Meet The PR Team

Thomas Graham is the founder of Crosswind Media & Public Relations and for more than 20 years has helped business leaders energize their brands and achieve their business objectives through effective media and corporate communications strategies. He is an accomplished brand architect, crisis-tested media spokesperson and an expert in shaping public opinion and managing complex communications programs.

As the former head of U.S. communications for a top 10 global financial institution and practice leader in two global public relations firms, Thomas brings decades of experience helping business leaders engage effectively with their most important stakeholders. He founded Crosswind Media & Public Relations to provide clients with experienced senior counselors who are committed to helping navigate communications challenges to achieve business results. Thomas has been privileged to develop global brand strategies, direct communications of large-scale acquisitions and to prepare senior executives at Fortune 500 companies for media interviews, investor and analyst roundtable discussions and presentations before business conferences and to employees.

As the Executive Vice President of Communication & Image at BBVA USA, Thomas developed the brand strategy for BBVA Group’s U.S.-acquired financial institutions while protecting the overarching brand reputation from the issues associated with acquisition, integration and financial industry crises. While serving on the management committee, he held primary oversight of branding, investor relations, corporate communications, employee communications and executive programs. Prior to BBVA, Thomas served as a General Manager with Weber Shandwick, the world’s largest public relations agency, where he directed the firm’s Austin office.

During his 20 years of public relations, Thomas gained extensive experience in political and regulatory issues, corporate communications, brand strategy, investor relations, crisis and reputation management and media relations. His clients have included leaders in their fields and among the world’s most admired companies, including Fluor, Wal-Mart, the Project Management Institute, Atmos Energy, NRG Energy, the Texas House Republican Caucus, Vought Aircraft and The Methodist Hospital. He is a former business reporter covering local, regional and national trends in business, financial, agricultural, oil and gas and industrial sectors as well as a former communications director for a Texas State Senator. He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute, the Public Relations Society of America, active in communications organizations, and a frequent lecturer on communications issues before students, non-profit, governmental and business associations. He is married to Tanya Fielder and they have three children.

Adrian Patenaude joined the Crosswind team in 2014 after moving to Austin to pursue a career in public relations and film. Adrian grew up in Thailand where she and her missionary family worked in community development and partnered with local churches in ministry. She is a force multiplier on any communications project she undertakes. Because she is published poet, she has a love for effective language that expresses itself in the powerful press releases and reports she authors for clients. Due to her overseas upbringing, she has a sophisticated and in-depth understanding of the real world our most demanding Tier One corporate and global philanthropic clients live in. She is a key team member at Crosswind, serving as social media supervisor, corporate scriptwriter, photographer and critical workflow chief on Crosswind’s health and international technology accounts. She is also involved in the creative community in Austin, including serving as the marketing director for the 10th annual Austin Asian American Film Festival in 2017 and performing oral storytelling at backyard storytelling events. Adrian studied advertising and public relations at Abilene Christian University (ACU). During her time there, she was involved in a variety of public relations roles for various student organizations. Most notably, she worked as the advertising director for the ACU Film Fest and worked with the International Students’ Association to plan, promote and direct the Ethnos Culture Show. Her professional experience includes interning with the marketing department at Hendrick Health Systems in Abilene and serving as a writer with the International Mission Board in India. She has also worked at a student-run Ad/PR agency, Morris & Mitchell, where she used social media to promote the U.S. State Department’s global internship opportunities.

Karen Johnson is a Senior Content Strategist telling the stories of Crosswind’s clients through online, editorial, executive communications and marketing communications strategies.

For more than 20 years, Karen has directed persuasive communications programs for leaders in healthcare, energy, technology and public agencies. Her experience supporting high-tech start-up companies, aligning their business models with solid communications planning, provides a foundation and can-do spirit to all her client service. She was also a maternal and child health communications consultant with U.S. Agency for International Development traveling to developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia to troubleshoot, develop strategies, conduct media training and implement crisis communications plans as needed. Karen’s agency experienced is deep, serving as the Southwest Regional Manager for two international public relations agencies.

Karen’s communications career started in the political realm, beginning at Texas Motor Transportation Association and then with a state housing agency, where she was the primary speechwriter for the executive office and board chairman. She received a B.S. in Communications with a political emphasis from the University of Texas at Austin.

JT Graham has always had a love for rhythm, music and technology. After attending Dub Academy in East Austin during high school, he has been DJing professionally at events since early 2012. In fall 2012, he attended Harding University for communications and media, where he was a live radio host for Harding Radio, and in fall 2013, he attended Dark Horse Institute for Audio Engineering in Nashville.

In addition to managing the marketing and social media for his music career, JT has worked at Vector Marketing and interned at Crosswind Media & Public Relations. He rejoined the Crosswind team in August 2014, handles the office IT, manages websites in wordpress and handles audio and video for the team.

