Panelists Bios

MEET THE PA N E L IS TS !

BRIDGET GRUMET Editorial Writer for the Austin American-Statesman

Bridget Grumet is an editorial writer for the Austin American-Statesman.

Before joining the editorial board in March 2018, she spent five years directing local news coverage for the Statesman. She previously covered local government as a reporter and editor for the Tampa Bay Times.

She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and fell in love with journalism after joining the college paper at Georgetown University.

She has received numerous awards, including being honored as the 2018 opinion writer of the year by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Headliners Foundation of Texas.

KEVAN IRSCH

Digital Marketing Manager at SXSW

Kevan Irsch is the Digital Marketing Manager at SXSW. He joined SXSW in 2017 and manages the company's paid advertising programs, collaborating with multiple departments to build an integrated and cohesive strategy. Kevan is a proud alumnus of the Marketing undergraduate program at the McCombs School of Business

SHARON JAYSON

JOHN BUTLER

Content writer

CEO of Top of the Funnel Leads

Senior Associate at Hill + Knowlton Strategies

John Butler graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Economics and is currently the CEO of Top of the Funnel Leads, a digital marketing company.

Stephanie Black graduated from the Moody College of Communications in 2014 with a degree in Corporate Communications and a Business Foundations Certificate. While Stephanie earned a degree in Corporate Communications, she has spent most of her career in public relations and marketing roles at various companies. Currently, Stephanie works at Hill + Knowlton Strategies in their Houston office where she is a Senior Associate. At Hill + Knowlton, she helps support a number of accounts for the company and executes various media relations strategies for her clients, including press release distribution, event support, and thought leadership promotion.

Sharon Jayson is an Austin-based journalist, content creation specialist and professional communications consultant who can tell stories across platforms, with experience online, in print and broadcasting. She writes for an array of websites and publications, including U.S. News & World Report, Kaiser Health News, NBC News, AARP and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative’s section of Texas Co-op Power magazine, among others. For a decade, Jayson was a USA Today reporter covering behavior and relationships, a beat that included psychology, human emotions, mental health, sexual behavior, dating, cohabitation, marriage, infidelity and divorce.

Jayson spent four years at USA Today headquarters in McLean, Va. and six years for USA Today based in Austin.Â

STEPHANIE BLACK