Heather Kirksey

Vice President, Public Relations, Corporate Events and Membership

Heather Kirksey is vice president of public relations, corporate events and membership at Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB), where her team leads media relations efforts to bolster the city’s $18 billion hospitality industry. Along with developing and implementing strategies to increase Atlanta’s visibility as a top leisure travel and meetings destination, Kirksey oversees issues management and crisis communications for the organization and provides counsel to ACVB’s executive leadership team. She also oversees member relations along with production of the organization’s corporate events including its annual meeting, Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame induction ceremony and quarterly member networking events. In addition, Kirksey manages ACVB’s visitor information center in Centennial Olympic Park and leads the organization’s summer intern program.

She is involved in professional organizations including Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Georgia chapter where she served on its board of directors from 2023-24. Kirksey sits on U.S. Travel Association’s communications advisory committee and well as the marketing and communications committee for the Atlanta World Cup host committee.

Previously, Kirksey served as chair of the marketing and communications committee for the 2020 NCAA Men’s Final Four, member of the communications committee for Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and member of the marketing and communications committee for the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship. She also sat on Destinations International’s Public Relations and Communications Task Force. She was recognized by PRSA Georgia in 2023 as the chapter’s Luminary Star award recipient and was named to the chapter’s inaugural Forty under 40 class in 2019.

Before joining ACVB, Kirksey worked at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and supported the healthcare system’s sports medicine, orthopedic, transplant and foundation programs by managing external media relations efforts. Prior to life in public relations, she was an award-winning journalist who spent a decade in sports broadcasting in various markets throughout the Southeast.

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