Nancy Gravatt, APR, Vice President, Communications, American Iron and Steel Institute

Ms. Gravatt leads the institute’s efforts in advancing its strategic plan, its branding and marketing strategies and its public affairs program. She has led the New Steel Campaign, a strategic, high-impact integrated communications program designed to position the North American steel industry as innovative, technologically-advanced, environmentally responsible and globally competitive. In 2008, the campaign won national communications awards, including the Advertising Research Foundation’s Silver Ogilvy Award and the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award of Excellence. Guided by AISI’s Strategic Communications Council, Ms. Gravatt and the AISI Communications team are responsible for strategy-development, branding, messaging, media relations and placement, marketing communications, the Web site and issues advocacy on behalf of AISI’s North American member companies. Under her leadership, AISI’s annual report has earned the 2007 Silver Inkwell Award by the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Web site received the 2008 and 2006 Standard of Excellence Web Awards from the Web Marketing Association.

Before coming to AISI, Ms. Gravatt provided strategic public relations counsel to the travel, insurance and food industries and to government. She served as a consultant to President Reagan’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control in the 1980s, prior to that, as Manager of Public Affairs in Nationwide Insurance’s Washington office, and before that, as a senior account executive with the PR agency, Carl Byoir & Associates.

Ms. Gravatt is chairwoman of the National Association of Manufacturers’ Communications Council, serves on Harris Interactive’s Executive Advisory Board and is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois and a Masters degree in Political Science from George Washington University. She is a volunteer with St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home and co-chairs her church’s Angel Tree Christmas Program for children with incarcerated parents.