Michael Sheward, APR

serves as the Director of Public Relations and Media Strategies for The Communicators and provides a great mix of Washington-savvy, award-winning strategic public relations consulting and implementation, strong problem-solving skills, creative idea development, along with constant curiosity about the next story and the next reporter who calls.

His strengths include 30 years of achievements in issues management, crisis communications, problem-solving, strategic planning, association management, conference development and promotion, media relations, government affairs and journalism education. He’s a leader, a teacher, a community volunteer, an idea man and the first one to crack a joke. Accredited (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America, Mike is a past president of the National Capital Chapter of PRSA, the largest chapter in the nation, and has served on the Associations Advance America and Communications Committees of the American Society of Association Executives.

For nearly 20 years, Mike was an adjunct professor teaching public relations and communications courses for both the Marketing Department and the GW Solutions continuing education program at George Washington University. His nonprofit experience includes serving about six years as a volunteer regional director and communications officer for the Fairfax-Falls Church United Way.

Most of all, Mike is a creative, steady performer and a loyal friend. Both Mike and the president of The Communicators are graduates of the University of Missouri School of Journalism at Columbia, where they first started working together. Mike came to Washington to serve as a Capitol Hill press secretary and rekindled the working team with Georgia when she became Executive Vice President of The Communicators. One of Mike’s major assignments for the last seven years has been serving as executive director for the National Association of Government Communicators where he supervised and implemented a wide range of association duties from conference management and promotion to membership and organizational growth.

Mike took over management of the 2006 Federal Communicators Network government communications conference in Washington, DC, two months before the event date when another organization rescinded its agreement. During that time, he executed a conference center contract, managed the 200 attendee event, and brought in sponsors and exhibitors resulting in more than a $10,000 profit.

He played a major role in assembling a four-firm team that won a U.S. Census Bureau contract to develop and provide a promotional advertising and PSA campaign to recruit workers for the 2000 Census. The project involved initiating creative concepts, ideas and themes and taking them through development, client presentation, refinement and execution into print and broadcast products in several languages.