire, 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill, 2014 Isla Vista shootings, 2011 Seal Beach massacre, and numerous crises of confidence. SAE was recently part of a team examining the 2015 San Bernardino County terrorist attack response and recovery. Scott also advises on emerging issues such as cyberattacks, Public Records Act, and First Amendment videography.

Scott’s work includes strategic communications, key message development/training, and crisis communications for a wide range of organizations including Port of Long Beach, California State Lottery, League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, City of San Francisco, City of San Jose, City of Palo Alto, City of Santa Clara, City of Beverly Hills, City of Carlsbad, Fairfield Police Department, Bechtel Corporation, Calpine Corporation, Intel Corporation, and many others. SAE’s educational clients include the University of California – Davis, San Jose State University, Long Beach City College, Santa Barbara City College, and several local school districts.