Board Members

Kristen Pepper is an Athens, AL, native who grew up “on the outside looking in” at all of the hustle and bustle of the Rocket City. As marketing manager for the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), Kristen works to promote Huntsville/Madison County as a premier destination for meetings and leisure travel. She previously served as the Vice President of Programs for the North Alabama chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama, and is also a member of the Huntsville-Madison County Hospitality Association and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Executives (HSME). Kristen is an Auburn University graduate and member of the Leadership Huntsville/Madison County Connect Class 20.

Jessica is the Digital Media Specialist for the City of Huntsville.  Her work includes all things ‘communication’ that involve a screen including social media strategy, website and blog content development and e-mail campaigns. Previously, Jessica was part of the marketing team responsible for the communication efforts of the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Recognized as a Rising Star of the Industry by the Alabama Tourism Department in 2013 and a “30 under 30” tourism marketing professional by Destination Management International Association, Jessica was also selected by PR News as a Rising Star in 2015. Jessica serves as the Development Chair on the Board of Directors for Thrive Alabama and as the President of the North Alabama Chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama. A fan girl of NASA, she loves reading about space exploration in her free time. At home, she is dog mom to two rescue dogs – Grantham and Lilly.

Katie Coppens is an award-winning public relations professional with eight years of experience managing media relations, event planning, social media, campaign development and community engagement for a wide variety of industries including education, health care, and local and federal government.

Katie serves as the communications director for Huntsville Hospital Foundation, where she oversees all public relations and marketing efforts. Prior to her move in August 2017, Katie was a senior account executive for MP&F Strategic Communications, a full-service PR firm in Nashville, Tenn. She also gained experience as the communications specialist for ABQ Health Partners, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based multispecialty medical group.

Born and raised in Oneonta, Ala., Katie graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in public relations and a minor in political science.

Kristina L. Hendrix, APR, is an award-winning, veteran communication strategist. She has 15 years of experience with the Department of Defense, NASA, and private industry. Hendrix is the Corporate Communications Manager for Dynetics, Inc. in Huntsville, AL. She oversees all of the internal and external communications for the company as well as for the defense, cyber, space, and commercial sectors.

She is an active member of Public Relations Council of Alabama (PRCA) where she has held many board positions including past president of both the local chapter in North Alabama and the state organization. Hendrix is also a past president of Southern Public Relations Federation (SPRF) and a member of the SPRF Council of Leaders. Kristina is the 2015 PRCA Philip R. Forrest, Jr. Professional Achievement Award and the 2016 SPRF Professional Achievement Award recipient. She was named a SPRF Senior Practitioner in 2011 and became Accredited in Public Relations in 2010.

Kristina holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Alabama, graduating Cum Laude, and a master’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in strategic communications from the University of Memphis.

Macy Magnusson is the Marketing Manager at Crestwood Medical Center. She received her BS in Marketing from the University of Alabama and her MS in Strategic Communication from Troy University. She currently serves on the NAPRCA Board as Treasurer.

As Marketing Director for the Land Trust of North Alabama, Melanie Manson shares the Land Trust’s story and their passion for preserving important natural places through advertising, social media, and public outreach. She previously served as Marketing Manager at Crestwood Medical Center promoting all hospital services and coordinating community education efforts. Melanie serves as Vice President of Projects for the North Alabama Chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama. She received a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Alabama and is a graduate of Leadership Huntsville/Madison County’s Connect Class 19.

At WHNT News 19, Lori oversees research functions and helps news, promotions and management better understand viewers and grow ratings and revenue. She also helps sales people with brand messaging, market analysis and competitive positioning. As a member of the leadership team, Lori is often a key participant in developing station strategy and community outreach.

Lori is a longtime PRCA member and remains active in a variety of committees. Starting as a student member at UAHuntsville in the 1980s, she’s held many leadership positions including chapter president (2009), state president (2015), and a handful of Southern Public Relations Federation board roles. She is the 2018 VP Membership for NAPRCA.

She’s a SPRF Senior Practitioner (2011) and a Philip R. Forrest Jr. Professional Achievement Award recipient (2013).

Megan Nivens, 38, is Founder and CEO of Huntsville-based Marketing firm, Flourish, which provides business and strategic marketing services to small and medium sized businesses. Megan’s background ranges from working in non-profit to multi-million-dollar organizations, doing everything from digital marketing, public relations, strategic communications, business development and more. Most recently she’s worked in high tech and noticed the lack of insight and faith in what strategic marketing is really all about. It goes beyond just ‘making things
pretty.’ Instead, it involves creative collaboration, market understanding, competitive awareness and so much more – which drove her to start her own business, Flourish, which just celebrated its first year in operations. Flourish has clients in the healthcare, telecom, aerospace/defense, real estate, sports and entertainment industries and is experiencing rapid growth.

She’s also spent the last several years as Chief Growth Officer for lifestyle business, NotTied, which helps recent divorcees maneuver their lives after going through a divorce. Her passion is people and finding solutions to problems – whether its mentoring students, guiding non-profits, helping her kids maneuver life’s’ challenges, or working with clients to determine areas for growth and overall success.

In addition to managing her business, she volunteers a lot of her time, to include serving as a Board Member for the North Alabama Public Relations Council, being an active student mentor through the University of Central Florida (go Knights!), volunteers as a communications committee member for Semper Fi, has co-led communications efforts for the recent Wall That Heals (Vietnam Veterans Memorial that came to Huntsville in November 2018), served as a marketing lead for Women Can Be Angels (a non-profit aimed at educating women about angel investing), supports public relations efforts for Huntsville-based non-profit startup accelerator Urban Engine and speaks at various events to educate/inform about the public relations/marketing/communications field. However, and most importantly, she’s the proud Mom of 2 young children (5 & 13) and a stepmom to a vivacious 10-year-old.

Whitney Schmitt is a Communications Specialist at Dynetics where she coordinates and executes regional and national tradeshows, as well as works with technical and management teams to develop tradeshow strategy and messaging. She also works with the corporate communications team to execute all internal and external strategic communications for the company. She serves as Student Chapter Liaison for the North Alabama Chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama, Communications Chair for the Dynetics Young Professionals, and is a graduate of Leadership Huntsville/Madison County Connect Class 19. She is also a member of the Southern Public Relations Federation.

Whitney holds a bachelor’s degree in communications arts with a concentration in public relations and a minor in marketing from the University of North Alabama.