John O. Stapleton was sworn in as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA) on August 18, 2025.
In this role John oversees public affairs activities that develop, maintain, and communicate the Department’s message to support and empower America’s Veterans and their families. John leads teams at VA who handle media, field operations, and digital media engagement. He also supervises VA’s executive speechwriters who research, write, revise and edit high quality speeches, audiovisual presentations, Congressional testimony, talking points, video scripts, correspondence, and other strategic communications products such as op-eds.
Before coming to VA John was the Acting Director and Deputy Director of Communications at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where he led strategic communications for democracy programs in over 100 countries. Prior to that John spent almost a decade on Capitol Hill, serving as a senior communications and policy staffer in both chambers of Congress.
John lives in Virginia with his wife and two sons.