Melanie Thomas

Previous to serving in her current role, she served as the Public Affairs Officer for the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System (NF/SGVHS) where she oversaw media relations, stakeholder building, and took part in rebranding and rebuilding the public affairs shop. She has been a full-time employee and volunteer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for more than 11 years.

Prior to her position with NF/SGVHS, she was a Public Affairs Specialist and TCF intern for the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System. While in that role, she coordinated media relations activities, served as the primary point of contact for communication on various committees like emergency management and strategic planning, assisted with VIP stakeholder visits, planned, promoted, and coordinated large scale annual events, was the primary social media and website content manager, created and published internal and external content for the organization and more. 

Mrs. Thomas is a graduate of VISN 8’s Competency Development for Leaders program and has completed LEAD (VHA’s leadership development program for employees considered to be high potential). She holds a master’s in business administration degree and an undergraduate degree in organizational communication with concentrations in public relations and rhetoric from Wilkes University located in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania.