Laura Neff-Henderson named communications director for administrative services
Laura L. Neff-Henderson has been named communications director for the administrative services division at Virginia Tech.
In her new position, Neff-Henderson will develop and execute a comprehensive, integrated communications program for the administrative services division and its reporting units — Business Services, Emergency Management, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities, Human Resources, and Virginia Tech Police.
Since 2012, Neff-Henderson was the communications manager in Virginia Tech's Department of Human Resources. She became a communications project coordinator in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2011. She currently teaches a media writing course in university's Department of Communication.
From 2006 to 2010, Neff-Henderson was director of communications and public relations at North Cross School, in Roanoke, Virginia, and served as the organization’s chief communications strategist, overseeing the school’s communications, marketing, and public relations activities.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Neff-Henderson has also held public relations positions with Arlington Public Schools, in Arlington, Virginia, and Petersburg Public Schools in Petersburg, Virginia. She also has experience as a newspaper reporter and graphic designer and has taught high school and college English and journalism courses.
Neff-Henderson is actively involved in the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and has served on the leadership board of the chapter since 2004. She was the president in 2011 and now serves as chair of the New River Valley outreach and accreditation committees. She is also an executive board member of PRSA's national employee communications section.
She is also a member of the board of directors for the Girl Scout Virginia Skyline Council, and has previously held leadership positions with the Chesapeake Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association.
Neff-Henderson has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Radford University, and a master’s degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2008, she earned the APR (Accreditation in Public Relations) from the Public Relations Society of America — an accreditation that less than 20 percent of public relations practitioners across the county have earned.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
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