Morning Keynote:
Trust Over Trends: A Smarter Approach to School Social Media

Description: Keeping up with trends, algorithms, and “the next big thing” on social media can feel exhausting. But school communication isn’t about chasing what’s viral - it’s about building trust.

In this session, you’ll learn how to shift from pressure to purpose by focusing on authentic, everyday storytelling that highlights the incredible things already happening in your schools. No fancy production. No complicated strategies. Just simple systems that help you consistently celebrate students and staff while protecting your time and energy.

You’ll leave with practical ideas and the confidence to show up online without losing your sanity!

Bio: Andrea Gribble is on a mission to make every school’s story shine. As founder of #SocialSchool4EDU, she helps schools and districts celebrate students and staff while connecting with their communities through social media. She’s the author of Social Media for Schools: Proven Storytelling Strategies & Ideas for Celebrating Your Students & Staff – While Keeping Your Sanity and host of the weekly podcast Mastering Social Media for Schools. 

Afternoon Featured Speaker:
The Power of a Plan: Boosting Your PR Efforts to Drive Real Outcomes

Description: The world of school communication is changing; so must our approach. We're often stuck in a reactive cycle of press releases, urgent emails, and social media posts, measuring success with clicks and shares—but are we truly building trust? This session will make the case for shifting your communication from a task to a strategic tool deeply connected to your district’s mission. Learn how to apply The BOOST Framework to move beyond outputs and focus on tangible, outcomes-driven efforts that build lasting community support. Discover how to use insights from one year to inform the next, and ensure your communication is driving meaningful, long-term change.

Bio: Lesley Bruinton, APR, is the President and CEO of School Spirit PR. She isn’t just a consultant—she’s a passionate advocate for education. Growing up in a family of educators, she brings a mix of expertise, creativity, and a lively personality to her work in school PR. Starting as a TV journalist covering local schools, she later spent over a decade as a PR director for a school system. Even after 20 years, she finds joy in attending board meetings and seeing how policies shape schools.

Lesley’s respected among her peers and is a known expert in school PR. Her leadership at the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) drove significant growth. With award-winning PR work and national speaking gigs, she’s all about excellence.

She’s a three-time NSPRA Gold Medallion winner and received recognition from AASA, The School Superintendent’s Association, as a Women in School Leadership Award Winner. Lesley holds a Masters in Strategic Communication and earned the Accreditation in Public Relations, showing her expertise, dedication, and commitment to top-notch PR practices.

Connect with Lesley

When AI Becomes a Headline:
Preparing School Communicators for the Questions Ahead

Description: Artificial intelligence is not a future-facing topic. It’s shaping district decisions, state guidance, media coverage, and community trust. School communicators are often the first to field questions about AI tutors, notetaking tools, student data privacy, screen time concerns, and how districts are aligning with evolving state expectations.

This workshop moves beyond “tips and tricks” to position communicators as strategic thought partners in conversations about the responsible use of technology. Participants will examine predictable PR flashpoints and explore what they should be asking district leadership before issues escalate.

Attendees will leave with a practical AI communications “cheat sheet” outlining key governance, privacy, and policy considerations to raise internally and a set of essential questions every district should be prepared to answer.

Bio: Casey Daigle is the Digital Learning Manager for the Collaborative of Educational Services in Northampton, Massachusetts. She is a digital learning leader and curriculum designer with 15 years of experience co-creating with educators and educational technology. Casey partners with schools to demistify technology and connect the dots between tools and the vision they hold — making room for curiosity, creativity, and meaningful change. She works with educators across New England, guiding work that is human-centered, imaginative, and grounded in strong instructional design. 

Deepfakes, Disinformation, and School Reputation: What School PR Leaders Need to Know

Description: Artificial intelligence has made it possible to fabricate convincing images, audio, and video of students, teachers, and administrators. Across the country and here in New England, schools are already confronting incidents involving AI-generated images of students, fabricated audio clips of administrators, and manipulated videos designed to damage reputations or incite outrage.

For school leaders and communications professionals, these incidents create a new category of crisis: one where false content can spread rapidly before facts are verified, undermining trust in school leadership and causing real harm to students and staff.

This session will examine real-world deepfake and AI-generated misinformation incidents that have affected school communities, including cases where manipulated media targeted students, educators, and administrators. Participants will learn how these incidents unfold, practical response strategies, and why traditional crisis-response approaches may not be enough.

Bio: T.J. Winick is a nationally-recognized media strategist, crisis communications counselor, and award-winning author. He is the Principal of Essex Strategies of Boston, a firm that specializes in strategic and crisis communications, media relations, executive training, and legal communications. He is the author of Reputation Capital: How to Navigate Crises and Protect Your Greatest Asset (2023). Prior to his career in strategic communications, T.J. was a correspondent for ABC News.

