Weber Shandwick announced that Pam Jenkins has been named Chief Public Health Officer, while continuing her role as Chief Public Affairs Officer and Chair, Powell Tate. As Chief Public Health Officer, Jenkins, above, will work with the global client roster within the strategic communications and consulting network of The Weber Shandwick Collective. Jenkins joined Weber Shandwick in 2004 as president of the D.C. office, and she was named Global Public Affairs lead in 2017.  The agency also announced that Nicole Arens has been promoted to DC Healthcare Team Lead and the Healthcare team added Jamie Murphy Dawson as a Senior Vice President.

The Alpine Group, a bipartisan, bicameral consulting firm in D.C., announced that Shayne Woods, most recently a senior legislative advisor to Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), has joined the company as vice president. Prior to joining Sen. Scott’s team in 2021, Woods worked in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years. Prior to his tenures in both the U.S. House and Senate, Woods founded two health care startups: FwdHealth, Inc and Scipio Strategies. These companies focused on health care technology and connectivity and health care business development advice, respectively.

William P. Steponkus, of McLean, Virginia, died at age 88. A veteran of the public relations world in D.C., he established Steponkus & Associates, a public affairs firm, in 1982. His biggest client was USAA, the financial services/insurance company, whom he represented for 14 years in the successful and often tempestuous battle to require air bags in all cars. Prior to establishing Steponkus & Associates, he was a Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Manning, Selvage & Lee. He served in the House of Representatives as Chief of Staff and Director of Communications for Congressman Charles W. Whalen, Jr., of Ohio. Earlier in his career, he was a newspaper reporter at the Dayton Journal Herald.