Our Team

Fred Wellman, CEO and Founder
Fred Thompson, Senior Strategic Advisor
Christy Samuels, Program Manager
Lauren Jenkins, Account Manager
Deanna Carpenter, Administrative Director
John Grady, Special Correspondent

Fred Wellman, CEO and Founder

Fred Wellman is CEO and provides senior level counsel, strategic communications, public relations, social media, media relations and government affairs advice to ScoutComms clients.  He applies his over 25 years of military, government, commercial and non-profit experience to helping clients successfully operate in the unique aerospace, defense and veterans sectors.

First scout helicopter in 1988 at Camp Page, Korea

Fred is the ‘Scout’ in ScoutComms. He spent much of his military career as an Aeroscout pilot leading attack helicopter units around the world including Korea, Hawaii, Georgia, Kentucky and combat in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.

Prior to founding ScoutComms Fred was the Vice President of a strategic communications firm in Washington D.C. exclusively focused on the aerospace and defense sector providing management of all of the company’s operations and client services as well as leading the public relations and social media practice.  While there he published a highly acclaimed study of the military’s use of Facebook.

For over twenty years Fred served as an Army officer in both aviation and public affairs.  He finished his career as the Deputy Commander and Operations Officer for the Soldiers Media Center (now Defense Media Activity) under the Army’s Chief of Public Affairs leading the services’s internal news outlets including the official magazine, news service, radio, television, website and social media channels. He managed the transition of the organization to the Department of Defense where it became the Defense Media Activity-Army.

Working with General Petraeus in Iraq

Over four combat tours in Iraq and Operation Desert Storm Fred served in multiple capacities from leading the task force that would rescue downed pilots for the 101^stAirborne Division; conducting civil affairs; and serving as the Chief of Public Affairs for Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq and serving as official spokesman and adviser to General’s David Petraeus, Martin Dempsey, James Dubik and Frank Helmick.

Fred and Crystal Wellman

Fred earned a Bachelor’s of Science in International Relations from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He later attended the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Presidential Scholar/Public Service Fellow and Center for Public Leadership Fellow graduating in 2007 with a Masters of Public Administration and honors as a Lucius N. Littauer Fellow for outstanding academic achievement, public service and future leadership potential.

Fred, his wife Crystal and family reside in Stafford County, Virginia.

Contact: fwellman@ScoutCommsUSA.com, 202-957-2688

Fred Thompson, Senior Strategic Advisor

Fred is the founder and principal of the Communications Collaborative LLC, a firm focused on developing marketing/branding, social media and fundraising strategies for non-profit institutions in the health-medical, education and conservation/endangered species sectors.

He also remains “of counsel” to Creative Partners LLC, an integrated marketing communications company he co-founded in 2001. With offices in Stamford, CT and Los Angeles, CA, the firm represents a diverse range of major corporate, professional service and non-profit clients, including HealthNet, Citibank, Whirlpool Corporation, Sears, National Realty and Development Corp., Harvard University, Capital One, MBIA, Standard & Poors, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

After co-founding Creative Partners, Fred took a six year sabbatical to head two major organizations in the public health and conservation areas. In March 2005, he joined The American Liver Foundation (ALF) as President/Chief Executive Officer. His responsibilities focused on re-branding the organization and strengthening its program outreach initiatives and advocacy and research capacity, while helping its twenty-five state and regional Chapters raise awareness of liver disease, liver wellness and new treatment therapies.

Prior to joining ALF, he was President/CEO of the Jane Goodall Institute in Washington, D.C., a leading international conservation organization. Under his leadership, the Institute grew five-fold and established collaborative partnerships with key governmental, policy and funding entities, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of State, the European Union, and numerous private foundations throughout the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Previously, he held senior executive positions with a number of global marketing communications firms, including Burson-Marsteller, Manning Selvage & Lee, Earle Palmer Brown, and Kerr Kelly Thompson, where he represented such major Fortune 500 companies and corporations as IBM, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Nikon, Rolls Royce Motor Cars, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon-Mobil, U.S. Trust, Four Seasons Hotels, McGraw-Hill, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Baxter-Immuno and Visa.

Additionally, he has held marketing and communications positions with Herman Miller, Inc., architects/engineers CRS-Serrine, and Armstrong World Industries.

He has also provided fundraising and related marketing consultation to numerous non-profit institutions, including the United States Olympic Committee, Special Olympics, the Olympic Organizing Committees of Seoul and Barcelona, the International Rescue Committee, Outward Bound USA, The National Holocaust Museum, Volunteers of America and The National Health Council.

He is the recipient of five “Silver Anvil Awards” – the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) highest recognition of professional achievement – and numerous other national and regional awards for communications excellence from The International Association of Business Communicators and The Business Professional Advertising Association.

He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Real School Gardens, Chairman of the American Urology Association Foundation Development Council, Vice-Chairman of the American Urology Association Integration Advisory Board, a member of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable Advisory Board, a member of the Board of Advisors to American Women’s Veterans, and a member of the Emeriti Boards of The Jane Goodall Institute USA, Tanzania, Kenya and Congo-Brazzaville.

