Heather Maher Email and Phone Number

I write, edit, design, and produce impactful stewardship and communication products for high-worth donors, potential supporters, and foundations that showcase the Humane Society of the United States' and Humane Society International's programs, priorities, and funding opportunities, and persuasively communicate mission, goals, and achievements via reports, proposals, program updates, organizational wins, and more. I work with our major gift officers to create curated stewardship materials for individual donors with specialized funding interests and produce board-level impact reports for partner foundations and corporations.

Served as the ambassador's media advisor, press secretary, and communication strategist—a role that included drafting public statements, press releases, and op-eds for major international print and broadcast media outlets; handling all outreach and communications with reporters and editors; managing media strategy in crisis situations; advising on messaging and issue framing; and prepping the ambassador for public and press appearances. I also prepared framing documents for members of Congress before meetings, conducted follow-up briefings, and worked with Capitol Hill staff on requests. Arranged media interviews and handled advance work and background research for journalists. Wrote government communication pieces for a variety of audiences including members of Congress, White House staff, think tanks, reporters, Kabul-based government officials, the Afghan public, and U.S.-based stakeholder groups.

Worked as chief editor in a fast-paced D.C.-based newsroom of reporters producing stories on right-wing bias in the media. Developed and oversaw copy editing protocol, improved copy flow, revamped and elevated editorial standards, and trained junior reporters in news writing and editing. (Left when recruited to work for an incoming U.S. ambassador.)

Led the Washington, D.C. newsroom of international broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, becoming the first woman to do so. Covered Congress, the White House, U.S. news and international news for a radio and online audience of 42+ million people in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia. Reported from Capitol Hill committee hearings and analyzed legislative developments and White House decisions, cultivated sources in federal agencies and congressional offices, and regularly interviewed U.S. senators and representatives. Edited all Washington-based news, features, and analyses and coordinated D.C. editorial operations with colleagues in several international bureaus.

Edited news and features from journalists in young democracies across central and eastern Europe. Designed and ran training courses for journalists in this region, wrote grant applications and reports. Transitions (TOL) is a nonprofit organization established to strengthen the professionalism, independence and impact of the news media in the post-communist countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Coordinated and assisted with production of live and taped broadcasts from correspondents based around the world for CNN International in the run-up to and first months of U.S. invasion of Iraq. Worked with show producers to schedule on-air segments, arranged satellite links, worked directly with international correspondents and field producers to obtain video and sound assets for broadcast packages.

Led staff of news reporters at the Czech Republic's daily English-language newspaper, founded in the early 1990s. Assigned stories, edited copy, worked with photo and layout on page design and more.

Led editorial oversight of brillscontent.com, the website of Brill's Content, a magazine devoted to covering the media and free press issues. Occasionally also wrote for the magazine and copy-edited pages for monthly closings. Left when publication merged with Inside.com and closed down.

Reported and wrote news, analyses, and feature articles for network news website. Appointed lead White House reporter, followed by chief breaking news reporter. Produced and reported ABCNews.com's first news live streams, broke multi-part investigations, worked with broadcast side to produce reports and appeared on World News Overnight.