Chief Influencer®

Social Driver
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Washington is the Center of Influence - in the U.S. and arguably the world. Chief Influencer® spotlights leaders who have figured out how to break through in today’s fragmented and noisy world. Social Driver teamed up with The George Washington University College of Professional Studies and The Communications Board to recognize these leaders as Chief Influencers and highlight how they inspire and influence others.

  1. 1d ago

    Is LinkedIn the New Digital Diplomacy? Recorded Live at the British Embassy

    Recorded live at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, in partnership with Global Ties US and National Digital Roundtable, this special episode brings together four leaders who have solved the same problem in very different rooms: how do you build trust when institutions are losing it? Katie Schubert (CEO, Society for Women's Health Research), Alejandra de Lecea (The World Bank Group), Christina Maruna (LinkedIn), and Matt Keller (Embassy of Liechtenstein) join Anthony Shop to unpack why, in an era of declining institutional trust, people carry messages further than logos can. The throughline: influence online is not about reach. It is about who says it, who reshares it, and whether the right people engage. The conversation also gets practical about the parts leaders struggle with most. Katie shares how peer pressure, not staff persuasion, is what finally gets CEOs to prioritize LinkedIn. Matt explains how a three-person embassy competes for attention without flooding the zone, and why resonance with the right audience beats likes from friends and family. Alejandra walks through how she sells influence to a board that wants impressions, and Christina offers a warning against the cookie-cutter amplification that reads as inauthentic. The panel closes with Anthony's See, Say, Do framework, a simple way to report return on influence up the chain without drowning in metrics, plus live questions from embassies, the DC Mayor's Office, the National Gallery of Art, and the US Global Leadership Coalition. Takeaways: Send a person, not a logo. Executives' posts earn far more engagement than company pages, so leaders who only clear their calendars for TV hits are missing where the audience actually is.Pick the right messenger per message. Official resources belong on the institutional page; personal stories, expertise, and relationships belong to individuals who can add what a brand cannot.Amplify with intent, not copy-paste. Coordinated cookie-cutter reposts read as inauthentic; a reshare with your own thinking, or a comment from the company page, builds far more.Build a constellation, not a single voice. Train staff at every level to show up, so influence does not live or die with one principal or one ambassador.Measure influence with See, Say, Do. Track what the right people saw, who said something (a reshare from the right organization beats a thousand anonymous likes), and what they did next. Quote of the Show: “When it comes to punching above your weight, it’s really the quality of the stuff that you’re putting out that matters. For us, it's really about quality over quantity." - Matt Keller Links: Alejandra de LeceaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandradelecea/Website: https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/home Christina Maruna:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-maruna/ Matt KellerLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-keller-b188b94/ Website: https://www.liechtensteinusa.org/ Kathryn Godburn SchubertLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryngschubert/  Website: https://www.swhr.org/  Shout Outs: The British Embassy, Washington Katherine A. BrownGlobal Ties US: National Digital Roundtable George Washington University College of Professional StudiesPRSA-NCC

