VIDEO: Add Zing to your Zoom with SD Press Club pros

PANELISTS

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR, Fellow PRSA, is owner and president of Falcon Valley Group, a strategic communication consulting firm based in San Diego. For two decades, Falkenthal has leveraged online tools working from a home office with clients across the U.S., leaving her in an ideal position to teach others how to maximize those tools in the current pandemic reality. Falkenthal is a former broadcaster and talk show host, and currently works as a nationally known sportswriter and analyst in addition to her public relations practice, appearing on a weekly podcast and live YouTube programs. Falkenthal will provide tips to help you graduate from Zoom rookie to polished presence online.

Denise Scatena is a founding partner at Scatena Daniels Communications. She is an award-winning PR pro with more than 20 years of strategic media outreach and communications experience. In the last two months, the team at Scatena Daniels has radically shifted their approach to earned media implementation, from pitching to producing, working collaboratively (and remotely) with their clients to obtain video, images, and stories from the front-lines as they deliver emergency services to San Diegans affected by COVID-19. The results have garnered their clients volunteers, financial donations, increased awareness for their mission and areas of expertise. She earned her master’s degree in communications from San Diego State University and her bachelor’s degree in communications/PR from Chapman University.

MODERATOR

Luis Cruz has been serving as the community and public relations director at The San Diego Union-Tribune since August 2019. He first joined the Union-Tribune in 2013 where he served as director of news and programming. In 2018, he became the executive director of news and programming at the Los Angeles Times and the managing editor of “L.A. Times Today,” which airs on Spectrum News 1 in the Los Angeles television market. Cruz is an Emmy award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of television broadcasting and digital video experience. He has served as a news director, anchor and reporter at various stations in Arizona, California and Nevada. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley.