Pam Goldstein is a nationally-recognized and award-winning crisis communications strategist. Prior to launching Pam Goldstein Advisory, Pam was the head of McDonald’s Global Crisis Communications team, leading the company through incredibly complex and sensitive business and reputation issues from 2019 to 2025. During her previous tenure at Edelman – the world’s largest public relations firm – Pam was an advisor in the crisis communications practice and counseled dozens of clients on high-impact reputational moments. She has been on the frontlines of some of the largest and most challenging corporate issues around the globe over the last decade. Pam was named to PR Week’s 40 Under 40 in 2021 and to PR News Top Women in Public Relations list in 2024.

At McDonald’s, Pam had core accountability for protecting and advancing McDonald’s brand and served as an on-the-record media spokesperson for the company. Pam oversaw McDonald’s global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, leading a cross-functional team responsible for key decision-making and strategy setting that would guide more than 100 market teams and enable the company to build trust in its response. She received McDonald’s President Award, which recognizes the top 1% of corporate staff around the world, in recognition of this work. Pam also advised the company’s senior leaders on labor issues, executive transitions, data security, food safety and supply chain control, geopolitical crises and high-profile litigation naming executives. In 2024, Pam also led the U.S. Enterprise Communications Team responsible for U.S. financial communications, executive positioning and crafting the business narrative in an inflationary environment.

Pam joined McDonald’s from Edelman’s Crisis & Risk Management Practice, where she garnered a track record of success in guiding companies through high-profile issues. Pam led response efforts around one of the largest global product recalls to-date, which invited intense government scrutiny from agencies around the world. She led dozens of data security breach responses and directed war room efforts for one of the most impactful data breaches on record, which included Congressional hearings and permanently altered the data security landscape.

Prior to Edelman, Pam worked at the White House in the Office of Presidential Personnel, where she assisted in the presidential appointment and nomination process. Pam supported candidate vetting efforts and public records research for appointments by President Barack Obama to positions in the Departments of Justice, Labor, Education and Health & Human Services.

Pam is a guest lecturer on crisis management at Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has been featured as a speaker at conferences across the US. Pam is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned honors in strategic communications and political science.