Tom Goff serves as strategic counsel to clients on matters involving corporate branding, reputation, crisis management, financial transactions, senior executive media positioning, business-to-business marketing, legal disputes and media and analyst relations. He brings 30 years experience as a successful financial journalist, media strategist and corporate reputation manager. He has advised senior management teams at a number of global corporations including Microsoft, Starbucks, MySpace, Sony Corporation, Warner Bros., Kaiser Permanente, Computer Sciences Corporation and Dubai World Properties, among others.

Tom previously served as an executive vice president with the nation’s largest independent PR firm, in senior corporate communications roles at Global Crossing, Lockheed Corp. and Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and as a successful financial journalist. At Global Crossing, Tom directed corporate sponsorships, acted as the principal spokesperson for a multi-national telecommunications corporation and personally promoted, managed and controlled coverage and cover stories for the company’s top management team in Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones News Service, Barron’s and Bloomberg, as well as CNBC, CNNfn and other print and electronic outlets.

As director of media and public relations for ARCO, Tom acted as a corporate spokesperson for financial and operational developments, managed crisis and oil-spill communications systems and supervised ARCO’s corporate image advertising, litigation communications and community relations initiatives. Tom worked for 10 years at the Lockheed Corporation where he served as manager of advertising and promotions, personally managing principal aspects of the successful $20 million PR and advertising effort behind Lockheed’s win of the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter program, the largest single defense contract then awarded in American history. In addition, he acted as manager of internal communications, coordinator of news and public information and as financial editor of Lockheed’s award-winning annual and quarterly reports.

Tom’s editorial tenure included business, political editorial and reporting positions at Esquire, New York Magazine and of Fortune 500 lists at Fortune. As founding editor and editor-in-chief of The Corporate Board, Tom led that journal to a readership with the highest-ranking business audience in America – the directors serving on boards of the nation’s largest public corporations – and currently serves on the board of editors.

Tom is a fourth-generation Californian, holds a bachelor’s degree in government with honors from California State University at Sacramento and a JD from UC-Davis where he served on the law review. He also served more than a decade as an officer in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve.

Crosswind Senior Advisor Arnold García brings 43 years of experience in media and a national reputation for editorial excellence.  Arnold  retired from the Austin American-Statesman in 2013 after 39 years with the newspaper, 22 of those as editorial page editor.  At the time he retired, Arnold was dean of the state’s editorial page editors. He has served on a Pulitzer Prize jury for editorial writing and chaired a Pulitzer jury on editorial cartooning.  He has mentored a rising generation of Latino reporters and editors across the United States.

A natural story teller, Arnold brings his skills as a master communicator and his deep love of the real history and modern demographics of Texas to Crosswind.  He remembers and has written about the adversity of growing up in San Angelo, Texas.  He has seen his peers overcome the hardscrabble hardships of 1950s and 1960s West Texas to become dynamic leaders of the most vibrant and fastest growing state and metropolitan centers in the Union.

During his remarkable tenure with the Austin American-Statesman, Arnold led campaigns for affordability in Central Texas government, pushing for elected officials to be far more accountable not only to their agencies but also to the taxpayers and renters who pay for the operation of those agencies.

At the vanguard and one of only a handful of Latino editorial page editors in the country, Arnold was also and always at the forefront of efforts in his newsroom make sure coverage of Austin truly reflected the growing diversity of the Austin community and the State of Texas.  He was a guiding spirit for the creation of ¡Ahora sí!, Austin’s award-winning Spanish language news weekly, and he continues to advocate for media and communication strategies that better reach and serve the fastest growing demographic in Central Texas, the state’s Hispanic residents.

Included among Arnold’s community and writing honors are journalistic awards for his issues advocacy from the Associated Press and the Texas State Teachers Association.  He is a past president of the Headliners Club in Austin and is a past member of the board of directors of the local Crime Prevention Institute, which aids those transitioning from incarceration to communities.  He serves on the board of directors of KIPP Public Schools in Austin, the Capital Area Public Defender Service, and AustinUP, an organization dedicated to advocacy for Central Texans 65 and older.

Arnold is a graduate of Angelo State University in government and history, honored by that campus as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2003, and an Army veteran.  Arnold has served on active duty in Germany, leaving the service as a sergeant and later joining the Texas National Guard where he served as a captain.

As a writer, Arnold has covered local and legal affairs across Texas, and reported from Europe, but his most cherished bylined articles have focused on the sacrifices made by the state’s military veterans in times of armed conflict.  His family’s dedication to community service has continued in the lives of his children: his daughter Jennifer is a faculty member of the University of Iowa Medical School and his son Teodoro is a captain in the U.S. Army.

Tammy Ditmore brings a passion for precise language and a knack for spotting careless mistakes to Crosswind, helping ensure that press releases, blog posts, ads and annual reports are accurate, engaging and error-free.

Tammy began her editing career more than three decades ago on a newspaper copy desk in Abilene, Texas. She went on to fill various editing chairs at the Dallas Times Herald and the Austin American-Statesman. Since leaving the newsroom, she has worked as the managing editor of an academic journal and edited scores of books, magazines, websites and articles for publishing houses, businesses, authors and scholars.

She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association; American Copy Editors Society; Independent Book Publishers Association; and the Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network.