Brittany Bramell Punaro is a partner and principal strategist at the boutique strategic communications and public affairs firm, Steer PR. She is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in crisis management, strategic communications and planning, principal management, and press relations. Before founding Steer in 2022, her unique career took her through numerous political campaigns to the intelligence community and included work on Capitol Hill and in the private sector.
In 2017, Brittany joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a senior advisor to CIA Director Mike Pompeo and was then named Director of Public Affairs in 2018 under Director Gina Haspel. In this role, she served on the Agency’s senior leadership team where she helped guide the organization through many national security crises and even the global pandemic. She managed an expansive public affairs team that covered all of the Agency’s communications efforts, internally and externally.
Before joining the ranks at CIA, Brittany served as the Assistant Administrator for Strategic Communications and Public Affairs at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) where she led the organization’s vast public communications campaigns and employee communications. Prior to that appointment, Brittany worked for transportation and technology startup Uber Technologies, Inc. where she was the lead spokesperson on matters related to national politics and federal affairs. Brittany garnered a reputation as a steady and creative advisor after working for some of the most influential political leaders in the nation. During the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, she served as Senator Lindsey Graham’s national communications director, leading the strategic communications team and advising the maverick campaign. She developed legislative communications skills on Capitol Hill while serving as a press secretary for United States Speaker of the House John Boehner at the height of his tenure.
Earlier in her career, Brittany served as a spokesperson and communications aide for multiple, major statewide and national campaigns, including Neel Kashkari’s run for Governor of California in 2014 and Chris Christie’s unlikely victory in his campaign for Governor of New Jersey in 2009. Her first foray into national politics came in 2007 as the director of press operations in the communications office of John McCain’s primary and presidential campaigns.
Brittany is a California native and graduated from Santa Clara University with degrees in Political Science and Sociology. She lives in Virginia with her husband and their three children.
