How Research Shapes Professional Practice

Lisa Osborne Ross is the Senior Director of the APCO Worldwide’s Washington, D.C. office. She is a former senior Clinton administration official and 20-year public relations agency veteran. She is a 1984 graduate of the Marquette’s Journalism program.

A native Washingtonian, Ross is deeply familiar with the city’s local government, federal industry and people. Ross served in the first and second terms of the Clinton administration, specializing in policy development and issues management. During this time, she was communications director for the U.S. Department of Labor’s effort to create and promote high-performance workplaces, deputy director of the bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling Commission and chief of staff for the White House’s Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach. Ross also created and directed the Office of Public Liaison at the U.S. Department of Labor under Secretary Alexis Herman.

Over her 20-year career at Ogilvy Public Relations, from where she joins APCO, and Fleishman-Hillard, Ross held senior management positions and consistently delivered award-winning work for clients, helping to build and strengthen some of the most iconic brands in the United States including America’s Promise, the United Way of America, Reading Is Fundamental, the Children’s Defense Fund, the United Nations Foundation, Pfizer, Cricket Wireless, MetLife and the USO. She also led several complex public affairs and government relations efforts, having worked closely with governments, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Mexico, to advance commercial and diplomatic relations between these countries and American audiences.