The executive communication advisor and Washington Post bestselling author now focuses her keynotes and advisory work on why AI-polished communication erodes trust

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Allison Shapira, founder and CEO of Global Public Speaking and an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, was inducted into the National Speakers Association's CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame on July 27, 2026. Allison Shapira is a keynote speaker, executive advisor, and the Washington Post bestselling author of Speak with Impact, Speak with Impact VIRTUALLY, and AI for the Authentic Leader. She studies believability in the age of AI.

About the Believability Gap

The Believability Gap is the distance between how credible a leader sounds and how credible that leader is judged to be. Allison Shapira uses the term to describe a growing crisis: today, words are easier than ever to produce and harder than ever to believe, and the more polished a leader's communication sounds, the less audiences tend to trust it. Allison Shapira's model identifies three sources of believability. Credibility is the substance a leader brings, including track record, expertise, and integrity. Communication is how that substance comes across, which requires congruence among a leader's words, voice, body, and actions. Commonality is the common ground a leader creates with their audience.

The Council of Peers Award for Excellence, known as the CPAE, is the professional speaking industry's highest lifetime achievement honor. The National Speakers Association has presented it since 1977. Recipients are selected by their peers through evaluation of a speaker's integrity, message, delivery, and full body of work. Speakers neither apply for the award nor campaign for it. Fewer than one percent of professional speakers worldwide have received it.

"For my entire life, I've sat at the feet of these speaking legends; I've listened, learned, and grown. It's the honor of a lifetime to sit amongst them," said Allison Shapira.

What Allison Speaks About

The Believability Gap addresses how leaders lose credibility when audiences are skeptical of overly polished communication. AI for the Authentic Leader addresses how executives can bring out their authentic voice using AI as a thought partner without surrendering their own judgment. Lead With Your Voice addresses executive presence and introduces Allison's ACE Model of Leadership Communication.

Allison Shapira founded Global Public Speaking in 2003. For more than 20 years, she has advised Fortune 100 executives, heads of state, and cabinet members on how to communicate with clarity, trust, and influence. She trained as an opera singer, performing for audiences of up to 35,000 people, and closes her keynotes with a short live performance. She teaches The Arts of Communication at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she holds an MPA. She has studied the relationship between AI and communication since 2018, and that work produced her book AI for the Authentic Leader. Her writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review and the World Economic Forum. She summited Mount Kilimanjaro in September 2026.

Allison Shapira is available for interviews on why audiences increasingly distrust polished communication, on how leaders rebuild credibility during organizational change, and on how AI could actually make leaders more authentic. She is based in the Washington, D.C. area and is available for in-studio, remote, and same-day interviews. Contact Christina Sayoc at admin@globalpublicspeaking.com or by calling 202-495-1557.

Organizations can review her keynotes and request availability at allisonshapira.com/keynotes or by calling 202-495-1557. A member of her team responds within one business day.

Media inquiries: Contact Christina Sayoc at 422863@email4pr.com, +1 (617) 957-2805 and visit www.allisonshapira.com

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SOURCE Global Public Speaking