RICHMOND, Va., May 13, 2026 — Sande Snead, president of SS Communications LLC and a Richmond-based strategic communicator, has received the Virginia Professional Communicators’ 2026 Communicator of Achievement Award. She was honored at the organization’s Spring Conference on April 18 in Richmond.

While conference attendees were celebrating her lifetime of leadership, Snead was marking another achievement in the race to the finish line with her family during the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K. She will be officially recognized at the VPC Fall Luncheon. She will also be honored at the annual conference of the National Federation of Press Women in September.

From editing her high school newspaper, to leading multimillion-dollar marketing and advertising campaigns, to raising money to fight leukemia and lymphoma, Snead has exemplified leadership through perseverance, determination and curiosity. Her remarkable professional journey testifies to her dedication to service. Nowhere has this been more evident than her leadership of VPC, where she has served as president twice.

“Sande is an inspiration to communicators everywhere,” said Tracy Perkins, VPC co-president. “We both joined Virginia Press Women in 1999, and at every gathering and event, she would always enthusiastically welcome me to join her table or into a group conversation, genuinely attentive in learning about my background, interest in my work and how I could contribute to the organization.”

Snead’s accomplished career has involved experiences at some of Virginia’s top agencies and Fortune 500 companies, including the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Virginia Department of Transportation, Dominion Energy and Pulsar Advertising.

While at Pulsar, Snead deployed an innovative campaign to brand the rail service now known as Amtrak Virginia and led a Whistlestop Train Tour launching new service to Washington, DC, from Lynchburg and Richmond and later Norfolk.

“It is hard to come up with enough superlatives to describe Sande Snead,” said Marjorie Grier, retired vice president, The Dominion Foundation, and director, community affairs. “She worked for me in employee communications at a large public utility 40-plus years ago, and we have remained friends ever since. My performance evaluations of Sande always cited her ‘can-do’ attitude. Recently graduated from college, she was ready to tackle any project – no matter how daunting. Whether it involved exploring a power station, following a line crew, parachuting from an airplane or tracking down an elusive country music star performing in our service area – Sande always got her interview.”

“Helping Virginia Department of Taxation re-coup $104 million in back taxes and managing $2.6 million in marketing and advertising for the OC Health Care Agency in California during COVID were career highlights,” Snead said.

Snead has won more than 75 state and national writing, marketing and public relations awards. In 2012, she was named Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Virginia Woman of the Year for raising the most money in 10 weeks. She also served on the group’s Board of Trustees and its Man & Woman of the Year Board.

“Sande’s professional brilliance and personal integrity were critical in transforming the society’s Man & Woman of the Year campaign into one of Richmond’s most prominent fundraisers,” said Nick Faraone, retired executive director. “More importantly, Sande focused her efforts on the continuity of our leadership pipeline. Sande understood that a great communicator also builds great teams; her work in identifying and mentoring future volunteer leaders ensured the quality and sustainability of our mission for years to come.”

“Sande was a mentor to me when she posed the idea that I join the VPC board,” said Cora Perkins, VPC co-president and a 2026 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. “I was a college student pursuing my mass communications degree. She encouraged me to take the role and learn from our members with so many professional experiences and backgrounds. It’s been really rewarding, and I am thankful for it.”

“Sande Snead has every qualification you’d want in a Communicator of Achievement: A distinguished career as a journalist and a PR and marketing pro,” said Julie Campbell, immediate past president of NFPW and a past president of VPC. “Dedicated philanthropic work for a worthy cause, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Presenter at the 2023 NFPW conference. Devoted service to Virginia Professional Communicators. I can’t think of anyone who deserves to be VPC’s Communicator of Achievement more.”

Snead earned her bachelor’s degree in communications arts from James Madison University and holds a Master of Science in Mass Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University.

About Virginia Professional Communicators

Virginia Professional Communicators, founded in 1958 as Virginia Press Women, is a statewide organization of professional women and men and emerging communicators pursuing careers across the communications spectrum. It is an affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women.

To learn more about the organization or join its membership to bolster communications professionals across the state, visit vapc.org.

Media contact: Diane Thieke, VPC Communications, 609-577-4075, diane.thieke@versiona.com