Jonathan Freed M.A.

Education

M.A., Journalism
Western University

B.A., Political Science
McGill University

Certificate (B.A.), Political Journalism
Georgetown University

Certificate (B.A.), English Legal System and British Society
University of Cambridge

Biography

Jonathan Freed joined the Henry M. Jackson Center for the Advancement of Military Medicine in July 2021 and leads strategic communications for the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health and its NDMS Pilot Program. Jonathan is a senior level communications executive and trusted adviser in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. His experience runs from the newsroom to the corporate board room and from the White House press room down the stairs to the Situation Room.

Jonathan served as a communications executive and national spokesperson at Fortune 30 - 250 companies including insurance, airlines, banking, and utilities. He was the Chief Communications Officer for the National Security Agency, brought in to reintroduce NSA to the public following the leaks of Edward Snowden, help restore the intelligence agency’s reputation, and grow public trust for its leadership. Jonathan was recruited from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where he used his private sector experience to allow the Fed to be better understood by Main Street during its controversial efforts to resolve the financial crisis. He led communications at US Airways when Captain Sully Sullenberger and crew made their emergency landing in the Hudson River. And he headed up catastrophe communications for State Farm Insurance in the class action lawsuit environment resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Jonathan has consulted with governments around the world in communications best practices, reputation, and crisis management.

Jonathan has 20 years of journalism and media management experience, including as a network news correspondent for CBS News and CNN. Jonathan was nominated for a national Emmy Award and his reporting helped CNN win a Peabody Award. Jonathan is experienced at working both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, having covered the White House and Capitol Hill, and he has reported live from the red carpet at the Oscars, in El Niño weather-ravaged Chile, and at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Jonathan is also a private pilot and developed an aviation reporting specialty at CNN.

Jonathan’s specialties include public relations, crisis communications, issues management, media relations, internal communications, campaign strategy and execution, on-camera spokesperson, thought leadership, litigation support, government relations, media training, as well as television and radio production.