Executive communication advisor and Harvard Kennedy School lecturer joins fewer than 1% of professional speakers worldwide to receive the industry’s highest lifetime achievement honor.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — July 28, 2026 — Allison Shapira, founder and CEO of Global Public Speaking and a longtime lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, has been inducted into the National Speakers Association’s (NSA) CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, joining a group that represents less than one percent of professional speakers worldwide.
The Council of Peers Award for Excellence, known as the CPAE, is the speaking industry’s highest lifetime achievement honor. Learn more about Allison Shapira’s CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame recognition here. It is awarded by a rigorous, peer-driven evaluation process that examines a speaker’s integrity, message, delivery, and body of work over the course of a career, and it is reserved for those who have reached the very top of the profession. Past honorees include Ronald Reagan, Colin Powell, and Zig Ziglar.
Shapira received the award at the closing gala of the National Speakers Association’s annual conference in Austin, Texas, on July 27, 2026, surrounded by colleagues, clients, and family.
“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,” Shapira said.
For more than two decades, Shapira has advised senior leaders—from Fortune 100 executives to prime ministers and cabinet members—on how to communicate with clarity, trust, and impact. A former opera singer, she built Global Public Speaking in 2003 around the idea that the same presence and precision that moves an audience of thousands can be taught and practiced by any leader. She is the Washington Post bestselling author of Speak with Impact and, most recently, AI for the Authentic Leader, which explores how executives can use AI to strengthen—rather than dilute—their credibility and trust with the people they lead.
Shapira’s current work centers on a related question she has spent the past year researching: what makes a leader believable in an age when anyone can generate polished words instantly. Her writing on the subject has appeared in the Harvard Business Review and the World Economic Forum, and she continues to teach The Arts of Communication at the Harvard Kennedy School.
About Allison Shapira
Allison Shapira is a keynote speaker, an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the founder and CEO of Global Public Speaking, an executive communication and advisory firm. For over 20 years, she has worked with Fortune 100 executives, heads of state, and cabinet members on how to speak with clarity, trust, and influence. She is the Washington Post bestselling author of Speak with Impact and AI for the Authentic Leader, and her writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review and the World Economic Forum. Her guiding principle: how you communicate is how you lead.
About the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame
The Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) is presented by the National Speakers Association to recognize speakers who have demonstrated sustained excellence in professionalism, delivery, and impact over the course of their careers. It is widely regarded as the speaking profession’s highest lifetime achievement honor.
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Contact Christina Sayoc: [email protected] and www.allisonshapira.com