The New York-based Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) has appointed two new full-time employees with experience in consumer education, media relations, public affairs and strategic communications to the organization.

Janet Ruiz, an I.I.I. consultant for the past four years, is now the I.I.I.’s director of Strategic Communication, based in the San Francisco Bay area. She will continue to work with California-based media, insurance companies and regulators on behalf of the I.I.I.

Ruiz previously worked at Fireman’s Fund and State Farm in California, where she held positions in strategic communications and underwriting.

Scott Holeman joins the I.I.I. as director of Media Relations. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, he will work with national media to address emerging insurance issues and will serve as a spokesman on topics such as commercial insurance, disaster preparedness, innovation and cybersecurity.

Prior to joining the insurer-backed I.I.I., Holeman was the communications director for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He also has worked in the roles of news director, anchor and reporter for television stations in Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, he served as communications director for the Insurance Commissioner, Speaker of the House, and the Department of Revenue in Kansas.

In other news related to its communications team, I.I.I. said Lynne McChristian, its Florida-based communications consultant since 2008, has moved to Illinois. McChristian is now the director of the Office of Risk Management & Insurance Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is also a senior instructor teaching insurance and enterprise risk management classes. She will continue to serve as an I.I.I. spokesperson and a non-resident scholar.

Source: Insurance Information Institute