Heather Acker

With three decades of experience in the public relations and communications industry, Heather Acker has an extensive background across agency, corporate, and non-profit organizations. Starting her career at the world’s largest public relations agency, Edelman Worldwide, in Washington, D.C., she collaborated with clients that were category leaders, including SC Johnson and Carfax. Specializing in media relations and executive media training, her agency experience also includes several years at Ogilvy PR and Chandler Chicco in New York, where she supported brands including Amgen, Deloitte, and Coca-Cola's Minute Maid brand.

On the corporate front, Acker has led strategic and creative communications for the past decade at Bristol Myers Squibb, including supporting their global charity campaign focused on advancing cancer research, Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer. This initiative, named the 2023 Halo Award Winner, became so successful that the bike ride evolved into the company's largest charity initiative expanding to Japan, Europe, and Latin America.

Acker also spent four years as a press officer at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she planned major media events, including an anti-landmine campaign featuring the British Red Cross president at the time, Princess Diana. While at the Red Cross, she served as a national spokesperson, conducting media interviews with national broadcast media, including the Today show and CNN.

M.Ed., George Washington University
B.A., English, University of Delaware