Making Your Brand Accessible to All

Virginia Devlin is Chief Executive Officer of Current Global, a midsized communications agency focused on influencing behavior where real life happens – in the moment. An ace at operations and engaged leader, Virginia has achieved 15 years of profitable growth for Current. Focused on establishing long-term partnerships, her first assignment for The Clorox Company in 2006 has grown into ongoing and award-winning work for brands including Brita, Hidden Valley and Kingsford. With expertise in corporate, consumer, healthcare and technology marketing, Current’s client roster includes Applebee's, Champion, FedEx, Microsoft, Pfizer, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Radio Flyer, and Subway. In 2021, Virginia was inducted into PRWeek's Hall of Femme and has been recognized with the 2020 Gold Stevie Award for Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations, 2020 Silver Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year, 2017 PRWeek Champion of PR, and 2014 PR News Top Women in PR Award. Her board experience includes the PR Council and the Public Relations Society of America Chicago chapter. She has judged various industry award competitions including the CLIO, PRWeek and SABRE North America awards. Virginia is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and serves on the board of the Ryan Banks Academy, whose mission is to build Chicago’s first residential boarding school for under-served urban youth. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.

Becky Kekula serves as the Disability Equality Index (DEI) Director at Disability:IN. In her current role, she’s responsible for managing all things related to the DEI. Becky received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Providence College, where she started to gain a passion for influencing change behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. Upon graduation and after 1,000 applications, 100 job interviews, and three temporary job assignments, Becky started working full-time in the Entertainment Marketing department, followed by the Comedy Touring department, at Creative Artists Agency, the world’s leading entertainment and sports agency. Five years later, she worked at CBS Television Studios, where she assisted with the casting of pilots and television series. During this transition, she also served as the Marketing Director and Co-Founding Board Member of the Catalina Film Festival. She also founded DisABILITY In Media, which focuses on positive disability inclusion storytelling through social media. After her six and a half years of working in the entertainment industry, Becky launched a public speaking business. A prolific public speaker and advocate for disability inclusion on a global scale, she has spoken at over 300 venues, including schools, corporations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, throughout the United States and beyond. She’s really passionate about advancing disability inclusion in schools, the media, workplace, and everywhere else. More recently, she spent three and a half years working in the Equity & Inclusion department at Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the world’s largest entertainment union. At SAG-AFTRA, she supported the implementation of a national diversity plan of action to achieve accurate representation of those groups historically excluded from the entertainment and news media. Becky currently serves as Employment Chair of Little People of America (LPA). She’s also a member both the Board of Advisors for the National Center For Disability Journalism (NCDJ) at Arizona State University and Verizon’s Disability Advisory Board.

Kara Manatt is Senior Vice President, Intelligence Solutions at MAGNA where she uses next generation technology to answer Mediabrand’s toughest advertising questions. Her research program also serves as a testing ground for innovations in ad products and strategies for publishers and ad tech companies.

As a “fierce female of color with multiple disabilities, including blindness and vertigo-inducing migraines” (her words), Sena is excited to support Accessible by Design, our commitment to make all communications crafted for ourselves and our clients accessible to people of all abilities. Recently earning a Master of Science in PR and Corporate Communications from the NYU School of Professional Studies, where she conducted research on disability-inclusive communications for her thesis, Sena has several internships under her belt including working as a DEI intern at NBC Universal and at PRaction, Rowan University’s student run public relations firm. A called upon speaker and advocate, she delivered NYU’s graduate convocation student speech last year; served on the NYU Provost’s working group on disability, inclusion, and accessibility; lobbied for disability rights on Capitol Hill with the National Federation of the Blind; and presented at the 2019 NYU United Arab Emirates Education Ambassador Conference and PR Council’s Critical Issues of the Modern Workforce Forum. Her activism and academic accomplishments earned her a 2019 New York Women in Communications Interpublic Group (IPG) Scholarship and internship at Weber Shandwick. She is currently a NextGen Leader with Disability:IN, which helps students and recent graduates with training and mentorship for ongoing job readiness preparedness. This summer, She will also be a guest lecturer for Current Global’s Accessible by Design with the PR Council’s Agency Readiness Certificate program, which was designed last year during the height of the pandemic, to offer students seeking internship continued education and practical opportunities when most agency internship programs were placed on hold or cut.