    Is LinkedIn the New Digital Diplomacy? Recorded Live at the British Embassy

  2. Oct 7

    Lead with Story, Then Bring the Data: Amy Pisani of Vaccinate Your Family

    Amy Pisani has spent 30 years building trust in one of the hardest arenas for it: vaccines. As CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, she leads an organization founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers, and she has watched the country's information landscape shift from a lack of information to outright disinformation. Her career offers a master class in a kind of influence most leaders never have to attempt: persuading people who are afraid, without judging them, while the loudest voices in the room profit from fear. Amy and Anthony explore how listening builds trust before you ever need it, how to pair science with the right messengers, and why leading with story before data might be the most underrated move in influence. Takeaways: Build coalitions before you need them. Betty Bumpers raised Arkansas vaccination rates from the 20th to the 70th percentile in two years by bringing together everyone who touched children's lives, not by waiting for systems to change.Meet people with empathy before information. Rosalynn Carter's posters said "Please immunize your child by age two." The word "please" reflected a philosophy: persuade through care, not commands.Lead with story, then bring the data. When Amy brought a mother from rural Virginia to Capitol Hill, the story of distance and barriers opened minds, and the data that followed made it credible.Find the movable middle. You cannot reach everyone. Focus on people with real questions and shared values, and answer them honestly without forcing a decision.Give your team permission to experiment. Vaccinate Your Family was early on Facebook and is now on TikTok because leaders gave younger communicators freedom to try new channels, and because Amy's founders once gave a 26-year-old the same freedom.Influence works better as a pull than a push. Amy defines their approach as removing barriers and answering questions, not selling. As she puts it, "It's just about getting to the heart of the matter, and it's keeping somebody from dying." Quote of the Show: “We lead with empathy. We’re all the same, right? It’s about finding that conversational piece where you can find yourself in the conversation, and then communicating clearly about the science.” Links: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amy-pisani-385a4514 Website: https://vaccinateyourfamily.org/

    Lead with Story, Then Bring the Data: Amy Pisani of Vaccinate Your Family

  3. Sep 30

    The Power of 2WAY Influence with Joe Ruffolo

    For decades, digital media promised interactivity. What we got instead, as Joe Ruffolo puts it, was "watching TV shows on computers and pretending like we have a digital experience."  Joe has been at the center of that evolution since the beginning. He helped build CNN Interactive in the '90s, led ABC News Digital, served as an executive producer on a National Geographic series with BBC Studios and James Cameron at OceanX, and now leads 2WAY, a live video platform built around bringing audiences directly into the conversation. His career offers a front-row view of what happens when leaders stop broadcasting at people and start inviting them in. Anthony and Joe explore why the shift from audience to community changes everything, how leaders can extend into new platforms without losing the heart of their brand, and why trust and participation are inseparable. Takeaways: Build communities, not just audiences. An audience receives; a community participates. The organizations that create genuine two-way experiences will earn deeper trust and longer engagement.Stay anchored to your brand's core as you experiment. New platforms and technologies should extend what you stand for, not replace it. Joe's rule: understand the heart and soul of the brand, then translate it into new spaces.Trust requires identity, not anonymity. Communities where people are known to each other, where faces and names are visible, naturally foster more respectful and productive conversations.Influence flows in both directions. The best ideas don't always come from the top. Leaders who listen to junior team members and let them experiment create cultures where innovation actually happens.Use your own product. You cannot lead what you do not experience firsthand. Joe encourages everyone in his organization to host shows and participate in the platform themselves. Quote of the Show: "Audience is a one-way experience, and community is a two-way experience." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-ruffolo-4898b/ Website: https://2way.tv/  Shout Outs: Peter Cherukuri Mark Halperin and Mark Penn / Harris X Tim ArmstrongTed Leonsis (quoted: "They can't love us if they don't trust us")Anna Palmer / Punchbowl News Jenny Abamu / WAMUBryan Myers / Solidcore

