My personal theory of change for AI safety comms: If the salience of AI safety as an urgent issue increases among the public and among policymakers, it is much more likely there will be an AI pause and/or meaningful international treaties soon, which I think of as the #1 priority for AI safety right now.

I think what you are missing is that you will have a much easier time convincing the average 25 year old to really value AI safety than the average 75 year old, and that linkedin has very limited potential for reach. I don't know enough to really judge either fellowship project specifically, but I don't have a better idea for increasing AI safety's salience with the public than "get more people to throw AI safety content at the wall and see what sticks".