What Ragan’s 2025 Top Women in Communications Hall of Fame winners all have in common

Ragan’s Top Women in Communications Hall of Fame, Class of 2025 inductees all have two things in common.

They’re all women who have risen to the very top of the communications profession through intelligence, tenacity and diplomacy. And they all say their proudest accomplishment in their successful careers is the people they’ve worked with, mentored and learned from.

These Hall of Famers will be honored alongside dozens of other Top Women in Communications winners on March 12 in New York City for an uplifting event that will celebrate the accomplishments and resilience of women.

Ahead of the event, the honorees shared their career journeys, their best insights and what they wish they could tell their younger selves.

Linda Rutherford, chief administrative officer, Southwest Airlines

Linda Rutherford is the chief administrative officer at Southwest Airlines. Linda began her career as a newspaper reporter, as many of the great comms minds do. After her time at the Dallas Times Herald came to an end, she was offered a job as a PR coordinator with Southwest Airlines. The rest, as they say, is history. Rutherford will retire this April after 33 years at Southwest with a legacy as a business-first communicator who drew clear lines between comms efforts and organizational performance.

Rutherford told Ragan that her biggest source of pride in her career has come from passing on her knowledge to others.

“I’m most proud of the leaders who I’ve been able to mentor and then watching them aspire to higher roles and bigger business challenges,” she said. “I didn’t know that working with leaders would bring me so much joy, but I’ve found that some of my fondest memories of my work in communications and the airline business are when I saw a leader achieve something he or she didn’t think was achievable.”

Rutherford also shared that for any communicator looking to advance their career, genuine collaboration with others is a cornerstone of advancement. She works to share this knowledge with her mentees constantly.

“My desire to bring many brains into a business challenge helped me have a natural desire to know people, what makes them tick, what gets them excited and then to push and encourage them to achieve something even they weren’t sure was possible,” Rutherford said. “I love it when people surprise themselves and are their biggest cheerleader when they do.”

But Rutherford didn’t just magically get to this point in her career overnight — it involved a great deal of hard world and putting in background work. Great careers have plenty of obstacles to overcome. Rutherford shared that her biggest obstacle was building a business acumen along with her comms skills.

“I decided to be intentional about it and spend time with leaders who could teach me the basics,” she said “Then I pored over financials and studied the stock market and how other companies articulate their business models. I became more comfortable with the terms, concepts and principles and determined being a student of the business was OK and I wasn’t going to be judged for learning.”

Rutherford also related that if any comms pros are feeling stuck in early career roles, there is always greener grass ahead.

“Your first job is not a life sentence!” she said. “I put so much pressure on myself to land that perfect first job out of college that when it didn’t work out, I felt like a complete failure. But it led to so many other cool job opportunities, friends met along the way and ultimately to a career flip into communications for Southwest Airlines that was a defining moment I’ll always cherish.”

Lori Rosen, president, Rosen Group

Lori Rosen’s four-decade career in public relations has been defined by creativity, resilience and a relentless drive to push boundaries.

Career highlights include orchestrating a live “Today Show” broadcast from a Manhattan art gallery and lighting up the Empire State Building in honor of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. One of her most memorable campaigns was a bipartisan hot chili pepper-eating contest for members of Congress, on behalf of “Chile Pepper” magazine, which made CNN’s ticker news.

“Our success comes from an unwavering commitment to moving forward,” said Rosen, currently the president of Rosen Group.

Rosen’s professional success has been driven by instinct, confidence and “chutzpah,” she said. Rosen credits these qualities with helping her succeed in an industry where breaking news can upend the best-laid plans and clients’ needs constantly evolve.

“It’s not an exact science,” she said. “Navigating these challenges with grace and authority has been our secret sauce, holding the agency together.”

Having lofty goals and their sights set high has served as another guiding force. “That ambition has remained one of our most powerful tools,” she said.

Of course, that success didn’t happen overnight.

Rosen’s path hasn’t always been smooth. Excelling in PR came easy. “I loved collaborating with journalists and making compelling stories,” she said.

Learning management skills on the job was a different story.

Signing her first office lease in New York City turned into a hard lesson, Rosen said. Overlooking hidden costs, she found herself in a costly legal battle to break the lease.

“A business colleague told me at the time, ‘You’ll make bad decisions along the way; the key is to ensure you make more good ones than bad ones.’”

That advice stuck with her. “I’ve since kept my missteps to a minimum,” she said.

Today, Rosen takes most pride in having mentored hundreds of young professionals who have gone on to successful careers. At her recent 40th-anniversary celebration, many former colleagues shared how much they learned from working with her.

“(It) remains one of my most gratifying accomplishments,” Rosen said.

Kimberley Goode, senior advisor, BMO

Within her first five years of entering the field, Kimberley Goode saw the power of communications first-hand as she led the function for a global merger. In particular, the power of listening and asking questions revealed how she could better appeal to the diverse audiences she needed to serve.

Decades later, Goode’s career has seen her through IPOs, major technology changes, the largest bank acquisition in Canadian history and a number of crises. She’s made her mark on major companies including American Express, The Kellogg Company, Northwestern Mutual and her current role as a senior advisor at BMO.

“I have proudly planted myself in purpose-driven companies with dedicated colleagues who fueled all that I’ve been able to accomplish,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see so many of the people I’ve had a chance to lead stepping up to create impact as leaders in the profession. That is probably the legacy I am most proud of.”

But there is one road less taken Goode wishes her younger self had considered more seriously. Early in her career, she was given the opportunity to serve in a program that would have taken her outside of communications to rotate through various business functions. Her love for comms made her say no. In hindsight, she sees how much that cross-functional training would have helped her work in communications.

“I encourage all communication professionals to invest the time early in their careers to understand business fundamentals, so that you are able to connect the dots and speak the language of business. That makes you a more credible and more impactful communications adviser,” she said.

Like many women in the workplace, one of her biggest challenges has been finding the time to be both the professional and the mother she wanted to be. Early on, the always-on nature of the industry energized her, but mid-career, she chose to shift her focus from international businesses to U.S.-based companies so she could be present for her children.

“It didn’t derail my career at all,” she said. “In fact, when my children all graduated from high school, I returned to being a CCO of a global, public company despite taking a 14-year break. I am so grateful that I was able to create the balance that worked for me so I could deliver in both jobs that mattered so much to me.”

Kim Olson, CCO, Land O’Lakes

As a child, Kim Olson wanted to be a sportscaster and tell the world about one of her greatest passions. Instead, she wound up with a landmark career in communications that took her from agency work with Weber Shandwick to UnitedHealth Group, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, and her current role as CCO at Land O’Lakes.

But despite her accomplishments, it’s the people she’s worked with that bring Olson the most pride.

“They are smart, spectacular people doing smart, spectacular things,” Olson said.

But being able to help tell compelling stories alongside Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford is what Olson calls “the privilege of my life.” Together, they highlight how Ford and Land O’Lakes have impacted their company, community and customers.

“I think the trait that has served me best is a balance of authenticity and diplomacy,” Olson said.

The biggest obstacle in her career has been time, Olson said. “I have found that a great deal of discipline about what’s important is key to both successful careers and successful lives.”

Olson wishes her younger self had displayed a bit more of that discipline when it came to worrying about the future.

“I think its key not to waste worry on things that you can’t control or that you don’t know are true. And, in the long run, change is constant, especially in comms, so just give it a minute.”