Agency: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Role: Director of Media Affairs, Office of Public Affairs (2025 – present) Severity: P2

Bio and Background {#bio}

Morgan Ackley serves as the Director of Media Affairs in the VA Office of Public Affairs, overseeing the department’s day-to-day media relations function. She was appointed to the role as part of the initial Trump administration appointee announcements at the VA in early 2025.

Education: Ackley is a graduate of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (Class of 2018, per LinkedIn). Emory is a private research university in Atlanta with a strong reputation in the Southeast.

Pre-VA career (documented):

• Communications Director, Georgia Senate Republican Caucus: Ackley served as communications director for the Georgia State Senate Republican caucus — the communications arm of the Republican majority in the Georgia Senate. This role involved managing media relations, press releases, rapid response, and message coordination for the Republican majority’s legislative agenda.

• Trump 2024 Campaign Georgia Spokesperson: Ackley served as a spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Georgia — one of the most closely contested battleground states in the 2024 election. Georgia’s Republican politics during this period were complex, involving the aftermath of the 2020 election controversies, Trump’s pressure on Georgia election officials, and the 2022 Senate runoffs.

Both roles are documented by contemporaneous news coverage. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) described Ackley at the time of her VA appointment as “a former Georgia spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s campaign and state Senate GOP communications guru.” The Federal News Wire reported that Ackley “becomes director of Media Affairs for Public Affairs, having served as communications director for both Georgia Senate Republican.”

Twitter: Ackley’s public X/Twitter handle is @ATLMRA, where her bio identifies her as “Dir. of Media Affairs @SecVetAffairs @DepVetAffairs.”

Role and Communications Function {#role}

As Director of Media Affairs, Ackley manages the VA’s direct media relations — the day-to-day interface between the department and reporters covering veterans policy. She operates within the Office of Public Affairs alongside Pete Kasperowicz (now Assistant Secretary) and the broader communications team.

The media affairs function at a department as large as the VA involves:

• Responding to media inquiries from national and local press
• Coordinating press access to VA facilities, officials, and programs
• Managing the VA’s media calendar and coverage strategy
• Rapid response to news coverage of VA controversies
• Serving as a conduit between VA leadership and reporters

During Ackley’s tenure, the VA has been among the most covered federal agencies due to DOGE-related restructuring, staffing controversies, the gender dysphoria treatment ban, and ongoing benefits backlog debates.

Messaging Strategy {#messaging-strategy}

Ackley’s role is primarily operational (managing media access and inquiry response) rather than principal spokesperson. The strategic messaging framework she implements is set by the Assistant Secretary (Kasperowicz) and the Chief of Staff (Cashour), consistent with Secretary Collins’s communications priorities.

Her background in Georgia Republican politics — particularly state Senate caucus communications and Trump campaign work — provides fluency in the rapid-response and partisan communications disciplines that are central to the current VA communications posture.

Controversies {#controversies}

Georgia election context: Ackley’s tenure as Trump Georgia campaign spokesperson occurred during and after a presidential campaign in which Trump and his allies made extraordinary efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, culminating in the RICO indictment of Trump and co-defendants in Fulton County in 2023. Ackley’s role as campaign spokeswoman does not create direct personal accountability for any specific conduct in those controversies, but it establishes the political context in which she operated and the organizational culture she represented. This background is relevant accountability context, not a finding.

Limited public record: As a Director of Media Affairs rather than a principal spokesperson, Ackley’s individual attributable public statements are less frequent and less documented than those of press secretaries and assistant secretaries. This limits the ability to assess her personally on veracity; her accountability significance is primarily structural (role-based) and contextual (political background).

Overall Veracity Track Record {#track-record}

Overall rating: Insufficient record

Ackley’s limited role as a behind-the-scenes media director means there is insufficient public record of attributable statements to assess her veracity track record independently of the VA communications operation as a whole.

Social Media Accounts {#social-media}

• Twitter/X: @ATLMRA — Bio identifies her as “Dir. of Media Affairs @SecVetAffairs @DepVetAffairs | a little politics, a lot of football”

Key Source Links {#sources}

• Federal News Wire: VA appoints new leadership team under acting Secretary Todd Hunter
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ackley appointment coverage
• Twitter/X: @ATLMRA
• LinkedIn: Morgan Ackley

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