Audrey Ponzio
CEO & Founder of APC Collective
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Audrey is the CEO & Founder of APC Collective, where she and her team develop award-winning communications and community engagement programs to help clients grow their reach, relevance, and impact. Specializing in integrated and inclusive campaign building and DEI consulting, Audrey has developed best-in-class programs for leading brands, including Google, Audible, Bumble, GE, Starbucks, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Time Warner Cable, American Heart Association, Girl Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sprint, Delta, T-Mobile, Toyota, and PepsiCo, among others. Prior to launching APC Collective, Audrey led Edelman’s Multicultural practice in New York City as Senior Vice President creating award-winning multicultural campaigns and DEI programs for organizations across public affairs, corporate, health, consumer, food & beverage, entertainment, and travel & tourism sectors.
Audrey’s career began at Fleishman Hillard where she focused on public affairs, tech PR and community engagement. Audrey later helped LatinWorks, now Third Ear, develop their PR team and programs for clients including strategic partnerships, cause marketing, event activation and media relations. An advocate of education and empowerment of women and underserved communities, she has served as counsel to a variety of non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Latin America. Audrey graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Corporate Communications and has served as an adjunct professor at the Moody College of Communications. She also holds an Executive Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University. Audrey has served on the board for Austin’s Pease Park Conservancy, The Hispanic Alliance and Las Comadres. She also founded Support Latino Business as well as the Texas chapter of the Hispanic Public Relations Association.
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Victoria Villarreal
Founder of VRV Public Relations
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Victoria Villarreal founded VRV Public Relations in August 2020 with a goal of supporting independent, integrity-driven brands. Victoria translates over a decade of communications experience across the food & beverage, lifestyle and non-profit spaces into tailored campaigns that result in media placements, events, community partnerships and more.
Hailing from South Texas, she appreciates a good barbacoa taco on a flour tortilla and has fond childhood memories of dancing to Tejano music with family. Victoria proudly serves as Board Chair for Urban Roots, and she is a member of the Austin Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.
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Leslie Rangel
Senior Editor, The Barbed Wire
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Leslie Rangel, a first generation daughter of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, is senior editor of investigations for The Barbed Wire. Her award-winning journalism is focused on issues of health, mental wellness, race, gender, and social justice. Leslie was previously morning anchor for the “Good Day Austin” morning news show. Her journalism has received Emmy nominations and recognition from the United Nations.
Leslie is also the founder and CEO of The News Yogi Coaching, on a mission to help high-achieving marginalized folks rest, destress and recharge. Her first book, “Journalists Break News, Don’t Let it Break You”, was recognized by the University of Texas journalism department at the Moody School of Communications and serves as the curriculum for a first-of-its-kind class: Journalism and Mental Health. Leslie provides mental wellness and holistic leadership coaching to high-achieving humans and journalists. She also teaches yoga, cycling and meditation classes. Leslie is a first-generation Mexican-American daughter of immigrants and lives in Austin with her husband and rescue pugs.
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Omar Gallaga
Technology & Culture Freelance Journalist
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Omar L. Gallaga covers technology and culture for publications including Wired, CNET, Texas Highways, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. He was a longtime reporter, editor and podcaster at the Austin American-Statesman and has also written for CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Rolling Stone, MSNBC, Polygon, Texas Monthly, The Spectator, Hispanic Magazine, and NPR, where he was a blogger and on-air tech correspondent for "All Things Considered." You can hear him every week discussing tech topics on the award-winning "Texas Standard" radio program. |
