Alex Abplanalp (she/they) is a marketing and communications leader, lecturer, and independent creator with a background predominantly in non-profit, public-owned, and education sectors. Currently, Alex serves as the Assistant Dean and Head of Marketing and Communications at University of Washington School of Nursing. In this role, Alex acts as a trusted advisor to the Executive Dean and leads a multidisciplinary team to drive organizational outcomes in nursing education through strategic internal and external communications, market research, and creative campaign development and management.

Most recently, Alex served on the senior leadership team of Tacoma Power, a hydropower utility serving 250,000 customers in the greater Tacoma area, where she led a communications unit focused on internal communications, employee engagement, and culture building. During her/their tenure, Alex served as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and was responsible for facilitating organizational roadmaps, process improvements, leading strategic initiatives in leadership, employee, culture, and change communications, and championing human-centered decision-making and collaboration at the executive level. Notably, in 2022 Alex’s team at Tacoma Power was recognized as the Ragan Team of the Year for their outstanding work in employee communications. They also received the 2021 MarCom Gold Award for best internal strategic campaign and a nomination and honorable mention for an Emmy award in 2022 for best informational short video.

Alex has held management and director level roles at organizations such as the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, Washington Business Week, and Franke Tobey Jones, a retirement community serving the Tacoma area.

Alex received her Master of Communication Leadership in Communities and Networks (MCCN) in 2019 at University of Washington CommLead, a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Communications Concentration (Field Journalism) in 2010, and her Associate of Arts and Sciences at Tacoma Community College in 2008. She holds certificates in equity training and facilitation (Cultures Connecting), organizational change management (Prosci), strategic OKR management (Workboard), and has an extensive background in visual and data storytelling (Duarte).

Her volunteer involvement includes serving as a board member at Seattle CityClub, guest presenter at Western Energy Institute, and youth soccer coach at the YMCA.

Finally, Alex and her spouse are parents to 3 children, one dog (Totoro), and one cat (Shuri). She enjoys spending time with her family, going for walks, and playing board games. When alone time does happen (which is admittedly rare) she spends it practicing Spanish or Russian, reading fantasy, or writing fiction. Alex is currently at work on an eco-sci fi novel.