Bryan Flannery Wins PBWA’s Val Ackerman Award

March 10, 2026 – Bryan Flannery, the senior manager of public relations for the New York Liberty, has been named the 2025 winner of the PBWA’s Val Ackerman Award, which honors a WNBA media-relations official who best exemplifies the standards of professionalism and excellence.

Flannery, who also won the Ackerman Award last year, built on the success of his efforts to expand coverage in the league’s largest media market. He is immediately responsive to questions from media members, works at finding ways to make stories happen, and is always accountable for decisions made by the team. 

“I am incredibly honored to be the first back-to-back PBWA Val Ackerman Award winner in WNBA history, and I am truly appreciative to be recognized by the writers who continue to elevate our league,” Flannery said. “Working in the largest media market presents an important opportunity to lead, and I am proud of the ways our team continues to innovate and raise the standard for how the New York Liberty and the WNBA are covered.”

Flannery added: “This honor reflects the collective efforts of the leaders across our organization who support me every day. I am grateful to Clara Wu Tsai, Keia Clarke, Jonathan Kolb, Marissa Shorenstein and Sheerin Salimi for their guidance and trust, and to our athletes, coaches, front office and media colleagues who make this work so meaningful.”

Other nominees for the award included Liam Branley of the Atlanta Dream and Pam Flenke of the Dallas Wings. The nominations and final vote were conducted by members of the PBWA’s WNBA chapter, created in 2021 and chaired by Howard Megdal.

“In the WNBA’s largest media market, Bryan Flannery and his staff at the New York Liberty have perhaps the toughest job in women’s basketball PR,” Megdal said. “You’d never know it from both his ability to build connections between players, coaches and those of us in the media, and the enthusiasm and good cheer with which he builds those relationships. No one has done more to build the ability for fans of the New York Liberty to connect to their team through the stories we in the PBWA tell – with the possible exception of Ellie herself.”

Keia Clarke, the Liberty’s CEO, and Jonathan Kolb, the team’s general manager, said in a statement: “Bryan’s back-to-back recognition from the PBWA is a reflection of the credibility and trust he has built with media across the league.” They added, “This honor, and his recent promotion to senior manager of public relations, speaks to the consistency and impact he brings to our organization every day. We’re proud to see him recognized again.”

The PBWA each year honors a WNBA player, coach and PR professional who go the extra mile to work with the media:

• The Val Ackerman Award goes to the best team (or in special circumstances, league) public-relations professional, and is named after the first president of the WNBA, Val Ackerman, who possesses a keen understanding of the importance of media and has worked hard to empower us to do our best work.

• The Anne Donovan Award goes to the coach (or in special circumstances, executive) who is most available and helpful to the media, and is named after the late Anne Donovan, an icon of the sport as a player, head coach and executive.

• The Tamika Catchings Award goes to the player who best fosters a spirit of cooperation with the media, and is named after the former Indiana Fever star, who never said no to a chance to promote the league.

The awards are modeled after similar honors that the PBWA bestows annually on the NBA side, to the player (Magic Johnson Award), coach (Rudy Tomjanovich Award) and PR staff (Brian McIntyre Award) who consistently go above and beyond to work with the media and the public.

Founded in 1973, the Professional Basketball Writers Association is a nonprofit membership organization for journalists who regularly cover the NBA and the WNBA for newspapers, magazines, wire services and online outlets. At present, the PBWA has approximately 230 members, representing more than 80 outlets.