Lead 12-person team for 2,100-employee environmental cleanup contractor on $8.3 billion federal contract. Responsible for employee communications, video services, media relations, websites, tours, community relations and workforce development partnership initiatives. Maintain DOE “Classified” security clearance.• Earned UCOR’s first Knoxville “Top Workplaces” designation and “Training Culture Award” in 2022.• Communications strategies led to successful integration of 150-employee Transuranic Waste Processing Facility team to company scope.

Promoted to lead a four-person Government and Community Relations team focused on sustaining public understanding of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site as a safe and responsible neighbor; a positive economic asset to the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA); and an essential manufacturing complex in our nation’s defense.• Maintain relationships with local, state and federal elected officials, as well as business, education and other community stakeholders.• Responsible for $900,000 in annual philanthropic giving in the CSRA, in both South Carolina and Georgia – including oversight of the company’s $1 million employee-led United Way Campaign and sitewide volunteer efforts in the five-county region. • Oversight of the Savannah River Site Tour Program, which provides mission-related tours and free public and historic tours of the site and its operations facilities to approximately 2,000 people each year.

Responsible for local, state and federal legislative and regulatory affairs activities for 33 DuPont plants and businesses in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, Illinois and Kentucky.• Secured North Carolina state government and regulatory acceptance for donation of 476-acre former plant site property, resulting in $400,000 annual savings.• Government affairs strategic planning and outreach for corporate workforce reductions and six plant closure announcements in four states.

Promoted to lead an eight-member state lobbyist team and five external contract lobbyist firms focused on state government affairs activities in the United States, the company’s largest operating region with 200 manufacturing and research facilities and more than 35,000 employees in 40 states and Puerto Rico. • Drove industry support for creation of a new, nonpartisan “Governors Food & Farm Partnership,” with 10 state governors and staff actively focused on agriculture and food security policy.• Team successfully defeated legislation in 25 states relating to biotech crops; food labeling; and biofuels.

Promoted to direct legislative and political advocacy in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. Region included 24 manufacturing plants, 6,300 employees, and headquarters for two business units and two joint ventures.• Negotiated economic incentives for new $500 million Kevlar® plant in South Carolina.• Successfully lobbied Virginia legislature and Governor’s office in 2010 to pass the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (SB686), a new brownfields cleanup law.• Created $5 million in economic development incentives support for new 10-mile natural gas pipeline in North Carolina for $100 million plant that produced solar panel materials.

Media relations, crisis communications, employee communications and community affairs for company operations at 18 manufacturing facilities and 6,000 employees in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, and South Carolina; two Puerto Rico facilities; and incident coverage for seven additional states.• Led community relations and media strategy to secure community support and regulatory permit approval for $130 million Tennessee biotech manufacturing plant.• Strategic media counsel to business leaders, including key messages for layoffs, transportation incidents and proactive media placement.

Promoted to Corporate Communications Lead Team; led five-member team and $800,000 annual budget focused on reorganizing the company’s communications manager role at 22 paper mills in the United States.• Completed communication audits at seven critical-need mills, utilizing research data to identify and implement business communications to improve Gallup Q12 Engagement Survey scores.

Promoted to company governmental relations role in North Carolina and Virginia, overseeing political contributions, lobbying, regulatory affairs and media spokesperson duties for three paper mills, 33 manufacturing and distribution facilities, and 1 million acres of forestland.• Approved $50,000 in regional political contributions and $800,000 in annual state and federal contributions as board member of the company’s Political Action Committee.• Managed $500,000 in annual contributions, including educational partnership with North Carolina governor’s office reaching 4,000 classrooms, and $2 million for Hurricane Floyd relief in 1999.

Led employee communications, media relations, advertising and community relations at 1,300-employee paper mill with $700 million in annual sales and $75 million annual payroll.• Created employee communications tools to support ratification of new six-year labor contracts with seven local unions. Directed $120,000 in annual foundation grants, educator grants and local giving.

Communications positions of increasing responsibility at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 300-square-mile Savannah River Site, which employed 20,000 and produced special nuclear materials for national defense, medical research and space exploration. Maintained “Top Secret” U.S. Department of Energy security clearance. • Company spokesperson for all high-level radioactive waste storage and processing issues, including The New York Times, CNN, trade publications and community presentations.• Developed communications strategies during the startup of the $2.4 billion “Defense Waste Processing Facility,” the world’s largest radioactive-waste-to-glass plant.