By Vivian Hu
Elisa Shawn (‘21)
A PR alumnus who graduated Cum Laude in 2021. Shawn is already a Senior Account Executive at BCW Global. She started her various internships in 2017, and she used to be an Intern at Lavoie Health Science, an integrated PR agency, as well as a social media intern at ViacomCBS. She works in the corporate practice on media relations, social and earned monitoring, research projects, and more.
Sydney Fiorentino (‘13)
A BU alumnus earned her Master’s degree in PR. In the past decade, she touched on different sections of the industry, including B2B tech, sports, and healthcare. After graduation, Fiorentino worked as a hospitality and sports intern in Regan Communities and also as a consumer intern in Halpern, London. Then, she went back to the Greater Boston area and worked in several Boston-based agencies, such as Lewis PR and SHIFT Communications. She left Boston in 2017 to work at Red Hat, serving as client director of accounts in health innovation and service. 2 years ago, she started her journey in Edelman, the top PR agency in the US. Now, she is the vice president at Edelman Health.
Colleen McCreary (‘95)
McCreary is a PR alumnus from the class of 1995 and earned a master’s from Columbia a year later. Recently, she gave $1,120,000 to establish the McCreary Family Funds for Career Enrichment at COM.
She has worked at Microsoft, Electronic Arts( EA), and Zynga. McCreary played a key role in scaling several startups into major companies, including the online gaming giant Zynga, where she recruited over 3,000 employees in just four years and helped build its unique corporate culture. Recognized for her impact, she was named one of the Bay Area's Most Influential Women by the San Francisco Business Times in both 2011 and 2012, while Zynga earned a spot as one of the Bay Area’s Top 10 Best Places to Work for four consecutive years.
Later, McCreary continued to expand her career, serving as CPO at Climate Corporation, WePay, and Vevo. She also worked at Credit Karma, a multinational personal finance company from 2018 to 2023. As Credit Karma's first Chief People, Places, & Publicity Officer, McCreary was responsible for the People, Workplace Services, Communications, and Events teams. She used internal and external communications to build a positive workplace culture, enhance long-term business value, and strengthen the company's market position. In 2021, McCreary joined the COM Dean’s Advisory Board to support more COM students.
Sabrina Horn (‘85)
Horn earned a M.S. in PR from BU in 1985. She is now an award-winning CEO, a tech communications expert, a professor, and also a successful author. At the age of 29, she founded her Horn Group in Silicon Valley, the iconic U.S. tech communications agency. Horn counseled thousands of C-level executives on category creation, IPOs, acquisitions, and strategic pivots.
After selling Horn Group in 2015 to Finn Partners, she served as Managing Partner of their Technology Practice, eventually becoming a Senior Advisor. Today, she leads HORN Strategy, LLC, providing tailored consulting services for startup founders and CEOs.
Horn also teaches a self-designed leadership course at Emerson College and holds board and advisory roles with several organizations, including 4CRisk.ai, Illuminate Ventures, and Dogly.com. Most recently, Horn is known as a bestselling author for her book “Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for real business success.”
It's worth knowing that before starting her own business, Horn also worked at Edelman as an account supervisor and a director at Blanc & Otus. Working in an agency helped Horn gain valuable experience for her later success, telling us that every step you take contributes to the harvest.
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