Communicator of the Year

Christie Scott, APR
Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland)

Diana Gulotta

Prince William County Schools Director of Communications

As Director of Communications for Prince William County Schools, Diana supervises a staff of 24 individuals and is responsible for accurately and continually connecting all stakeholders to the second largest division in Virginia. Since coming to Prince William in 2017, Diana has reorganized the Communications Office to better serve all schools and departments, launched an e-newsletter that reaches more than 100,000 subscribers, and led initiatives to improve the division’s crisis response, media relations, and internal communications.

Additional accomplishments include:

• Led execution of all 2020 pandemic-related communication to staff, students, school board and community members through frequent updates.
• Aligned divisionwide communication with the strategic plan and ensured her team met all their Continuous Improvement Planning goals, including the introduction of new platforms like TikTok and Spanish Facebook.
• Overseen the implementation of new technologies and communication channels so that the division remained at the forefront of equitable communication.
• Creation of a national recruitment marketing campaign that generated thousands of candidate submissions despite a nationwide teacher shortage.

"Ms. Gulotta has an unwavering commitment to effective communication in support of the students, staff, and families of PWCS. Her strategic approach, work ethic, creativity, and lifelong dedication of more than 30 years of service to public schools have significantly enhanced PWCS’ reputation and have had measurable impacts on family and community engagement." -- Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent LaTanya D. McDade, Ed.D.

"What sets Gulotta apart is her innate desire to lead communications empathetically. In the region particularly fraught with political divisiveness and widely diverse in every demographic, Gulotta navigates the division’s communications from a kaleidoscopic lens. To accomplish successful messaging, she leads every communication with a deep empathy for the plethora of audiences who will engage in every PWCS text. She furthers this message by challenging her staff to consider alternative views, diverse audiences, and unfamiliar social, cultural, and economic contexts. As a leader who compassionately values audience, Gulotta teaches the content and context of communication to her staff." -- Prince William County Public Schools Chief Information Officer Matt Guilfoyle

"She often steps up to serve fellow CHESPRA members, whether she volunteers to present a session, offers to moderate a panel, and otherwise engages in critical conversations during our professional learning conferences." -- CHESPRA Past President Dulce Carrillo