September 2026 Member Spotlight: Alexandra (Ally) Sebben

Each month, IABC Ottawa does a Q&A with one of the members of our chapter to learn about their career and experiences. In September we spoke with Alexandra (Ally) Sebben to ask her perspective on communicating complex ideas, navigating diverse audiences, and the evolving role of communications in higher education and research.

Your Title: Ally Sebben, Strategic Communications Manager in Higher Education (Carleton University)

1. You’ve spent much of your career communicating in higher education and research, where the subject matter can be complex and audiences don’t always come to it with the same level of knowledge. How do you make complex information clear and relevant without oversimplifying it?

Research can change someone’s life, whether it’s leading to a new treatment or helping us better diagnose, manage or prevent a disease. But that impact depends on people understanding why the research matters.

For me, that starts with building trust with researchers. They’re the experts, so my job isn’t to oversimplify their work — it’s to work with them to find the story and make it relevant to the audience.

If I don’t understand something, I’ll ask them to explain it to me as if I were their neighbour asking about their work at a backyard event. Then I keep asking questions until I really get it. I’ll look for examples, comparisons and real-world connections that make the research easier to understand.

It’s really a partnership. I bring my understanding of the audience and communications, and they bring their expertise. There’s a lot of back-and-forth to make sure the story is both compelling and accurate, without losing the important nuance.

2. Higher education communicators are often balancing the needs of students, faculty, leadership and the wider community, sometimes on the same issue. How do you approach communications when different audiences need very different things from you?

I think it starts with really understanding your audiences and stakeholders. What matters to them? What keeps them up at night? What are their needs or pain points? And where are the commonalities or opportunities to bring different audiences together?

From there, I think you identify the common objective and then tailor the communications to what each audience needs. The tactics should come later. Once you understand who you’re communicating with and what you’re trying to achieve, you can determine the right message, channel and approach.

And that understanding shouldn’t be a one-time exercise. I like to build feedback into the process, use digital channels and other data to see how people are responding, and measure what we’re doing so we have a benchmark and can adjust.

Most importantly, you have to actually listen. If your audience is telling you something isn’t working, or that they need something different, you need to be willing to change.

3. You’ve led integrated campaigns as well as supported senior leaders through complex issues. When the stakes are high, what separates good communications advice from simply producing good communications?

I forget where I heard this from, so I wish I could give them credit, but years ago I heard a senior leader say, “business moves at the speed of trust.” It really stuck with me. I actually wrote it in big letters on the whiteboard in my old office.

I’ve worked with a range of leaders over my career, and I’ve found that good communications advice really comes down to trust. That means being honest, reading the room, knowing which hills are worth dying on and which ones aren’t, and making sure your leader is never caught off guard or embarrassed in front of others, while still giving them your real, honest opinion.

In practice, that can mean putting together a data-informed brief to make the case for one decision over another, thinking through how different audiences might react, or being willing to say no when something could put the organization or its reputation at risk.

I think that’s what separates advice from execution. You’re not just helping a leader communicate a decision... you’re helping them make a better decision in the first place.

4. Your career has taken you from hands-on digital and content roles to managing teams and advising senior leaders. What changed most in how you approached your work as you became a communications leader?

The best leaders I’ve worked with have taught me that you can demonstrate leadership no matter where you are in your career or what your title says. They’ve also taught me the importance of values-based leadership and of seeing the potential in the people you work with and finding ways to help them shine.

When I was an individual contributor, my goal was to become an expert in my area. As a people leader, I see my role as helping the people I work with become experts in theirs; removing the roadblocks that get in their way, whether that’s a lack of clarity, resources, process or support.

A big part of that is also knowing when to let go. I want people to have the autonomy to do their work and make decisions, while being clear about when I need to step in and provide guidance. And that has to go both ways too, I want people to feel comfortable giving me feedback.

I don’t think being a leader means being the smartest person in the room or having all the answers. It’s about bringing the right people together, empowering them to do their best work and helping guide everyone toward the north star of the organization’s goals and purpose.

5. You’re a past president of IABC Ottawa and have also served on the IABC Canada East Region Board. As we celebrate IABC Ottawa’s 50th anniversary this year, what has being part of the IABC community meant to you?

It always comes back to the people for me. I joined IABC when I first moved to Ottawa because I wanted to build my professional network. Almost nine years later, it’s become a bit of a lifeline. I know I can pick up the phone and call a friend for advice on a new tool, an approach to a complex issue, a resource they’ve found helpful, or just because I need to talk something through.

IABC has also played a huge role in my growth as a leader and in how I see our profession. It’s helped me understand that we do so much more than just “write the thing.” We’re strategic advisors and problem-solvers, and I’ve become much more confident in articulating the value of communications as a profession.

It really comes back to community — having people who understand the work, support you and want to see you succeed.

6. What’s one change or challenge in communications right now that you think more of us should be paying attention to?

I think one of the biggest challenges right now is maintaining trust and creating space for real, difficult conversations.

We have more ways than ever to communicate, but I’m not sure we’re always having better conversations. There’s a lot of pressure to move quickly, put out the perfect statement, get the post up and move on. But for me, sometimes the most productive conversations are messy. People disagree, you don’t have all the answers and you might not even know where the conversation is going to end.

That doesn’t mean giving up on clarity or letting misinformation go unchecked. It means creating room for disagreement, asking better questions and being willing to sit with some uncertainty rather than trying to control every part of the conversation. We need to be willing to experiment and, in some cases, get back to the basics — creating opportunities for people to actually engage with an issue rather than just receiving a finished message.

I think that's where trust is built. Not through one perfectly written message, but through being honest, making room for different perspectives and showing that you’re willing to have the conversation even when it’s uncomfortable.

7. Is there a book, podcast, newsletter, course or other resource you’d recommend to fellow communicators? What makes it worth checking out?

It’s an oldie, but The IABC Guide for Practical Business Communication: A Global Standard Primer has been cracked open on my desk quite a bit lately.

I think part of the reason is that I’m at a point in my career where I’m asking myself a lot of bigger questions about the work — what actually builds trust, how we know communications are having an impact and how we make good decisions when there isn’t always a clear answer.

It’s been useful to go back to some of those fundamentals and use them as a bit of a reset. I like that it gives me a framework without pretending there’s a formula for communications. Sometimes when things feel complicated, I find it helpful to step back, get clear on what I’m actually trying to achieve, and come back to the basics.