Matt Holzapfel

Matt graduated from Elon University in 2019 with a BA in Broadcast Journalism and moved to Great Falls, Mont. shortly after to work for the local CBS affiliate TV station and pursue a career in local news. The year and a half that he spent in the Treasure State saw him reporting on how rural communities dealt with limited access to masks and vaccines during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting the challenges that rural communities faced with access to healthcare in real-time, and covering the unique obstacles that the Blackfeet Nation, a Native American tribe whose reservation occupies a large swath of land in northwest Montana, faced during the pandemic coupled with harsh winters and their rural location.

In 2021, Matt left Montana and the journalism industry in search of a new challenge, looking to combine his skills as a journalist and communications professional with a new passion for the healthcare industry that he had developed while working in local news during the pandemic. That brought him to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the media relations department. There, he was part of a team that developed and executed media plans for events including the promotion of the hospital’s nationally recognized Blood and Marrow Donation Program, the introduction of a new technology that could preserve donated organs for up to 12 hours before being transplanted into a recipient, and a MedStar Health-led initiative at the United Nations advocating for palliative care as a human right for everyone.

An avid member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Matt is certified in both Advancing Communications Strategy In DE&I and Public Relations Leadership: Excellence, Resilience, Strategy through PRSA. He also has more than five years of experience writing for both broadcast and print publications, creating and editing photo and video assets, and leading media campaigns from both sides of the earned media spectrum: as a journalist and as a PR professional. Matt is fluent in AP Style and has experience working as the lead reviewer and copy editor for formal proposals, scientific reports, and more.

Matt is originally from Chapel Hill, N.C., but now lives in Washington, D.C. where he enjoys much warmer weather than he experienced in Montana. He’s an avid Duke and Carolina Hurricanes fan, and he likes spending his free time at the gym, going to happy hour with friends, and trying new restaurants around D.C.