Volume PR
Founded the strategic communication agency that remains an applied foundation of her work.
About Elizabeth Edwards
A career advancing
the science and practice of communication.
Communication researcher. Affect strategist. Keynote speaker. Strategic advisor. Elizabeth connects a deeper understanding of people with more effective, responsible communication—and the expanding possibilities of intelligence.
Elizabeth Edwards
Communication · Intelligence · Influence
The question that became the work
What could communication become
if we understood people more fully?
That inquiry has shaped Elizabeth’s education, agency practice, research, and teaching.
At Pepperdine, she wanted to connect communication with psychology. Early work in Boeing’s space division and technology PR at Ogilvy placed her in complex fields where helping people understand mattered.
She founded Volume PR in 2001. Over 25 years of agency leadership, she has brought research about perception, motivation, and human behavior into practical communication strategy.
Her work progressed from behavioral communication into affective communication: examining how a person’s state and experience shape meaning, judgment, and the capacity to respond.
Today, she brings that perspective to the emerging relationships among people, organizations, and AI—through original frameworks, public writing, speaking, training, and strategic counsel.
Explore the contribution
A sustained body of work
Research. Practice.
Continual advancement.
Science into practice
Developed and taught methods connecting research on human behavior with communication and engagement.
A fuller human picture
Developed her synthesis and frameworks around instinct, state, human capacity, resonant communication, and ethical influence.
Frontier Intelligence
Advances communication science and education alongside sophisticated AI use, AI-mediated meaning, and affective AI.
Where the work takes form
One contribution.
Different ways to put it to work.
Elizabeth Edwards
Speaking, training, research, and strategic counsel.
Work with ElizabethVolume PR
PR, reputation, and communication strategy and execution.
Explore the agencyEngagement Science Lab
Learning, training, resources, and applied research.
Explore the LabThe Affect Institute
Stewardship of affective intelligence, ethical influence, and human agency.
Explore the InstituteElizabeth Edwards is a communication researcher, affect strategist, keynote speaker, and strategic advisor. Her original Affective Intelligence and Resonant Communication frameworks connect behavioral and affective science with communication practice: how people understand, form trust, make decisions, and respond to influence. She speaks and trains on communication excellence, ethical persuasion, sophisticated AI use, and communication in an AI-mediated world. She founded Volume PR in 2001 and is also the founder of Engagement Science Lab and The Affect Institute. She also guest lectures and teaches at universities, connecting communication science, ethical influence, and sophisticated AI practice with professional responsibility. Her work helps organizations communicate more effectively while respecting human agency.
What does “affective” mean in Elizabeth’s work?
Affective—with an A—concerns the conditions of human experience that shape perception, meaning, judgment, and response. Her Affective Intelligence framework examines how communication can expand or constrain people’s capacity to understand, consider, connect, remember, and act. It is not another name for artificial intelligence.
Is her work primarily AI training?
No. Behavioral and affective communication, communication excellence, and ethical influence are foundational to Elizabeth’s body of work. Sophisticated AI training, PR 3.0, and affective AI are important, explicitly bookable areas within that wider practice.
What can an organization hire Elizabeth to do?
Keynote speaking, workshops, team training, leadership briefings, focused advisory projects, and continuing strategic counsel. Topics and scope are developed around the audience, the work, and the intended outcome.
Where do products, research, and agency services belong?
Engagement Science Lab is the home for courses, products, resources, membership, training, and applied research. Volume PR delivers PR and strategic communication services. The Affect Institute focuses on stewardship of affective intelligence, ethical influence, and human agency.
A conversation starts here
Let’s put a new perspective to work.
Tell us about your audience, your team, or the question you’re working through.
Work with ElizabethFor universities & academic programs
Bring the frontier
into the classroom.
Guest lectures and university workshops connecting communication science, Affective Intelligence, ethical influence, and sophisticated AI practice. Explore examples from Elizabeth’s Pepperdine guest teaching and shape a session for your students or faculty.
Explore university teaching