Faculty First Responders is working hard right now to identify a roster of crisis communications consultants who have experience with U.S. higher education and academic work.
For now, we have made one contact, and we present an overview of her services here. The inclusion of this overview on this website should not be seen as an endorsement by FFR or AAUP.
Crisis Communication & Reputation Management Services from Dr. Louise Pay
Dr. Louise Pay (LouisePay.com) provides dedicated crisis communications and reputation management support for academic workers (faculty, researchers, administrators, staff, etc.), providing professional strategic guidance for those navigating complex and high-stakes reputational challenges either within the university environment or in the public space.
Are Your Reputation and Career under Attack?
Politically-motivated harassment, doxxing, and employment retaliation can escalate fast, especially if driven by social media. In the past, news outlets held all the power, but now the public can shape your story on platforms like TikTok and Twitter.
A reputational crisis or attack often feels like a personal vendetta, creating a sense of hopelessness, fear, and panic. The emotional toll can be immense. During these moments, it is critical to move beyond raw emotion and implement strategic, decisive action to regain control of the narrative. That’s where I can help.
My service is designed to provide you with a tested, straightforward system to manage communications and strategy in a crisis. We will work together to strip away the emotion and replace it with strategic action, helping you move forward with clarity.
Who Can Benefit from These Services?
This support is designed for any academic worker facing or at risk for a reputational threat, regardless of their position or department size, in particular:
- Faculty, researchers, staff, etc., facing politically (or otherwise) motivated harassment or doxing due to their work, public statements, or online presence
- Administrators/departments needing reliable, rapid-response tactics when the stakes for their institution are high
- Individuals, teams, and departments seeking to pre-emptively implement a crisis management plan
What Is Involved:
For an existing situation:
- Rapid response & strategy development: We will work quickly to assess the situation, identify the triggers, and develop a concrete, actionable 5-step crisis roadmap. This avoids the “winging it” approach that can exacerbate a crisis.
- Message crafting & narrative control: We will help you steer your own narrative by developing targeted and consistent messaging. Depending on the specific situation, this can include crafting press statements, social media updates, internal memos, FAQs, and public apologies that are factual, empathetic, and strategic.
- Spokesperson coaching & media preparation: You may be called upon to speak to the media, your department, or the public. We will work together to prepare you for media interviews and public appearances, ensuring you can deliver a consistent, confident, and authentic message. We’ll address anticipated questions, stay on message, and handle difficult or hostile inquiries professionally.
- Digital monitoring & analysis: We’ll set up and manage social monitoring tools to help you stay on top of evolving public sentiment, identify misinformation, and understand your critics and their intent.
- Post-crisis recovery & resilience: We’ll focus on repair and rebuilding with a post-crisis debrief to analyze what worked and what didn’t, helping transform the situation into an opportunity for growth and build long-term resilience.
For a pre-emptive strategy:
- Mindset development: We’ll work to shift your perspective from a personal feeling of being attacked to a rational, fact-based mindset focused on strategy and solutions. Your strategy will be grounded in core virtues like honesty, accountability, impartiality, and empathy. This ethical approach builds long-term trust and enhances credibility. We’ll create simple, repeatable mental checklists and rituals to prevent rash decisions when emotions are high.
- Vulnerability audits & scenario planning: We’ll conduct routine checks for areas that could spark outrage or misinformation, such as scanning for outdated policies or problematic social media posts from the past and fixing them before they become headlines. Additionally, we’ll analyze your specific context to identify common crisis triggers and brainstorm realistic “what-if” scenarios to practice how your team would respond, helping to build strategic depth rather than relying on a rigid, formulaic plan.
- Framework development: We will adapt a proven five-step framework (Identify the trigger, Assess the impact, Craft a targeted response, Communicate swiftly, and Repair and reinforce) to create a clear blueprint for managing chaos. As part of this process, we will draft a suite of pre-approved, customized templates for essential communications, including external statements, internal emails, and FAQ documents. We will also identify the roles the members of your team will play if a situation arises and clearly define their responsibilities in advance, as well as establish social and traditional media listening strategies.
- Future-proofing: We will establish a debriefing system to analyze every crisis, regardless of its size, and determine what worked, what didn’t, and what can be done differently next time to transform each crisis into a learning opportunity. We will build strategies for proactively cultivating relationships with key advocates before you need them. Finally, we will establish a calendar for regularly updating your playbook and conducting crisis drills or simulations to keep your plans relevant and you ready to act.
Louise’s Commitment to the Academic Community
I understand that academic workers have varying financial resources. To ensure these essential services are accessible to those who need them, I offer a sliding scale on rates to accommodate different budgets.
My primary goal is to provide support and help you protect your career and well-being.
For a free confidential discovery call to gather information on your situation, discuss a potential strategy, and set a budget, please visit LouisePay.com or contact Louise directly at louise@louisepay.com
Please note: These services focus on crisis communication and reputation management strategy and do not constitute legal advice. It is recommended that you consult with legal counsel for any legal matters.
Faculty First Responders 