John B. Townsend II

John Barrett Townsend II currently serves as the Manager of Public and Government Relations for AAA Mid-Atlantic in its Washington office. His professional background encompasses varied careers in broadcast journalism, local government, the high tech industry, and Capitol Hill.
Prior to joining AAA Mid-Atlantic he served as a Communications Director for a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, he has served three members of Congress as a speech writer or Communications Director. He left the Hill to serve as an appointee to the U.S. Department of Energy as a public affairs officer. He went on to serve as the Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Avaya Inc., one of America’s leading telecommunications providers.

He is a former broadcast journalist, reporting the news at radio stations and television stations in Huntsville, Alabama, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Lexington, Kentucky. For nearly a decade he was the Press Secretary for the Mayor of Lexington. John Townsend holds a BA in English and Political Science from Alabama A&M University, a master’s in International Relations from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky and another master’s, this one in writing, from Johns Hopkins University.