Former Women's Soccer Player Chosen For Keynote Address

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - St. Bonaventure University's Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication has selected Lois Abrogast (Bennett) '06 as the keynote speaker for the 2011 Dr. Mary A. Hamilton Woman of Promise Award ceremony.

"Each year we ask a woman who has distinguished herself to give a keynote address," says Journalism school dean Lee Coppola. 

"She was picked for a variety of reasons, among them her success as a student-athlete at St. Bonaventure, her accomplishments since graduation in her professional life and how she has managed to juggle her professional life with a personal life of being married to a serviceman whose duties put him in harm's way."

Arbogast is currently the communications manager at Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW) in Coronado, California. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing all communications plans, social media elements and communication tools for the Navy SEAL family community.  Additionally, Lois is developing an integrated marketing communications plan for the NSW Family Support department that will be launched with an interactive website in spring 2011.

Prior to coming to NSW, Lois was the social media manager at Vistage International, bringing together CEOs around the globe and managing Vistage's online reputation. Specializing in social media management and online reputation management, Lois led monthly courses for Vistage-member CEOs on how to use social media to grow their personal and corporate brands. While at Vistage, Lois developed the Social Media Street Team—a group of employees, CEO members and brand advocates that spread the Vistage message online through a targeted social media campaign.  Additionally, Lois was a regular contributor on the Vistage Buzz Blog, blogging live from several conferences including the 2008 and 2009 Milken Institute Global Conferences, TED 2008 and 2009 and the PRSA National Conferences in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Lois has been a guest-lecturer at USC's Annenberg School of Mass Communication's for the last four semesters.

St. Bonaventure's Woman of Promise Award is presented to a female senior who excels both inside and outside of the classroom and sets a good example for her peers.