Sara MacRae

Background

About Sara MacRae

Each of us started somewhere. Each of us has a story. I come from an agriculture background (dairy farming, specifically, and developed and showed my own herd of Registered Holsteins at state and national levels) and my college coursework and degree were science-heavy. As a college student, I approached the largest bovine A.I. exporter in Canada and successfully sold the idea of becoming their first-ever intern. That internship was the beginning of a 25+ year career as a professional communicator and media relations specialist that spanned both sides of the U.S. and Canadian border. It earned me extensive experience planning and strategizing, developing, producing, and delivering internal, external, legislative, and stakeholder communications, marketing, media, and public relations products, sales materials, educational and strategic plans, and outreach and training resources for domestic and international sales and marketing organizations, industry and nonprofit organizations, and higher education. My greatest strengths are writing and editing, coming up with effective communications and marketing plans (with built-in metrics and notes on the side about what will come next), issues strategy and management, conceiving and initiating new ideas, facilitating, foresight and insight, leadership, and researching and analyzing information. Six years ago, I transitioned to emergency management, and today I have in-depth knowledge of emergency management principles and expertise administering FEMA disaster recovery grants and Department of Homeland Security preparedness grants. My niches include disaster case management and advocacy, high level housing perspectives, damage assessment, and problem solving. My greatest motivators in the disaster recovery field are advocating for the delivery of more accessible, comprehensive, equitable, and expeditious disaster case management to survivors, designing and implementing timely and sustainable disaster housing strategies and plans, and instituting enduring local long-term recovery and resiliency frameworks in communities. I returned to the communications world earlier this year by joining the Corporate Communications team at Duke Energy in Charlotte, NC, as its Lead Communications Manager for Emergency Planning. This role merges myriad levels of involvement and participation in the company’s Joint Information Center (JIC) for nuclear, gas, grid, storm, and other types of events during Duke Energy, state, and county drills/exercises and real life events.