Kara Alaimo
Former global communicator in the Obama administration and United Nations, author of “Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls – And How We Can Take It Back,” communication professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University
BIO
KEYNOTES
TESTIMONIALS
VIDEOS
BOOKS
Kara Alaimo, PhD is author of Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls – And How We Can Take It Back (Alcove, 2024). She is an Associate Professor of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she created the university’s program in social media. She has been writing for CNN Opinion about the social impact of social media and issues affecting women since 2016 and is a former spokesperson in the Obama administration and communicator at the United Nations.
From 2012-2013, she served as Head of Communications for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a group of heads of state and other eminent thinkers convened to recommend the world’s next plan for eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development. In 2011, she was appointed by President Obama as Spokesperson for International Affairs in the U.S. Treasury Department, where she communicated global economic diplomacy initiatives, including America’s bilateral economic relationships; engagement in multilateral institutions including the G-20, World Bank, and IMF; and international monetary, trade, development, environmental, and energy policy. In this capacity, she also served as media adviser to Jim Yong Kim during his successful 2012 campaign for the World Bank Presidency.
She also previously served as the first Press Secretary of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Global Media Coordinator for the United Nations Millennium Campaign, and as a spokesperson for New York City economic development initiatives during the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
She earned her Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Philosophy, and Master of Arts degrees at the City University of New York, and her Bachelor of Arts at NYU.
Her research has been published in numerous academic journals and she is also author of Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street, a book which explains how to adapt communication strategies for different countries and cultures. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Opinion, and many other outlets.
Keynote Presentations
How Social Media is Affecting Every Aspect of Women’s Lives — And How We Can Fix It
Communication professor and CNN Opinion contributor Kara Alaimo will speak about her forthcoming book Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls – And How We Can Take It Back. In this book, Alaimo reveals how social media affects every aspect of the lives of women, girls and nonbinary people —from our relationships and our parenting to our physical and mental wellbeing. Over the Influence is a book about what it means to live in the world social media has wrought – whether you’re constantly connected or have deleted your accounts forever. Alaimo shows why you’re likely to get fewer followers if you’re a woman. She demonstrates how fake news is crafted to prey on women’s vulnerabilities. She reveals why so much of the content we find in our feeds is specifically designed to hold us back. And she explains how social media has made the offline world an uglier place for women.
But we can change this and reclaim the Internet to empower ourselves. Alaimo offers up brilliant advice for how to get over the influence—how to handle our daughters’ use of social media, use dating apps to find who we’re looking for, use social networks to bolster our careers, and protect ourselves from sextortionists, catfishers and trolls. She also explains what we need to demand from lawmakers and tech companies in order to solve these problems.
Ultimately, Alaimo calls on women to recognize and call out the subtle (and not-so-subtle) sexism and misogyny we find online, reject misinformation that is targeted to us because of our gender, and use our social platforms to empower ourselves and other women.
Going Global: How to Adapt Communication Strategies For Different Countries and Cultures
Kara Alaimo will discuss how to adapt communication and business strategies when working in different countries and cultures. She will take us on a tour of the world’s ten “cultural clusters” – Confucian Asia, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab world, Latin America, the Anglo world, Latin Europe, Germanic Europe, Eastern Europe, and Nordic Europe – and explain the messages, strategies, and tactics that work best within each of them. Alaimo is a former global communicator in the Obama administration and United Nations and author of the book Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication.
Managing Social Media Accounts to Achieve Your Goals
In this talk, communication professor Kara Alaimo will explain how to develop and manage the social media accounts of brands and other organizations in order to create relationships with audiences, spark engagement and achieve your goals. Alaimo is an Associate Professor of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she created the university’s program in social media. She is a former communicator in the Obama administration and United Nations and author of the book Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication.
Testimonials
“Kara’s presentation on communicating in different cultures was both highly fascinating and incredibly valuable. Already I’ve found ways to apply the knowledge gleaned to real world situations. In an industry where communicating one’s ideas clearly and affectively is of the utmost importance, knowing how to do so in a multitude of cultures is the next step to becoming a world-class communicator – and we’re grateful we were able to provide this experience to our conference attendees with Kara’s exceptional guidance.”
“Kara’s presentation was exceptional and highly rated by the attendees. Her forward thinking views on the PR industry and beyond are must-see by anyone in the industry. We look forward to working with her again!”
“Although we rarely invite the same expert to speak at the #WCFDavos summit for two years in a row, with her impressive presentation, Kara Alaimo wowed the audiences at the World Communication Forum in Davos in 2015, leading us to invite her to step out again in 2016 and join our advisory board. She is a confident, engaging speaker who gives her audiences some truly savvy, forward-thinking advice for adapting their communication strategies to different situations and cultures. It is difficult to obtain this kind of insight and information from other sources. I strongly recommend her as a top speaker on Global Strategic Communication.”
Videos
Books
