Dean's Office

Heather Richardson

Assistant Dean for Strategic Communications

Expertise

Heather Richardson is the Assistant Dean for Strategic Communications for the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University. Richardson returned home to her alma mater in 2015 and has worked in both central and college communications roles, focusing on campus-wide marketing strategy and storytelling for University Relations prior to assuming leadership of the business school’s communications unit in 2019.

Richardson is a mission-driven marketer who has reinvented communications in WVU’s business school to align her team’s focus with revenue-driving aspects of College. She has been a champion of rallying marketing efforts around the business student mission through building audience-based, streamlined communications and campaigns to drive enrollment and engagement for undergraduate and graduate populations. Richardson and her team cultivated and executed an innovative vision to build momentum with alumni and students for Reynolds Hall, the futuristic new learning complex for WVU’s business school that opened in 2022.

Prior to her time in higher education, she spent five years working for a public relations agency focused on community engagement, crisis communications, media training and building client communications strategies for Fortune 500 industrial companies. She was also a correspondent for West Virginia’s weekly business journal.

Richardson earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism and dual master’s degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration from WVU. She was named to West Virginia’s Generation Next 40 under 40 list, and has led conference sessions on business school communications strategy for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the accreditation organization for business schools.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, boating, cooking, and keeping up with her spirited Sheltie, Duke.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Journalism, WVU
Master of Business Administration, WVU
Master of Public Administration, WVU

Full Directory