About

Born into a military family, Cecelia was raised in West Tennessee—where her family still lives. She got her start in communications at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, graduating with a bachelor's in communications. Her career in public service began in the state legislature in Nashville. Hooked on communications and politics, she moved to DC and completed her master’s in political management at The George Washington University.

Leveraging the combined experiences from her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Cecelia headed to Capitol Hill. She was the top communications advisor for three distinct members of Congress. Her first press secretary position was with former Rep. Bob Filner from California, a champion of veterans’ issues. Next, Cecelia joined Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy to work on common sense gun safety measures in memory of the congresswoman’s own murdered husband. Her last few years on the Hill was working as communications director for Rahm Emanuel during his meteoric rise in the House of Representatives before he left Congress to become the White House Chief of Staff.

After Capitol Hill, Cecelia moved to Chicago to work in the governor’s office, managing the spokespeople for 23 state agencies. She returned to DC and served in the Senior Executive Service as a political appointee in the Obama Administration for the Federal Trade Commission. In between those positions, she was in communications for AARP and did groundbreaking strategic work on Supreme Court issues at the trial attorneys association.

After leaving the administration, Cecelia became a Senior Vice President at SKDK, then Managing Director, and is now the President of DC Public Affairs. Cecelia is a Chief Communications executive with 20+ years leading public affairs, crisis response, and corporate reputation campaigns at the highest levels of business and government. She’s been a trusted advisor to Fortune 50 companies, government agencies, and global nonprofits. She is an acclaimed strategist with elite expertise in the dark arts of influence: specifically, narrative control under legal scrutiny, quiet crisis de-escalation, reputational counterintelligence, and high-stakes message warfare. She’s an operator at the intersection of law, politics, and perception—where pressure is highest and precision matters most.

Cecelia is actively involved in both her alma maters. She is a member of UT’s College of Communication Board of Visitors, and taught ethics in public relations as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University for a number of years.