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With nearly 15 years of strategic communications experience, Patrick Riccards has expertise in public affairs, marketing, media relations, editorial, and strategic planning. Specializing in integrated communications initiatives and public affairs, he has provided companies, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations with the improved message, brand, and public interest they seek. His work as a senior advisor with the National Reading Panel and the U.S. Department of Education’s Partnership for Reading makes him one of the top education communications executives in the nation.Patrick served as Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Corporate Positioning at Higher Ed Holdings, LLC, an international education company with a mission to provide research-proven, high quality education at the lowest cost possible. Previously, Patrick served as Vice President and Practice Group Director for Widmeyer Communications, one of Washington, DC’s largest independent public affairs agencies. At Widmeyer, Patrick led the agency’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) efforts, with an emphasis on literacy, educational research, and accountability. As senior counsel to the National Reading Panel (NRP) from 1998 through 2001, he helped shepherd the development of the research cornerstone of President Bush’s reading initiative. With the NRP, Patrick oversaw all media relations, editorial projects, relationship development, and public events for the congressionally mandated panel. In addition to masterminding the Panel’s national town hall meeting tour and conducting all qualitative research over the Panel’s two-year term, he led the development of the Panel’s Summary Report, Report of the Subgroups, and Video Report. From 2002 through 2005, Patrick served as project director for the Partnership for Reading, a federal inter-agency initiative designed to raise public awareness for scientifically-based reading instruction under NCLB. Patrick earned his bachelor’s of arts degree from the University of Virginia, with a double major in Government and Rhetoric and Communication Studies. He is the former co-chair of the Arlington (VA) County School Board’s Early Childhood Education Advisory Committee and PR Chair for Inova Health System’s Year of the Child. | 