Laura Tuma began her career more than 30 years ago as a sports reporter for The Daily Texan newspaper at The University of Texas at Austin. She was the first woman reporter assigned to cover the Longhorn football team following a game, and consequently, the first woman reporter ejected from the Longhorn locker room. That experience, and similar ones that followed, discouraged her from being a sports reporter and instead focused her on the intersection between organizational communication objectives and media. As communication avenues have proliferated, that intersection has become increasingly crowded, hazardous, and confusing to negotiate. Laura provides both the creative thinking and practical know-how to help clients effectively communicate the right messages to the right audiences without getting lost in the traffic.
Laura specializes in healthcare and education but has provided strategic, planning, and project management services to clients in diverse industries. Her client list includes Scott and White Healthcare, Seton Healthcare Network, Austin Diagnostic Clinic, The University of Texas System, UT - Austin, St. Edward’s University, Harcourt Educational Publishers, Hart InterCivic, Flint Hills Resources, Germania Insurance, and Eat Out In.
She is equally comfortable helping a small business launch its website and social media strategy, managing a national image initiative, and developing long-term measurable communication goals and strategies to achieve organizational objectives. Prior to becoming a consultant, Laura was a magazine editor and newspaper reporter, where she won numerous awards and developed a keen understanding of how to work successfully with media.
Although Laura chose not to pursue sports journalism as a career, she remains an avid football fan and lover of sports talk radio. Ask her sometime what happened when she returned to the Longhorn locker room several years later. There may be lessons for how your company can plan wisely and avoid potential embarrassment.