Nora Jacobs is senior vice president of Hennes Communications. With more than three decades of agency and corporate experience, she has counseled top executives at companies, associations, nonprofits and professional service firms throughout the country on reputational issues and problems ranging from accidents, environmental concerns, product failures, criminal matters and
activist attacks to reorganizations, management transitions and downsizings.
She has a strong portfolio of work in consumer and industrial products, health care, biotechnology, education and economic development, and has completed extensive coursework for the National Incident Management System. At Hennes, she specializes in conducting vulnerability audits,
developing crisis communications plans and creating comprehensive communication strategies for clients facing crisis events, reputational threats and emerging issues.
Previously, Jacobs served as executive vice president of Ohio-based Edward Howard, then the nation’s oldest independent public relations firm. There, she was a member of its board of directors and executive committee, with management responsibility for its largest office, as well as staffing and training firm-wide. She also managed some of Edward Howard’s largest accounts and led the firm’s healthcare practice. Among many others, her clients included household brands Kidde Consumer and Residential Fire Safety and Sherwin Williams, international manufacturers Brush Engineered Materials (now Materion), PolyOne Corporation, OxyChem and Hexion Specialty Chemicals, healthcare leader The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and several national trade associations including the Chlorine Chemistry Council and the Vinyl Institute.
She began her career at BFGoodrich Chemical Group, a division of the then Fortune 500 BFGoodrich Company, where she oversaw the group’s advertising, public relations, community relations and issues management programs. She was responsible for all media relations and publications, crisis management, numerous product launches, and was the communications liaison with the division’s manufacturing sites located throughout North America.
Jacobs holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University and a master’s degree from John Carroll University. She is past chair of the Kent State University Foundation Board, a former director and past- president of the Kent State National Alumni Association, past-president of the Kent State Honors College Advisory Board, a former director on the board of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America.
A five-time Silver Anvil winner, the highest award given by the public relations profession, Jacobs has received numerous other communications awards, including a Gold World Award from the International Public Relations Association. She has received the Distinguished Honors Alumni Award from Kent State’s Honors College, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Kent’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Davis Young Award for Exceptional Mentors from the Cleveland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in recognition of her work to help young professionals and others advance in the field, and the Tom Duke Public Relations Excellence Award from the Akron Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for outstanding service to the public relations industry through professional excellence, accomplished community involvement and
skillful leadership.