Plus, key tips on integrating PR and internal comms.
Quiana Pinckney, senior vice president of communications at Comcast’s largest division, oversees both internal and external communications. With more than two decades of experience across agencies, law firms, Fortune 500s, and private equity-backed companies, she has led teams through IPOs, crises, integrations and transformations. Pinckney is a passionate storyteller and people-first leader. She believes in building bold, authentic communication strategies that move businesses forward while bringing teams along for the journey. Outside of work, she grounds herself in gratitude, faith, and fitness—and she admits that if she weren’t in communications, she’d likely be working with athletes as a sports therapist.
You’ve had such a dynamic career. Looking back, what challenge taught you the most about leadership?
For me, it wasn’t one single moment—it was a recurring lesson. Early in my career, I was a very fast runner. I focused on producing and delivering results quickly, but I often left people behind. I thought I was bringing people along because I shared strategies or decks, but I wasn’t creating real buy-in or collaboration.
Eventually, I realized that if I kept moving that way, I’d end up alone — successful on paper but without a team that wanted to follow me. A mentor asked me point-blank: Is this the kind of leader you want to be? That question changed me. I had to take accountability and adjust my approach. Today, I know you can still move at the pace of business, but you have to bring your team with you. That’s how you create lasting impact as a leader.
You’ve described yourself as a storyteller. What’s one tip for making stories resonate with both internal and external audiences?
You’ve got to think about the audience first. I’ve got to be authentic, but the audience should always come first. What do they care about? Can they see themselves in this story? Does it make sense for them? Why should they care?
Take our frontline leaders and team members as an example. When we talk about benefits, comms teams may want to build a glossy website with pages and pages of information. But when you sit in a focus group, their questions are simple: How much is this going to cost me? Is my paycheck going to change? Are my benefits changing in a big way, or is it minor?
Meanwhile, we’re spending time trying to tell a “big story” about how these benefits are amazing and all the things people can do with them. But if employees don’t see themselves in that story, it won’t land. That’s why audience-first thinking matters. Every cycle of our internal employee survey we ask ourselves: What are we not saying? How can we continue to help our employees see themselves in these benefits?”
For me, audience-first doesn’t mean changing who you are — it just means tailoring your messaging so that you’re meeting people where they are and giving them what they need to know.
You lead both PR and internal comms at Comcast. How do you bridge the two so they feel connected, not siloed?
For me, they’ve never been separate. At Comcast, we start with a shared strategic foundation — one set of goals, one integrated plan. Our internal and external leads plan together from the beginning. We have quarterly planning sessions with business leaders, internal comms and PR in the same room.
From there, it’s about integrated content flow and feedback loops. What works on LinkedIn might work internally on Viva Engage, and vice versa. We measure success together, even if the KPIs are different. It’s not about forcing integration — it’s about making collaboration feel natural, so either side could step in and build a plan if needed.
What does a bold communication strategy mean to you?
One of our goals is bold approaches. I’ve been in communications for a long time across different industries, and the work has always involved cultivating relationships with media, maintaining them, pitching and sending press releases. Then influencers came along, and social media changed everything. When I started in PR, social media didn’t exist. And when we said “influencers,” we really meant paid talent connected to advertising campaigns.
Now, when our CEO and president talk about bold approaches, I really have to pause and ask: What does that look like for us? Especially in our division. To me, it means challenging industry norms. We can’t treat the media landscape the same way we did with newspapers or traditional newsrooms — the audiences are different, and how people consume news is completely different.
Bold also means being willing to use unconventional channels. For us, boldness is about risk-taking—but calculated, strategic risks. We’re at an inflection point at Comcast — pivoting from who we were to who we’re becoming as a company—so authenticity is non-negotiable.
And bold doesn’t mean reckless. It’s about being proactive, shaping conversations instead of waiting for them to come to us, and finding ways to enter spaces that aren’t just about cable, internet, or mobile but still matter to the communities we serve. Sometimes the boldest move is small but meaningful — because it challenges the norms of “how it’s always been done.”
At the end of the day, bold still has to be about the audience. Who are we trying to reach? What actions or behaviors do we want to inspire?
Outside of work, what small ritual helps you stay grounded?
With prayer — and I start with gratitude. I keep a gratitude journal, and while it’s not a new or bold idea, it’s grounding. I’m very grateful. I don’t take it for granted that I get to lead a team, walk into this beautiful office at The Battery, and do work I love. Sometimes my gratitude isn’t even about work — it can be as simple as being thankful for another healthy day.
My routine is pretty clear: I get up, work out, pray, and start with gratitude. And on really rough days, I lean even harder into it. If I’m struggling, I’ll pause, write down a few things I’m thankful for, and it shifts my mood and perspective. There’s a saying that you didn’t have a bad day, you had a bad 15 minutes. Gratitude helps me shift out of those 15 minutes so I can bring my best — not always “happy,” but grounded and present — self to work.
I also end my day with gratitude. I stole this idea from someone else, but I write down three things from the day I’m thankful for.
If you weren’t in communications, what career would you be thriving in?
If I weren’t in communications, I’d probably be a sports therapist or sports physical therapist — someone providing either mental or physical support for athletes. I love sports, period. I love the idea of helping athletes tap into that championship mindset.
When you think about it, being a top-tier athlete is maybe 80 to 90% mental. Of course, you need the physical training and conditioning, but you also have to be mentally strong — especially in individual sports like track and field, tennis, or even baseball. In those moments, no one else can do it for you. It’s all on you, and that takes real toughness.
On the physical side, I’d love to help athletes rehab and get healthy again.
Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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