Heather Davis Epkins

Heather Davis Epkins (Ph.D., University of Maryland) currently serves as an Internal Communications Strategist for the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) supporting the strategic communications for 25,000 SAIC employees. Prior, she directed communications for the Governor’s Coordinating Offices and Maryland Environmental Services within the administration of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and for the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation.

With more than 25 years of professional experience, Dr. Epkins has served as strategic communications lead and media spokesperson for corporations, associations, nonprofits, and within local, state, and federal government entities– including as a press secretary on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. She has experience as a print/broadcast journalist, and has taught for the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Towson, among others. Her teaching and research specialties include public relations; strategic, crisis and political communication; media effects; media literacy; media relations; public speaking; and mass communication theory.

Dr. Epkins’ presented her award-winning peer-reviewed research on national security journalists’ coverage of terrorism both in the U.S. and internationally. Most recently, she published a book chapter detailing how the Hogan Administration utilized crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic within the Governor’s Coordinating Offices. Dr. Epkins serves as a board member for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Chesapeake Chapter, a volunteer with American Heritage Girls Troop MD1789 and her local school system and is the proud mom of two children and one Yorkipoo named “Samson.”