    The Power of 2WAY Influence with Joe Ruffolo

  4. Sep 23

    How Maria Ghazal Builds Consensus Among Healthcare Industry Leaders

    Maria Ghazal, President and CEO of the Healthcare Leadership Council, has spent her career at the intersection of business, healthcare, and public policy, building consensus among leaders who don't always agree. At HLC, she brings together CEOs and C-suite leaders from hospitals, health plans, pharma, medical devices, and technology to find common ground on healthcare's biggest challenges. Before that, she led the Business Roundtable's work on its landmark Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, convincing 181 of America's most powerful CEOs to individually sign a document redefining the role of business in society. In this conversation with Anthony, Maria reveals how influence is built through intentional design: narrowing HLC priorities to three strategic buckets instead of 27, keeping membership deliberately small to foster trust, mapping the hidden currents of influence in Washington, and creating convenings where leaders don't just listen but roll up their sleeves and commit to action. Her career offers a clear lesson: influence isn't about having the biggest platform or the longest list of priorities. It's about earning trust through process, building relationships before you need them, and translating conversation into consensus. Takeaways: If everything's a priority, nothing is. Hone your focus to what you can actually drive consensus around.Influence without action is not influence. Convenings must translate into public policy positions, comment letters, and Hill briefings, not just good conversations.Keep the room small enough for trust. HLC deliberately caps membership at 50-60 so leaders can build real relationships across competing sectors.Map the hidden currents of influence. Staff, think tank leaders, and behind-the-scenes experts often shape decisions more than the household names.Start with a listening tour. When joining HLC, Maria met every member individually before making a single strategic change, and that process built the trust she needed to act.Build relationships before you need someone's support. The Business Roundtable statement succeeded because trust with legal teams and advisors already existed. Quote of the Show: "At the end of the day, influence is still having the right relationships, being able to take those relationships, put them into public policy positions, and bring them to the right people." Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-ghazal/ Website: https://www.hlc.org/  Shout Outs: Business RoundtableSenator Daniel Patrick MoynihanNneka Chiazor / Public Affairs Council Priya Parker / The Art of Gathering

    How Maria Ghazal Builds Consensus Among Healthcare Industry Leaders

  5. Sep 16

    Camille Stewart Gloster on Empowering Change Through Tech and AI (Re-Air)

    To celebrate the release of Camille Stewart Gloster’s new book, The Insider You Built: How Organizations Stay in Control of Autonomous AI Agents, we’re revisiting our conversation with Camille, CEO and Principal at CAS Strategies, LLC. Drawing on her experience at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, Google, and other leading organizations, Camille shares how her career at the intersection of technology, cybersecurity, law, and policy has shaped the way she approaches leadership and influence. Camille discusses the importance of bringing diverse perspectives into conversations about emerging technology, creating policies rooted in values rather than specific technologies, and building collaboration across government, industry, and civil society. She also explains why people should feel empowered to participate in conversations about AI and cybersecurity, including through initiatives like The ABCs of Cybersecurity. As organizations increasingly navigate autonomous AI, the lessons from this conversation feel especially timely and offer a strong foundation for the questions Camille explores in her new book. Takeaways: Understand Stakeholders' Motivations: Before engaging in any negotiation or attempting to influence others, it's crucial to understand the motivations and priorities of the stakeholders involved. This knowledge will help find common ground and build a foundation for productive discussions.Articulate a Clear Vision: Successful leaders set a clear, affirmative vision that resonates with their audience's fundamental values and aspirations. This approach inspires and motivates people to align with the leader's goals and objectives.Foster Collaboration: It is essential to bring together various stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society, and different government agencies. Leaders must facilitate collaboration by highlighting shared goals and balancing different motivations to advance a common agenda.Be Transparent and Communicative: Open and transparent communication is key to building trust and aligning competing priorities. Leaders should consistently update stakeholders on progress, challenges, and any areas of confusion to maintain a candid dialogue.Encourage Proactive and Resilient Policies: Instead of reacting to threats or technological changes, focus on policies that protect core values and establish a proactive, resilient framework. This approach allows for better adaptation to future challenges and technological evolutions.Promote Education and Empowerment: Leaders should advocate for education and empowerment in technology and cybersecurity. Engaging communities and providing the necessary tools and knowledge will ensure broader participation and resilience in the digital age.Recognize the Importance of Diversity: Diverse perspectives are critical in addressing complex issues like national security, cybersecurity, and AI. Leaders should strive to include individuals from various backgrounds to foster innovative solutions and create an inclusive environment. Quote of the Show: “It is important for people to feel empowered in and through technology. There's a lot of opportunity- economic, career, and creative- and I don't want people to get or feel left behind."  Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillestewartesq/ Website: https://camillestewartgloster.com/casstrategies  Shout Outs: UK AI Summit: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/ai-safety-summit-2023 Seoul AI Summit: https://www.csis.org/analysis/ai-seoul-summit France AI Summit: https://franceintheus.org/spip.php?article11521 AIEO: https://www.epa.gov/tribal/american-indian-environmental-office-aieo EU’s AI Act: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/

