prsa Houston & iabc Houston present:

comms together 2022

Innovative Retail Responses to Pandemic-Driven Challenges

Panelists:

• Lisa Helfman, Director of Public Affairs, H-E-B
• Lauren Willis, Global Communications Director, Western U.S. Walmart

Moderator:

• Heather Sullivan, Consumer Reporter, Fox 26 Houston

Where: United Way of Greater Houston, 50 Waugh Dr, Houston, TX 77007

When: Thursday, April 28, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• Online Registration Ends on Wednesday, April 27, at Noon.
• Walk-in registrations on day of event may not have lunch provided.

Schedule:

• 11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Networking  
• 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. - Program  &  Hot Box Lunch
• 1 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - Networking

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

SPEAKERS:

Lisa Helfman

Director of Public Affairs, H-E-B

Founder and Board Chair, Brighter Bites

Lisa Helfman is the Senior Director of Public Affairs Houston for H-E-B Grocery Company and served previously as their Director of Real Estate. Prior to joining H-E-B in 2014, Lisa served as Director of Real Estate Services at Texas Children’s Hospital where she created the Real Estate Services Department in order to centralize the hospital’s real estate operations. Lisa worked at Texas Children’s for seven years after leaving Vinson & Elkins law firm where she represented many urban redevelopment clients, non-profits, and government entities in financings, real estate, and other legal matters. Lisa received her JD Magna Cum Laude from the University of Houston Law Center and her BA Cum Laude from Tulane University.

When she isn’t representing H-E-B in the community, she is pushing kale smoothies to children all over underserved communities as the Founder and Board Chair of Brighter Bites. In the fall of 2011, Lisa and her family took part in a weekly fruit and vegetable co-op, and she watched her children’s eating habits transform—for the better. So much so that her little boy rejected a piece of cake at a birthday party, asking instead for the blueberries he’d grown fond of eating at home. Like most moms, Lisa realized this was a fairly significant decision for a six-year-old, and she wondered what kind of influence regular access to fresh produce might have on all children.

She was inspired to replicate this type of positive change in underserved communities where obesity was high and access to fresh produce was low. Because nutrition education in these communities is often equally lacking, Lisa’s vision was to bring a produce co-op to schools in these neighborhoods that included an educational component while also making it fun. She created a collaborative
partnership with Dr. Shreela Sharma at the University of Texas School of Public Health, and launched the program now known as Brighter Bites in 2012. Ten years later, Brighter Bites has delivered almost 50,000,000 pounds of fresh produce and 100,000s of education materials to more than 500,000 individuals (including teachers!) across 200+ participating schools in Houston, Dallas, Austin, New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Northern California, and Southwest Florida.

In 2019, the Houston-Galveston chapter of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship named Lisa its Humanitarian of the Year, Newcomb College at Tulane University also named Lisa its Community Service Alumni of the Year and Business Insider named her and Shreela to their list of top 100 Coolest People in Food and Drink. In 2020, her alma mater Kinkaid named Lisa the Alumna of the Year. In addition to chairing the Board of Brighter Bites, Lisa also serves on the boards of the Jung Center, the Houston Food Bank, the YMCA of Greater Houston and Buffalo Bayou Partnership. She has two children, Drew (16) and Nathan (13), who continue to inspire her every day.

Lauren Willis

Global Communications Director,

Walmart

Lauren Willis has over 20 years of public policy, campaign and communications experience.

Before joining Walmart, Lauren was a partner at Ironclad Partners, a full-service public affairs firm she founded. The firm served a variety of clients offering government relations, strategic communications, reputation management and strategic counsel. After two quick years, the firm’s overwhelming success led to it being acquired by Mercury, a global public strategy firm providing results for the world’s most successful companies, leading advocacy groups, governments, political parties, NGOs, and prominent public and political figures.

Prior to Ironclad, Lauren served as the Director of Communications and Information Services for current Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar. In this role, she directed all communications and marketing initiatives for the agency and led a staff of over 50 employees. She was initially recruited by former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs to serve as her Director of Communications. She was the spokesperson for local and national media and was able to elevate the Comptroller’s profile to a national stage, securing op-ed placements in the Wall Street Journal and television coverage on major network programs.

Prior to joining the Comptroller’s Office, Lauren served as the Director of Public Affairs for Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter. In this role, she created the much-lauded Eagle Ford Task Force to help stakeholders navigate the massive oil boom occurring in South Texas. The task force was a huge success and Lauren was able to secure positive editorials in every major newspaper in Texas.

Before returning to state government, Lauren was a Vice President at Edelman, a global communications marketing firm, where she provided strategic counsel and communications advice to a broad range of clients, including the American Petroleum Institute and LIVESTRONG. Lauren ran the global strategy for the LIVESTRONG account, served as a spokesperson for the foundation for local, national and international media and coordinated events for founder Lance Armstrong and his surrogates all over the world. In addition, she developed strategy and led the coordination of media and grassroots advocacy for legislation championed by Armstrong and the foundation. Under her guidance, the foundation was successful in passing sweeping smoke free laws in Texas and legislation to create the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Lauren spent nearly 10 years working for President George W. Bush. She served in the White House as the Senior Press Representative for the Office of Presidential Advance — where she was responsible for all media activities outside of the White House. She was the White House’s primary liaison for logistics for all local media and the White House Press Corps. She led a team of individuals both domestically and internationally, participating in several world summits as well as playing a primary role in the 2004 campaign. Lauren has served the President, the First Lady and the Vice President in almost all the 50 states and over 20 countries.
Prior to her work for President Bush, Lauren spent three legislative sessions working in both the Texas House and Senate.

In 2012, Lauren and her husband launched Tequila 512, an award-winning tequila company based in Austin, Texas. Since its inception the company has achieved triple-digit growth. Lauren serves as the Director of Public Relations for the company and has secured placements in every major media outlet in Austin, including the cover of the Austin Business Journal, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Austin Chronicle, among others, as well as all local television stations. Lauren has also secured coverage in national industry publications and developed partnerships with local and national media influencers to further promote the brand.

Lauren graduated from The University of Texas with a degree in journalism. She resides in Austin.

moderator:

Heather sullivan

consumer reporter

fox 26 houston

Heather Sullivan is thrilled to be the FOX 26 Consumer Reporter. Sullivan’s Smart Sense reports are all about helping Houston families save money and protect themselves from scams and rip-offs.

Heather loves to share her finds on great deals and how to be a smart consumer, shopper, and saver!

Heather won two Emmy Awards and a National Murrow Award as an Anchor and Consumer Investigator at WWBT in Richmond, Virginia over the last ten years. Her consumer stories aired on the nationally syndicated show “America Now” for four years. Before that she served as an anchor and reporter for stations in Los Angeles, South Carolina, Florida, and Oregon. Her investigative reports exposing illegal car sales, home improvement fraud, and other scams led the South Carolina Broadcasters Association to name her Reporter of the Year. She also won a Murrow Award for her consumer product testing series, “Does It Work?” and was voted Best Anchor Team twice in Richmond Magazine.

Heather holds an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and graduated with honors in Broadcast Journalism and Political Communication from Emerson College in Boston.

She has run three marathons and loves to talk about the antics of her orange tabby cat, Finneas Binny. In her spare time, you’ll often find Heather speaking and volunteering at community events. She has worked with the VCU Parkinson’s Center, the National Kidney Foundation, Junior League, local sporting events, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, and free medical clinics.

You can reach her on Facebook: @HeatherSullivanFOX26, Twitter: @Fox26Heather, and Instagram: @HeatherSullivanFOX26.

Tickets

$55.00 Guests

$45.00 Members