Max Lonzanida is the installation Public Affairs Officer at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown-Cheatham Annex located in the heart of Virginia's Historic Triangle. He actively manages the community relations programs, social media channels, websites, and various external and internal communications channels. He produces a variety of digital and print content to support the installation and its tenant commands and also serves as the installation's official photographer and videographer. He is also a regular contributor to the award winning weekly newspaper, The Flagship, as part of the team of both military and civilian public affairs specialists at Navy Region Mid-Atlantic who work tireless to tell the U.S. Navy's stories. He was promoted to this position in October 2023, and has previously served as the Public Affairs Officer at the Naval History and Heritage Command's Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk, Virginia since April 2018.
Max has nearly a decade of combined federal service, and has served as a Park Ranger with the US Fish & Wildlife Service at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR and Chincoteague NWR. He previously held federal positions with the National Park Service and with the US Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship & Immigration Services as an Immigration Officer since 2015. He was also a probation officer with the Virginia Department of Corrections, and has served as an adjunct instructor of criminal justice at Bryant & Stratton College in Virginia Beach.
Max received a Masters in Public Administration degree from South University in 2011; a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice degree from Norfolk State University in 2009; and graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and another in English from Old Dominion University. Like many of the staff at NWS Yorktown, Max hails from a military background having served in the Virginia Army National Guard as a Military Police Specialist for 2001-2007; with one combat deployment during Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003-2004. He resides in Norfolk with his wife Amy, children Stella, Noah and their three cats.