    Camille Stewart Gloster on Empowering Change Through Tech and AI (Re-Air)

  6. Sep 9

    Why Collective Influence Produces Better Solutions Than Any Individual Star

    Amanda Cage has spent three decades working alongside frontline workers, from hog processing plants in North Carolina to Head Start classrooms in Boston to construction sites where women were breaking barriers in the building trades. Today, as President and CEO of Shift Work Forward, she leads a national network of over 30 communities working to redesign how workforce systems operate so that economic opportunity reaches everyone, not just those who already have access. Her conversation with Anthony explores a question that cuts across every industry: Is individual influence enough to create lasting change, or does real influence require something collective? Amanda makes a compelling case that collective influence produces better solutions because it forces leaders to persuade, listen, and refine ideas through genuine pushback. She challenges leaders to check their ego, use language that respects the people closest to the problem, and stop designing solutions for communities without including them in the process. Amanda also shares what she learned leading Shift Work Forward through a major rebrand, including why the process is always harder, more expensive, and more emotional than you expect, and why it forces an organization to answer the most fundamental question: Who are you? Takeaways: Build influence through movements, not personalities. Individual leaders come and go, but a committed base of people sustains change over time.Collective decision-making produces better ideas because it forces you to persuade, defend, and refine your thinking through real pushback.Check your ego before trying to lead. Your experience is often not the experience of the people you are trying to help.Use language that respects your audience. Jargon and acronyms signal membership in a club, but they lock people out of the conversation.Disruption is not destiny. History shows that who is at the table during times of change determines the outcome, not the technology itself.A rebrand is soul-searching. It costs more than you expect in money, time, and emotional energy, but it forces you to define who you really are. Quote of the Show: "What's important to me at this stage is thinking about how we create the next generation of influencers? How do we create the next generation of talent to be influencers? And how do we create a group of people who are listening, who have access to, or who have experience, or who have a broader perspective because of the kind of experiences they were allowed to have?" Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandacage/ Website: https://shiftworkforward.org/

    Why Collective Influence Produces Better Solutions Than Any Individual Star

  7. Sep 2

    Building an Infrastructure of Influence with Lisa Lawson

    Lisa Lawson, President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has built a career creating change. From her earlier years as a lawyer and lobbyist to now leading one of the nation’s largest philanthropies focused on children and young people, Lisa has seen how influence works across business, government, philanthropy, and local communities. In this episode of Chief Influencer, Lisa joins host Anthony Shop to discuss why some of the most powerful influence is local, how leaders can identify the right messenger for the right audience, and what it takes to build an “infrastructure of influence” that lasts beyond any one person. They also explore the importance of pairing data with human stories, giving people a clear role in the change you want to create, and using your own influence to elevate others. Lisa shares lessons from her work with young people, the science behind her book Thrive, and decades of work at the Annie E. Casey Foundation to show what long-term influence can accomplish. Takeaways: Some of the most powerful influence is local. Issues become more personal and less abstract when people can see how decisions affect the communities, schools, businesses, and people they know.The CEO isn’t always the right messenger. Effective influence means thinking carefully about the message, the messenger, and the timing, then equipping trusted voices with the information they need.Build an infrastructure of influence. Lasting change requires more than one influential person. It takes data, advocates, researchers, organizations, lived experts, and an ecosystem that can sustain the work over time.Pair data with stories. Data establishes the scope of an issue, but numbers alone rarely move people. Lisa says, “Data and a story is influence.”Give people something to do. Influence shouldn’t stop at helping someone understand a problem. Leaders need to be specific about the change they want to see and help people understand their role in making it happen.Listen before you build the solution. Lisa encourages leaders to engage lived experts early, compensate them for their expertise, prepare them to participate, and follow up so they know how their contributions made a difference.Be a gracious steward of your influence. A leader’s platform doesn’t have to be about self-promotion. Lisa sees it as an opportunity to give visibility and influence back to the people and organizations doing important work.Influence belongs to all of us. Lisa believes social media and declining trust in institutions have shifted influence beyond a small group of traditional power brokers, giving everyday people more ability to create change. Quote of the Show: “You need to be able to go from a simmer to a boil….So you can't just decide today, ‘Oh, I wanna influence X.’ You gotta be evergreen in building that infrastructure so that when the opportunity happens, you can boil and you can seize a moment where public will or political will might be in your favor.” Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawsonlisamaria/ Website: https://www.aecf.org/ “Thrive” Book Link: https://a.co/d/0ePCa4uS  Shout Outs: Thrive by 25KIDS COUNT NetworkFederal Reserve Bank of RichmondUPS FoundationUCLA Center for the Developing AdolescentSolutions Journalism NetworkSoul Family Framework

