Our people

Meet the people who make it all happen. Every day, we try to make the world a little more creative, technologically savvy, informed and educated and, of course, fun! We see ourselves as a division of your organization because we strongly believe the combination of your team and our team is a blueprint for success. It’s a little cheesy we know, but collaboration is vital in successful communications.

With more than 350 years of combined experience all over the globe, our staff is ready to tackle any project. We’d like to get to know you. Contact us today!


Full employee list

Patrick Gallagher

President & CEO

Patrick Gallagher is the cornerstone of Charles Ryan Associates. For the past 30 years, he has counseled thousands of senior executives, top government officials and small business owners throughout the country and across the globe. He specializes in crisis communications, environmental issues and government public involvement, and has worked with clients such as Dow Chemical, Weirton Steel, 3M, General Motors and various pharmaceutical companies.

As CRA’s president, Patrick manages the daily operations of the three-office company while overseeing client relations and providing strategic guidance to account teams.

A former television reporter, assistant to the West Virginia Senate President and state government communications troubleshooter for the West Virginia governor’s office, his corporate experience includes multi-state government relations for ACF Industries and vice president of public affairs for Kaiser Aluminum facilities east of the Mississippi.

Caryn Foster Durham

Senior Vice President

Caryn Foster Durham is a market research, trend analysis and customer-driven business solution guru providing clients solid account and media strategies that help successfully grow their businesses. She’s done it for retail, tourism, energy and healthcare clients among others for nearly 15 years.

Whether it’s devising a customized communications strategy, crafting specialized sales and marketing tools or developing results-driven media plans, Caryn has the ability to move clients to higher levels of profitability and performance.

As a senior vice president, Caryn provides strategic direction for the firm and leads the firm’s Richmond office. She also manages the firms creative and multi-million dollar media departments. Caryn employs strong communication and organizational skills, allowing her to capture consumer attention and leverage existing dollars through traditional and new media channels to increase clients’ market share and brand power.

Kevin Hall

Senior Vice President

Kevin Hall is an experienced, communications expert developing and implementing results-driven, award-winning campaigns. He educates clients on the latest interactive trends and helps them implement solutions to meet their marketing communications goals. His unique ability to create savvy online marketing campaigns that utilize the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, database management and creative concepts gives clients the competitive edge

As a senior vice president, Kevin manages campaigns for tourism clients from coast to coast, and works with financial, wireless, healthcare, retail, energy and litigation clients. He also counsels many of the country’s top organizations including Toyota, Dow Chemical, Markel Insurance, DuPont and others on market trends and Web-based benefits.

Additionally, Kevin led the development of Global Alertlink – a custom information and crisis management software program. Global Alertlink is the first and only truly integrated solution to provide all of the critical elements needed to keep businesses moving in crisis situations. This powerful software brings incident management, emergency notification, risk assessment and crisis planning tools together in one system. Companies around the globe use Global Alertlink for their crisis communication and business continuity plans.

Susan Lavenski

Senior Vice President

As senior vice president, Susan Lavenski has the uncanny ability to peel back the layers of binding issues and conflicts to help resolve crisis and threatening situations. She knows how to aggressively bring clients through issues mired in public, political and bureaucratic bogs working behind the scenes to help them overcome intimidating challenges. Her public relations experience includes working with local, regional and national public figures, media representatives and business executives as she is an expert in stakeholder development, public involvement and public awareness.

She has moved forward multi-million dollar statewide transportation issues, utility expansion projects and healthcare certificates of need to resolve a host of corporate and controversial hurdles.

Susan provides executive direction for the client service teams, and is responsible for the establishment of CRA’s Transportation Practice Group – a team of communications practitioners who specialize in transportation and public involvement issues.

Aly Goodwin Gregg

Senior Vice President

Aly Goodwin Gregg’s diverse background in business development and account management is due to her unique combination of confidence and know-how. From agency work, staff positions on Capitol Hill and public relations/special projects manager for a world-renowned resort to serving as the national publicist for a variety of notable personalities, Aly’s ability to craft strategic communication plans is unmatched.
With more than 15 years experience, Aly brings a human touch to individuals struggling under the glare of the media, and her experience in strategic marketing and communications practices helps produce award-winning campaigns. Among her many accomplishments, Aly has been recognized with a platinum award by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and served as an adjunct instructor for the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism.

Joe Gollehon

Senior Counsel

A communications veteran, Joe Gollehon is the expert many of the country’s largest corporations turn to when faced with public relations, public affairs, labor and corporate communications challenges.

Joe brings more than three decades of public relations, media relations, government affairs and crisis communications experience to CRA’s clients. His work with Union Carbide, Monsanto and a major Fortune 50 corporation during a national mass tort product liability case has put him at the center of some of the world’s highest-profile incidents. In addition, he has guided communications campaigns in some of the nation’s foremost labor-relations events.

He has provided strategic counsel to executives in the chemical, nuclear, coal, oil and gas, healthcare, financial and manufacturing industries. He has served as a lobbyist in Ohio, New York, North Carolina and West Virginia. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and currently serves on the boards of the East Central District of PRSA, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center.

John Auge

Senior Creative Counsel

John leads DesignSuite/CRA – an in-house, dedicated design practice where he and his creative team assist clients with design-specific project needs that are awe-inspiring and award-winning.

An innovative designer and skillful artist, John Auge specializes in creative solutions that exceed expectations. John, an owner in the firm, has worked with high-profile clients such as the White House, Jaguar and Texaco as well as developed materials for three West Virginia Governor’s Inaugurations.

He has received countless accolades from numerous clients during the past three decades for his ability to creatively enhance their brands, elevating them above the norm and helping to deliver unparalleled results.