Expel culture · 3 MIN READ · SCOUT SCHOLES · MAY 21, 2025 · TAGS: Award / Expletives
TL;DR
- Brooke McClary is a Senior Communications Manager at Expel
- She’s a PR maven, and was recently nominated as a “Rising Star” Woman in PR for PRNEWS
- Brooke is currently working on learning American Sign Language (ASL), and maybe building sandcastles
Brooke McClary is a Charleston, South Carolina resident who has dedicated her entire career to PR and communications, starting in college. We sat down with Brooke after she was named a “Rising Star” by PRNEWS to chat about her nomination.
From college to PR & comms at Expel
Brooke is a graduate of Elon University (no relation to Musk), where she studied communications and then landed at a B2B PR agency post-college. She was placed in the cybersecurity practice group, and said, “For anyone that’s worked at an agency, you know it’s a great way to cut your teeth. You learn a lot really fast, and it’s exhausting. From there, I did a bit of a 180 and worked for my local government’s Business Improvement District (BID). It was a lot of the same communications skills, but I learned a lot about the consumer side of marketing, which is a really interesting juxtaposition.”
From there, she and her then-boyfriend (now husband) decided to make a change, and moved from Northern Virginia to South Carolina. She found herself looking for remote work, and Expel called to her from the depths of LinkedIn’s job boards. And now we’re here, three and a half years later!
Thoughts on life at Expel
As a writer, the first thing Brooke noticed about Expel was our voice. “The first thing you see when you look at a website for any job is how they talk about themselves. And if you’ve looked at any other cybersecurity company, it’s a whole lot different than how we sound—it’s a lot more human. You can tell there are people on the other side generating that content, and it feels real. For me, that reads true in everything from the job postings to what I now see internally.”
She continued, “We have such a people-first approach…I love it here because despite being fully remote, I still feel connected to my peers. I think it’s so powerful we’re all able to build these connections despite the physical distance between us. I’m in South Carolina, my manager is in New Hampshire, and his manager is on the west coast, but we’ve all built connections despite the physical distance between us.”
When it comes to her day-to-day, Brooke lives in time zone differences and news cycles. So, by nature, it’s never the same. Expel has both EMEA and US-based teams, and that goes for PR, too. Brooke manages both PR teams, and will constantly check in with them and track news cycles to see when and where Expel can fit into the conversation.
“We avoid ambulance chasing at all costs. We are not commenting just to comment. We’re interested in inserting actionable, helpful insights into a conversation, which is a difference from my previous experiences working with other companies. Our biggest priority isn’t to just get our name out there, but to actually help the operator community, which is a really cool thing.”
Brooke also shared that she’s constantly working hand-in-hand with our threat intel team to elevate their voices and thoughts to help others in the cybersecurity community.
“As a PR person, my job is to amplify the voices of the people that know what they’re talking about—the people that are in the weeds every day,” Brooke explains. “We’re so lucky to have some truly interesting folks with not only day-to-day experience, but varied backgrounds. They come from all walks of life and past jobs, and I’m here to help them build their personal and professional brands, and amplify their voices in a crowded market.”
Her passion for others and her work make it clear why she was nominated for the PRNEWS “Rising Star” award by her team. “It’s truly an honor to be featured alongside other women that I know are doing such amazing work, no matter the industry or size of the company. It’s a tough, competitive space we’re in, and it’s cool to be up there with a lot of amazing women in the industry. I’m super grateful.”
Fun fact and a very important question
“If I have any hidden talents, they’re still unfortunately hidden to me, too,” Brooke joked. However, she’s currently learning American Sign Language, and loves that it relates back to her career. It’s often not a language learning option in US schools, but Brooke excitedly shared she’s learning about dialects, and even shared what she’s learned to communicate with her young nephew.
And as for her very important question, we asked Brooke: What ridiculous thing would you add to the Olympic Games if you had absolute power over the planning committee? After asking several (very valid) clarifying questions, she landed on sandcastle building. “It’s kind of beautiful. It’s fleeting–it won’t last forever, but it’s a moment in time and that’s a metaphor itself.” Clearly, Brooke was meant to be a writer (and maybe even a poet).
