CHRISTEN ENGEL, Senior Vice President

Christen Engel is an award-winning communications and marketing executive with experience in health care, biomedical research, higher education, nonprofits and other professional service firms.

She has spent her career leveraging earned media and institutional crises to protect and enhance corporate reputation. Her recent successes include $40 million in earned media value for the public positioning of corporate experts and initiatives related to COVID-19. Additionally, she successfully shepherded the communications strategies for three mergers and acquisitions, a five-year investigation into Georgia’s correctional health care system and a six-year consumer education campaign to counter claims of wrongdoing in the arena of animal research and welfare.

Christen’s career also includes individualized public relations consultation on issues of employee malfeasance and misconduct, cybersecurity breaches, catastrophic weather events, plane and train accidents, chemical spills, Title IX issues involving sexual discrimination and misconduct, and negotiations with major health care insurance parties and tech companies.

Prior to joining Poston, Christen worked for more than a decade as a health care and higher education executive. She also previously worked in global advertising.

Christen is past chair of the University System of Georgia Chancellor’s Public Relations Administrative Committee and the University of South Carolina Young Alumni Association. She is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement. In addition, Christen was named one of 10 Young Professionals to Watch in 2019 by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce and is a graduate of the 2015 class of Leadership Augusta.

Christen earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University.

A native of North Augusta, South Carolina, Christen currently lives in Aiken, South Carolina, with her husband, John, her daughter, Carson, and French Bulldog, Bentley.