Friend or Foe? When to Lean in or Push Back with the Media

Description: It’s only a matter of time until a media inquiry hits your district’s inbox and you’ll want to be prepared when others might panic. If you recently transitioned into a school district or pivoted your career to public relations, we invite you to join us (Sujata and Chris) for an exciting interactive hour as we dive into the rapidly changing world of media–the good, the bad, the ugly. As the current Communications leadership team in Boston Public Schools (MA), we bring more than 30 years of media and public relations experience from small, medium, and major markets.

In our session, we'll touch on:

• Media Relations Foundation: Media lingo and basic strategies to help you navigate the next media inquiry you receive.

• Crisis Communications with the Media: We'll share our best practices for navigating through serious incidents that media outlets learn about.

• Landing a Positive Pitch: We'll discuss what reporters and producers need and want in a story to convince their boss it's work covering so you can successfully land positive news coverage.

Bios: Chris McKinnon is the Chief Communications Officer and Sujata Wycoff is the Deputy Chief Communications Officer for Boston Public Schools. Both have previously held public relations leadership roles in varying sectors including public schools, and have backgrounds in broadcast journalism.

Presented by the Massachusetts Office on Disability, this session will provide you ground-level details, and tangible information to take away, about how to ensure your school's website and communications materials are digitally accessible for people with disabilities and compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. More details coming soon!

Description: SchoolCEO’s newest research uncovers how AI is reshaping the roles of school leaders. Join us to explore how artificial intelligence can free you from administrative overwhelm—automating routine tasks, crafting personalized communications, and giving you back precious time for the work that truly matters: supporting students and staff. But transformation requires wisdom. We'll navigate the real challenges together: safeguarding data privacy, ensuring security, and building a culture where every team member feels confident with new tools. You'll leave equipped to champion AI adoption that empowers your people, cut through the hype, and bring even the skeptics on board. This isn't about chasing technology—it's about reclaiming your time and amplifying your impact.

This session will be hosted by representatives from Apptegy, a Gold-Level NESPRA Corporate Partner.

Northeast Region Vice President, NSPRA

Monica Lester, APR, is passionate about strategic communications and public education. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and a Master of Science in journalism, she worked as a newspaper reporter in Boston, Mass., for several years. When she moved to upstate New York in 2006, she began working in school public relations as a communications specialist at Capital Region BOCES—a state K-12 public education services agency. First as a specialist, and now as a program manager who hires, supervises, and mentors staff, she has worked in many New York public schools, serving clients from rural to suburban to urban.

Monica earned her Accreditation of Public Relations in July 2020. In addition, Monica has devoted time to supporting her state chapter of NSPRA (New York), where she worked as NYSPRA’s contest/communications coordinator for 10 years. She actively promotes and furthers the APR by volunteering for the NSPRA Accreditation Committee and the Public Relations Society of America's APR Marketing Committee. Throughout her career, she has worked to build relationships, which she sees as key to engaging communities, solidifying trust between both public schools and their audiences and among colleagues, and passionately promoting strategic communications work and public education.

Connect with Monica

Associate Director, NSPRA

Mellissa Braham, APR, CAE, has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, working primarily in the education and healthcare sectors. As the NSPRA associate director since 2018, she is responsible for coordinating NSPRA's research services (NSPRA Communication Audits, SCOPE Surveys), managing staff, coordinating session programming for the NSPRA National Seminar, overseeing chapter relations, contributing to member resources and developing association products. She presents on school communication topics throughout the year, including sessions at the NSPRA National Seminar, for state and national education-affiliated associations, and at state/regional SPRA chapter conferences.

Prior to joining NSPRA, Mellissa supported dozens of school districts across New York state during her 12 years with the Capital Region BOCES Communications Service. In her multifaceted role, she served as a trusted strategic advisor, communications professional, regional project leader, mentor, trainer, facilitator and communication auditor. Her work was honored with an NSPRA Gold Medallion in 2013 and an NSPRA Golden Achievement Award in 2016 as well as more than 50 national and state publication awards during her time with BOCES.

Before entering the field of public school PR, Mellissa provided communication services for a hospital and a law firm in New York, a mortgage company in Maryland and universities in Texas and New York.

Mellissa holds Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) and credentialling as a Certified Association Executive (CAE). She earned a master’s degree in public relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, where she later served as an adjunct instructor of public relations writing. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communication from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Find Mellissa on LinkedIn