About Speaker

Tiffany Shackelford serves as chief strategic officer and the director of communications and strategic planning for NGA. She works with a variety of the organization’s stakeholders, including governors and their staff, to implement effective strategies. Prior to NGA, Shackelford was the executive director at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. There she focused on pushing the media industry forward through research and development of smart digital tools, strategic partnering for monetization streams and community and demographics development. Shackelford also served as director of communications and marketing at Phase2 Technology, where she built and oversaw a robust publishing practice. From 2007 to 2010, she served as executive director of Capitolbeat, the association of capitol reporters and editors, a group she helped found in 1999. She founded Stateline.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan online news site affiliated with the Pew Research Center that reports on emerging trends and issues in state policy and politics. While at Pew, she incubated several prominent research projects and helped shape the web and outreach strategy. Shackelford established and is a co-organizer of the Washington-area Online News Association DC group, with more than 1,500 members. In addition, she has consulted for multiple media and nonprofit organizations, including the National Association of State Budget Officers, United Press International, News21, KQED and the International Women’s Media Foundation. She has also acted as an advisor for multiple nonprofits and startups. Shackelford holds a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University. The daughter of a Naval aviator, she has lived in countless locations, but now calls Virginia home.