Denise Bentele, APR, is president and CEO of Common Ground Public Relations, a firm she founded in 2003 after working for more than 15 years at agencies in Chicago and St. Louis. A St. Louis–based public-relations and issues-management agency, Common Ground’s services include strategic planning and counsel, media relations, copywriting and editing, graphic design, and employee relations. Bentele also has extensive experience in crisis preparedness and management, and she earned a PRSA Silver Anvil Award for crisis communications in 2001. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Bentele has been an active member of PRSA St. Louis since 2000, having served as president-elect/programming chair, president, and accreditation chair. She is also a member of PRSA’s Counselors Academy.

James Braibish

Jim Braibish, APR, founded Braibish Communications in 2002. Through his company, Braibish provides public relations, crisis communications, marketing communications, and fund-raising services to a broad range of clients. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Braibish served for nine years as the public-relations director for the St. Louis chapter of the American Red Cross and handled media response for local and national disasters. He has also directed public relations for the service organization Optimist International and supervised client public-relations programs with Edelman. A PRSA St. Louis board member since 2003, Braibish has served as membership chair and co-chair and is presently the chapter’s president-elect.

Susan Fadem

Susan Fadem grew up wanting to be Lois Lane, which she more or less accomplished, first by working nearly 17 years for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and then writing for the short-lived St. Louis Sun. Afterward, she spent four years as editor-in-chief of the Ladue News and seven years as editor-in-chief of St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles magazine. Presently, she is the managing editor of the two-year-old St. Louis Woman magazine and an “At Home With” columnist for the Saturday Lifestyle section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In addition, she has served as a public-relations account executive and has written four books - three on cats, one on kids - and contributed a chapter to a textbook on feature writing.

Rick Stoff

A veteran newspaper and magazine reporter, Rick Stoff founded Stoff Communications in 1990 after a nine-year tenure at the St. Louis Globe Democrat and five years as a member of a hospital public-relations staff. Today, Stoff Communications provides public relations and advertising services to a variety of business and not-for-profit clients, principally in the fields of health care and motorsports. A past president of the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis and a former secretary and treasurer of PRSA St. Louis, Stoff is also the advertising and public relations columnist for the St. Louis Journalism Review. Stoff earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Missouri and a master’s degree in business and marketing at Webster University. He is the author of three books and is working on six others that are proving to be lifetime projects.

Craig R. Workman

Craig R. Workman is president of The Workman Company, a full-service public relations agency in St. Louis providing strategic business-communications services at the local, regional and national levels. Workman founded his firm in 1993, and by 2003 The Workman Company was the 15th largest public-relations agency in St. Louis as ranked by the St. Louis Business Journal. Workman previously was vice-president at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and Shandwick USA. He began his career as a publications editor at Blue Cross of Missouri. Workman has served as president of PRSA St. Louis and has been an accredited member of the Counselors Academy. In 1996, The Workman Company won a Silver Anvil Award for institutional public relations programs.