Nora Jacobs, APR

Nora Jacobs is senior vice president at Hennes Communications, as well as an experienced crisis communications counselor with three decades of agency and corporate experience. Over the years, she has counseled top executives at companies, associations, nonprofits and professional service firms throughout the country on reputational issues and problems ranging from accidents, environmental concerns, product failures, criminal matters and activist attacks to reorganizations, management transitions and downsizings. She has a strong portfolio of client work in consumer and industrial products, healthcare, biotechnology, education and economic development.

Previously, Jacobs served as executive vice president of Ohio-based Edward Howard (now Fahlgren Mortine). There, she was a member of its board of directors and executive committee, with management responsibility for its largest office, as well as staffing and training firm-wide. During her tenure with the firm, she managed some of Edward Howard’s largest accounts and led the firm’s healthcare practice. She began her career at BFGoodrich Chemical Group, a division of the Fortune 500 BFGoodrich Company, where she oversaw the group’s advertising, public relations, community relations and issues management programs.

Jacobs holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University and a master’s degree from John Carroll University. She is a member of the Kent State University Foundation Board, a director and past-president of the Kent State National Alumni Association, president of the Kent State Honors College Advisory Board, a director on the board of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association, an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and a member of PRSA’s Counselors Academy.

A three-time Silver Anvil winner, the highest award given by the public relations profession, Jacobs has received numerous other communications awards, including a Gold World Award from the International Public Relations Association. She has received the Distinguished Honors Alumni Award from Kent State’s Honors College, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Kent’s College of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, she was presented with the Davis Young Award for Exceptional Mentors by the Cleveland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in recognition of the work she has done to help young professionals and others advance in the field.