Fred and his wife, Donna, reside in Richmond, VA.

Christy Samuels, Program Manager

Christy Samuels is a ScoutComms Program Manager and supports both commercial and government clients.  She brings more than 25 years of experience supporting the Department of Defense and commercial clients by focusing her strengths in the areas of program management, public relations, crisis communications, communications planning and execution as well as internal and external outreach.

Christy’s prior experiences include serving as Senior Program Manager and Director of Client Services for clients such as Army Materiel Command, Army Contracting Command, Program Executive Office Intelligence and Electronic Warfare, Program Executive Office Soldier and Vision Systems International; as a Senior Strategic Communications Consultant she led a team of communications specialists providing support for a range of DoD program offices from health, to IT to small business support efforts.

Christy retired after more than 20 years of service with the United States Army and in Joint service positions as both a communicator and military police professional. Christy supported the Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region as their Homeland Defense Exercise Planner and Trainer.  She coordinated directly with OSD, the Joint Staff, Service component staffs, US Northern Command, regional installations, and numerous federal, state, and local entities; to include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, state emergency management agencies and local first responders.

Christy served as Chief of Media Relations for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. While serving on the Joint Staff, she operated as the National Military Command Center’s Crisis Action Team Public Affairs Subject Matter Expert.

Christy was selected as the Law Enforcement Command’s Battalion Commander and Installation Provost Marshal at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  There, she commanded five companies and more than 1,100 military and civilian personnel.

She was served as spokesperson for the United States Pacific Command in Hawaii where she directed media operations, plans, and policy for area with 43 nations and 308,000 personnel.  Christy effectively directed joint media operations, Public Affairs Crisis Action Planning and communications during three simultaneous international crises involving the Republic of China, Vietnam, and Japan.

Christy earned her bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  She earned her master of public administration degree at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

She gives back to the community by volunteering her time as Vice President of the Board of Directors for a non-profit organization that provides homes, education and counseling for homeless women and children who are victims of domestic abuse.  This program supports them as they learn to transition to become independent, contributing members of the community.

Christy and her husband live in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Contact: csamuels@ScoutCommsUSA.com

Lauren Jenkins, Account Manager

Lauren Jenkins serves as a ScoutComms account manager focused on non-profit programs, social media and media relations. In this role she leverages her experience managing small non-profits, advocating for humanitarian causes, researching policy issues, and communicating with audiences through a variety of mediums. Prior to joining ScoutComms, Lauren served as National Coordinator for the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), a veteran-led and founded non-profit working on youth development in Iraq. Lauren has also worked on policy and advocacy initiatives at Amnesty International USA and Oxfam America and interned on the Hill with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-California). Lauren studied African Studies and Economics at Howard University in Washington, DC. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Contact: LJenkins@ScoutCommsUSA.com

Deanna Carpenter, Administrative Director

With over 30 years of business experience, Deanna Carpenter brings detail oriented, process controlled organization to ScoutComms business operations. We like to call Deanna our “adult supervision”. Her customer-focused approach to client support ensures our accounts and administrative programs are timely, accurate and client focused. Deanna’s experience in coordinating multiple schedules and ensuring highly paced deadlines are met on time or early adds results based outcomes to the effectiveness of ScoutComms operations. Her diverse skills as Administrative Director add great value to short- and long-term support for our client base as well as within the ScoutComms team. Deanna routinely finds excellent solutions for the complex problems that our clients face and ensures our company is running smoothly.

Contact: DCarpenter@ScoutCommsUSA.com

John Grady, Special Correspondent

John Grady serves as ScoutComms special correspondent covering news stories of interest in our unique sectors and offering unique insight to clients and readers of ScoutComms media outlets. He previously served as communications director for the Association of the United States Army overseeing the not-for-profit’s award-winning newspaper, providing news content for its website, serving as its principal spokesman, supervising media credentialing for more than 400 international journalists, and organizing the coverage of the largest military exhibition in the United States, AUSA’s Annual Meeting. In that position, he also coordinated with the association’s government affairs and national security directorates on AUSA’s legislative agenda.

Before his work at AUSA, Grady was the managing editor of the Navy Times, an internationally-distributed weekly with a circulation of 90,000, that then covered all the sea services. The periodical’s editorial focus concentrated on issues inside the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill, and in the fleet that directly affected sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, their families and veterans.

The Air Force veteran served as assistant managing editor for news at the 100,000-circulation Newport News, Va., Daily Press prior to starting at Navy Times. He directed the newspaper’s extensive and in-depth coverage on the large military and sizable veteran population in its circulation area. In that position, Grady supervised the daily report on the nation’s largest shipyard, one of NASA’s largest research facilities, the activities in the three ports in Hampton Roads, and the decline of the commercial fishing industry in Virginia.

Contact: JGrady@ScoutCommsUSA.com