If your company has ever experienced a crisis, you probably wish you had handled part – or even all – of it differently.
If you have yet to experience one, kudos to your company for steering clear of a crisis thus far. However, your crisis-free past does not guarantee an optimistic future. Crises can strike at the most unexpected times, and if you’re not prepared, you risk never recovering.
Cookerly PR’s traditional and digital crisis planning takes a proactive and preemptive approach that will put your business in the best possible position if a crisis ensues. From our decades of experience, we know this to be true: preparation is the key to sustained success.
Our team will work with yours to devise a plan tailored to your company, stakeholders, professional landscape and foreseeable threats. We can’t predict crises with 100% accuracy, but we will equip you with all the tools necessary to deal with hurdles you might face.
As part of the crisis and issues planning process, Cookerly can run tabletop simulations, in we which place you in unique, mock scenarios that mirror crises your company might face. After practicing your crisis or issue response, we provide detailed feedback and coaching to help you build a stronger foundation and skillset for future incidents.
Part of planning for potential disasters is knowing who’s talking about your company and what’s happening in your broad business landscape. Cookerly specializes in technology consulting that amplifies our social listening abilities, and thus, your company’s awareness of what’s happening outside of its four walls.
To do so, we use such tools as Jetty, a digital platform that allows us to collect data on stakeholders’ activities and gauge their thoughts and opinions on any topic in an instant. We use this to curate reports and inform the response strategy. Continual social listening substantially increases the likelihood we catch an issue early and de-escalate it before it turns into a crisis.
Clients also leverage Cookerly for developing concise statements and comprehensive FAQs that could be used in times of need and contacting key publics including regulators, politicians, NGOs and communities.
Nearly 40% of companies across the United States admit they don’t have a crisis plan in place. Don’t let your company be one of them.

As a senior vice president at Cookerly, Matt helps organizations protect and advance their reputations and bottom lines through strategic communications programs. Using creativity, planning and flawless execution, he works with a team to deliver compelling public relations campaigns that produce results and support clients’ business objectives.
As senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman specializes in building and maintaining relationships with the media and has an excellent track record of landing significant placements in print and broadcast media including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Money Magazine.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.




In his role as senior vice president of Cookerly, Chip Stewart is the head strategist for content services across all media. He shepherds the Cookerly Content Hub and can help clients get started on a blog or a vlog, a video or an editorial series, a mobile app or a meme, an infographic campaign or an annual report.
As senior vice president and chief talent officer of Cookerly, Keith Bowermaster leads the firm’s health care practice, shepherds clients through all facets of integrated marketing, manages reputation issues including complex issues and crises and helps cultivate a bright and engaged agency staff at all levels.
As senior vice president of Cookerly, Beth McKenna oversees integrated marketing campaigns for business-to-business, technology and hospitality clients. From creative brand-building to reputation management, she and her team leverage traditional and social communications channels to engage with key publics.
In his role as senior vice president and chief operations officer of Cookerly, Cory Stewart manages issues and crisis response for a wide range of clients.
In her role as senior vice president of Cookerly, Tracy Paden heads business-to-business accounts and high-profile integrated marketing campaigns for government, transportation, nonprofits and the public good. She leads massive cause marketing programs, devising strategies to drive behavioral change on issues from clean air to littering. She is also highly experienced in managing government contracts and budgets.
In her role as executive vice president of Cookerly, Jane Stout, APR, oversees financial and professional services accounts and sets integrated marketing strategy for the company’s top clients. From creative brand-building to reputation management, she and the Cookerly team leverage traditional and social communications channels to engage with key publics, consistently exceeding client expectations.




In her role as CEO and founder of the firm, Carol Cookerly is a chief strategist for building and sustaining brands. However, it is her deft management of complex crises and issues over three decades that has made Cookerly a top choice for clients when adversity strikes. Under her direction, the agency has been the lead strategist in scores of permitting efforts, contamination issues, natural and manmade disaster responses, instances of legislative and judicial activism, and challenging personnel matters including C-suite succession, whistleblowers, discrimination and harassment in just about every major industry.




