The Leaders Who Will Define PR's Next Decade
Tina McCorkindale, Ph.D., APR-President & CEO of the Institute for Public Relations-lays out a clear path for where PR leadership needs to go: stand firm on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, use AI with responsibility and rigor, and confront misinformation head-on. Her throughline is simple: trust and research are the ballast. Everything else builds on that.
What follows distills her perspective into practical lessons for PR and communications leaders.
What Inspiring Leadership Looks Like
McCorkindale points to leaders who communicate across divides and stand up under pressure. She admires Pete Buttigieg for engaging both sides with facts and composure. From sports, she cites Ilona Mahar and Megan Rapinoe-leaders who pushed their fields forward despite criticism.
Inside PR, she highlights Diana Littman, Yanique Woodall (Verizon), and Linda Rutherford-leaders with staying power who keep advancing the profession and giving back. That mix matters: courage, service, and impact.
Promotion ≠ Leadership
We often promote strong operators and client-growers and assume they'll be strong leaders. Different skill set. Too many confuse confidence with competence. Extroversion is not strategy. Technical ability is not leadership.
McCorkindale argues our field doesn't study leadership deeply enough. Managing people, building trust, and developing talent need the same discipline we bring to research, issues, and strategy.
DEI: Hold the Line
The IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion remains just that-by choice. While some organizations are renaming similar efforts due to political pressure, IPR's leadership chose to stay the course. Reason: this is when practitioners most need evidence-based resources to build inclusivity and belonging.
Courage here looks practical: keep providing tools, keep the door open, and keep the mission clear.
AI That Actually Gives You an Edge
IPR is tracking two fronts: AI and disinformation. Many teams still reduce AI to "ChatGPT," but leaders are building literacy and systems. One example: Siemens partnered with Leipzig University and the Academic Society of Communication Management on an AI literacy test to benchmark knowledge, skills, and confidence. They also rolled out internal chatbots and GPT tools to streamline work, including comms.
The point isn't shiny tools. It's responsible rollout: training, closing the confidence gap, and managing real risks-privacy, data quality, and deepfakes that can damage reputations fast.
Institute for Public Relations | Siemens
Explore practical AI courses for comms teams
Leading Leaders
What's the "secret sauce" when your board is full of high performers? Keep it human. Plan well, keep meetings relaxed, and make space for connection. Approachability beats theatrics.
Over time, the IPR team built trust, fellowship, and a genuinely inclusive culture. That didn't happen by accident. It happened through consistency, access, and knowing people as people.
Where Leadership Comes From
McCorkindale credits her upbringing in Pensacola, Florida, as a first-generation college student. That environment sparked drive, curiosity, and a strong reading habit-traits that still inform how she leads.
Her takeaway: your story is a leadership asset. Don't sand off the edges. Use them.
What's Ahead for PR
There's real momentum for PR. When it's done well, this field meets hard moments with clarity and impact. That's exciting.
The concern is deeper: disinformation, eroding trust, the decline of local news, polarization, and policy shifts that stress employees and communities. These forces are outside comms, but they hit the work-hard.
Put This Into Practice
- Separate confidence from competence in promotions. Define and assess leadership skills explicitly.
- Invest in evidence-based leadership development, not just technical training.
- Keep DEI visible and useful: resources, measurement, accountability, and consistent language.
- Build AI literacy across the team. Benchmark skills and close the confidence gap with hands-on use.
- Stand up governance for AI: data hygiene, privacy, model choice, human review, and brand-risk protocols.
- Prepare for deepfakes and misinformation: monitoring, escalation paths, legal coordination, and pre-approved response frames.
- Design meetings and teams for connection. Psychological safety drives better ideas and faster issue spotting.
- Stay close to societal impacts on your people. Benefits, resources, and internal comms should reflect real needs.
- Measure trust internally and externally. Treat it like a key metric, not a vibe.
The Bottom Line
The next era of PR will be led by people who stand for something, prove it with research, and run toward hard problems. Commit to DEI. Get serious about AI. Fight misinformation with speed and facts. And above all, keep trust at the center.
Your membership also unlocks:
