Lea-Ann Germinder is a first-year doctoral student in Strategic Communications at the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on AI and Public Relations. She is interested in how the public relations discipline can help implement AI responsibly.

Germinder is Founder and President of Germinder + Associates, Inc., a strategic communications firm with offices in the New York City area and Kansas City, Missouri. She is also the Editor and Publisher of Goodnewsforpets.com, an award-winning digital platform focused on the vet/pet industry.

She is an agency veteran and has spent decades in crisis, strategy, and brand communications in many vertical markets. Throughout her career, she has worked with a wide variety of clients — from global pharmaceutical companies to athletes and entrepreneurs launching new products.

Germinder is an accredited Fellow of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She has served on the PRSA national board, as a trustee of the PRSA Foundation and president of the New York and Greater Kansas City PRSA chapters. She also co-founded and chaired the Inez Kaiser GKC/PRSA Memorial Scholarship Fund honoring the first Black woman to own a national public relations firm. Germinder has been honored with numerous awards including the PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence. She was awarded the G. Ellsworth Huggins Fellowship for her doctoral studies.

Germinder has her Master of Science: Communications Management degree from Syracuse University and her Bachelor of Arts: Communication Arts degree from the University of Dayton. She enjoys international travel, swimming, reading and her latest new hobby — scuba diving.