NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION POINT MUGU, Calif. - The NAWCWD Corporate Communication Department recently filled a key position at Point Mugu with the selection of Kimberly Brown as the new public affairs site lead. Brown, the former Naval Base Ventura County public affairs officer, explained that working in public affairs is more than just taking photos at special events. Her role expands to discussing story ideas, adding communications strategies to projects, drafting talking points for community engagements and anything that helps NAWCWD communicate more effectively.

“Having someone whose job it is to help you tailor your messages to multiple audiences is critical to successfully navigating what has become a highly interconnected, data-hungry world,” Brown said. “Whether it’s telling the workforce about upcoming changes, trade magazines on technical advances or media queries, agile and timely responses are expected. That’s what we do.”

Brown began her career volunteering for the public affairs office on an Army installation in Germany in early 2006. Within a week or two, she was writing stories, and they quickly created a paying position for her as a GS-5 editorial assistant.

After leaving Germany, Brown took a second public affairs position with the Department of Veterans Affairs in New Orleans.

“Communication is critical to any organization’s success, and I think many businesses and government entities are just plain bad at it,” said Brown. “They think about only one aspect – like employee engagement or media relations – and forget or neglect the other aspects.”

NAWCWD Director of Corporate Communications Dr. Renee Lesniak is excited about the addition of Brown to her team and the enhanced opportunity to tell the fleet what NAWCWD can do for them.

“Kimberly’s extensive experience is a great addition to our NAWCWD public affairs team,” said Lesniak.  “She hit the ground running and is already proving that she is a huge asset for the entire WD community. Point Mugu and China Lake are playing an integral role in the Navy, and the WD story needs to be told.”

Brown will oversee both the public affairs and protocol functions at the Point Mugu site.  She looks forward to telling the command message both internally and externally.     

“Once I got as far as I could get with the New Orleans office, I started looking for a new challenge and ended up here in southern California,” Brown said. “I’ve been an installation public affairs person from the beginning, focused on day-to-day operations issues and needing a general knowledge of what everyone on the installation does. With Naval Base Ventura County that meant knowing the specialties for 80 different tenant commands. Now I can be focused on just NAWCWD, specifically NAWCWD Point Mugu.”