William Swanger is Vice President for Corporate Communications with Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries. He oversees all corporate communications including strategic communications planning, crisis communication, and public relations, as well as publications and collateral materials, advertising, media relations, Web-site creation, and video production.

Before being named to his current position, Mr. Swanger was executive for communications with Tressler Lutheran Services, one of the two agencies that created Diakon in 2000. He joined that organization as public information specialist in 1978 and was soon promoted to director of public information and, later, to executive. He is a former newspaper editor and reporter.

A member of the Pennsylvania Public Relations Society and past president of the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, Mr. Swanger is nationally accredited in public relations. In 2009, he received the chapter’s Leuschner Award for “outstanding achievements” in the field of public relations. In addition, he has received national, regional, and local awards for public relations, publications, and writing, including four Keystone Awards, a dozen local and regional IABC awards (including "Best of Show"), more than a dozen national APEX awards including a Grand Award, a PANPHA public relations award, and several national Mature Media awards.

Mr. Swanger holds a bachelor’s degree from Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa., from which he was graduated cum laude and received departmental honors in English literature. In late 2008, he received his master’s degree (focus in strategic communication) from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, where he was named to Kappa Tau Alpha, the national honor society in journalism and mass communications. A freelance writer, he has sold articles to national publications, newspapers, and business journals and provided public relations consultation to the former National Association of Lutheran Ministries for the Aging.

Mr. Swanger also serves as an adjunct instructor in public relations for the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University.

Mr. Swanger works in Diakon's support services office at 960 Century Drive, Mechanicsburg, Pa., and can be reached by telephone at (717) 795-0307.