Judith Harrison leads staffing and diversity & inclusion. In addition to overseeing recruiting, she drives diversity & inclusion programs designed to build a multicultural workforce that embraces and values different backgrounds and enables personal and corporate success by creating and managing fair access to opportunities, promoting awareness of multiple world views and respect for their importance, and ensuring that all employees have the information and access to opportunities they need to succeed. Judith develops strategic diversity and inclusion plans, drives the sharing of best practices across the U.S., U.K. and E.U., partners with diversity & inclusion leadership development and professional organizations to increase awareness of Weber Shandwick’s commitment to diversity, and creates and leads innovative diversity talent outreach initiatives to build a strong pipeline of potential staff. She has more than 15 years of experience in public relations recruiting and human resources. Prior to joining Weber Shandwick in 2006, Judith served as senior vice president of human resources at Ruder Finn, leading the agency’s global recruiting and retention initiatives. She began her career in recruiting as vice president of the Fry Group, which provides executive search services to public relations firms and client-side constituencies.
In addition to her human resources and recruiting expertise, Judith brings to Weber Shandwick a background in public relations and marketing communications. Her strength in corporate and entertainment communications was developed in project, program and department management positions at Burson-Marsteller, Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young), CBS and Media General. Judith has also provided promotion, publicity and public affairs counseling for organizations including Random House, the Italian Trade Commission and the International Art of Jazz.
Judith served the public relations firms industry’s trade group, the Council of Public Relations Firms, as chairwoman of its HR Roundtable for three years. She has been a guest lecturer in career management in public relations at NYU School of Continuing Education and has been a panelist at career seminars sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America, the International Association of Business Communicators, New York Women in Communications, the National and New York chapter of the Black Public Relations Society and the National Association of Market Developers. She has been listed in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. Judith has also served on the boards of WorldStudio Foundation, which provides mentoring and scholarships for multicultural and economically disadvantaged art students, and the New York chapter of American Women in Radio and Television. She currently serves on the board of directors of New York Women in Communications, where she oversees Student Affairs and raises funds to provide scholarships for young women entering the communications industries.
