Jason brings more than 20 years of experience as a journalist and public relations strategist, with a focus on media relations, crisis communications, emergency planning and internal communications to BMCG. A newspaper journalist by training, Jason held various positions in newsrooms working for Gannett newspapers in Michigan, from reporter to copy editor to city editor, before making the switch to public relations.

While working for a PR agency in Michigan’s state capital, Jason worked on behalf of more than a dozen clients, including statewide organizations, manufacturing firms and nonprofits in the health and social service sectors, creating public relations and marketing campaigns and helping clients respond to real-time issues.

Prior to joining the BMCG in 2020, Jason was the Director of Internal Communications at Michigan State University, where he was responsible for launching a new internal communications initiative for the school’s 13,000 employees. Before that, Jason served as spokesperson for the university for six years and oversaw issues management and crisis communications for the central communications office, helping the university respond to a wide-range of significant issue and crisis situations, including protests, animal care and research, sexual assaults, freedom of speech, financial impropriety and data breaches.

Jason developed the crisis communications plan for the university and helped lead annual training exercises, including planning a full-scale exercise involving an active violence scenario on campus. Additionally, he served as the communications lead as MSU in 2015 became just the fourth higher education institution to achieve accreditation via the federal Emergency Management Accreditation Program.

A graduate of Kent State University’s Honors College, Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism as well as a double minor in history and sociology.