    Building an Infrastructure of Influence with Lisa Lawson

  8. Aug 26

    Influence is About 'Soft Power' with Vivian Schiller

    Vivian Schiller has spent her career at the forefront of nearly every major transformation in modern media. From serving as President and CEO of NPR and Global Chair of News at Twitter to leading NYTimes.com and serving as Chief Digital Officer of NBC News, Vivian has repeatedly stepped into moments of disruption and helped organizations navigate what comes next. In this episode of Chief Influencer, Vivian joins host Anthony Shop to discuss what decades of leading through change have taught her about trust, influence, and leadership. They explore why soft power can be more effective than formal authority, why great leaders don’t need to be the smartest people in the room, and how curiosity, listening, empathy, and kindness help bring people together. Vivian also shares her perspective on the changing media landscape, the growing influence of creators, and why the biggest threat from AI may not be believing something fake, but reaching a point where people stop believing anything at all. Takeaways: Soft power is the real power. Influence built through relationships, collaboration, and trust can accomplish more than relying on a title or organizational hierarchy.You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. Strong leaders know how to surround themselves with expertise, listen, connect the dots, and bring people together around a shared goal.Curiosity makes you a better listener. Vivian connects curiosity to listening, empathy, understanding different perspectives, and finding common ground.Meet people where they are. Leaders and institutions can’t simply expect audiences to come to them. They have to understand how people discover and consume information and adapt accordingly.Influence comes from providing value. Whether information comes from an individual creator or a major institution, Vivian believes authority is earned through the value, rigor, honesty, and transparency you bring to your audience.AI is creating a new challenge for trust. The greater danger may not be that people fall for one convincing deepfake, but that they begin to assume anything could be fake and stop trusting what they see and hear altogether.The tools change, but influence remains human. Technology and platforms continue to evolve, but Vivian believes influence still comes back to curiosity, listening, empathy, and finding commonality with others. Quote of the Show: “If your power is derived solely by an organizational chart and by your saying, ‘I’m the boss, you report to me,’ you’ve already lost. Soft power is the real power.” Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianschiller/ Website: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/  Shout Outs: Søren KierkegaardPatrick J. McGovern FoundationNPRThe New York TimesTwitterNBC NewsCNNDiscovery Times ChannelCraig Newmark Philanthropies

    Influence is About 'Soft Power' with Vivian Schiller
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5
out of 5
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About

Washington is the Center of Influence - in the U.S. and arguably the world. Chief Influencer® spotlights leaders who have figured out how to break through in today’s fragmented and noisy world. Social Driver teamed up with The George Washington University College of Professional Studies and The Communications Board to recognize these leaders as Chief Influencers and highlight how they inspire and influence others.

Information

  • Creator
    Social Driver
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    176
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Social Driver
  • Show Website
    Chief Influencer®

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