Ellen Kamilakis
Assistant District Administrator for CommunicationsVDOT Northern Virginia
Ellen has worked for VDOT's Northern Virginia District since November 2015 and is responsible for media relations, operational and crisis communications, and is known as the voice of "MeeMaw" on the @vadotnova Twitter account. Previously, she worked for Fairfax County Government for 12 years with their police, emergency management, and transportation departments. Ellen is a credentialed Public Information Officer (PIO) through the Center for Public Safety Excellence's Commission on Professional Credentialing, one of the first nine PIOs worldwide. She is also a FEMA-certified Master Public Information Officer and an IIMQS-certified Type-3 Public Information Officer with the National Capital Region Incident Management Team. She has won regional, state, and national awards in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 spanning social media, crisis communications, media relations, graphic design, event planning, integrated communications, and web design.