Current Role: Advocacy & Communications Officer, Global Health Corps Fellow at PATH
Location: Lusaka, Zambia
Field: Public Relations and Communications
Previously worked for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Vestergaard Frandsen, United Nations Association USA and Pratt Institute.
Dynamic, experienced communications manager with a passion for global health, development, women’s, and youth issues with an extensive work history in the NGO and business sector in New York City. Experience advocating for positive social change at grassroots, national, and regional levels through civil and UN fora on health and development issues.
Currently serving as a Global Health Corps Fellow placed at PATH’s MACEPA program focusing on community advocacy, engagement and communications to support ongoing health research in malaria elimination strategy to support the Zambia Ministry of Health’s Malaria Control Strategy 2011-2015.
I have a wide breadth of experience across media, PR, communications, behavior change communication, media project management, web and social media.
I have done everything from hosting community entry meetings with chiefs in Zambia’s Southern Province to training African youth SRHR advocates on how to use social media for social change, acting as publicist for a documentary screened at 130+ film festivals worldwide, winning over 30+ accolades, to guiding journalists on press tours on a massive public health campaign launch in Kenya, to interfacing with the media and the public for corporate communications on a daily basis, to designing and writing content for CSR reports, to launching social media campaigns featured in the New York Times and partnering with NGOs including ONE and Women Deliver to plan events bringing women’s health issues in the developing world to online blogging audiences, to spearheading the complete relaunch of a corporate website and revitalizing corporate social media campaigns.
I am a high-energy ideas person with a commitment to communicating difficult ideas and concepts to in plain English for a wide variety of stakeholders, including technical health issues such as malaria and HIV vaccine research.
Experience
Advocacy & Communications Officer at PATH, Global Health Corps Fellow
PATH
July 2014 – Present in Lusaka, Zambia
Placed within MACEPA, the Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa, developing communications materials and advocacy stories for promoting a malaria elimination campaign in Southern Province.
Working closely with malaria researchers and Zambia National Malaria Control Centre staff on developing effective community engagement strategies, behavior change communications materials and roll out of community health worker trainings for operational research covering hundreds of thousands of people.
Sourcing stories in communities for high-level national, international, and American legislative advocacy efforts to promote malaria elimination as a realistic and achievable goal for Zambia and beyond and writing for makingmalariahistory.org.
Senior Media Specialist
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
June 2013 – June 2014 in New York, New York
Promoted the message of the urgency of continuing R&D for finding an AIDS vaccine to more people, to donors, stakeholders, the media, and the public online and offline
Within a global Communications department, supported and led PR, web, and social media projects at the HQ level focused on building IAVI’s public brand and advocacy for AIDS vaccine research and development and coordinated media projects with regional offices in Europe, Africa and Asia
Created and edited PR materials including statements, press releases, Q&As, presentations, daily news roundups, press packets, messaging documents, coordinated the content, design, and publication of the Annual Progress Report, conducted media monitoring and sentiment analysis for the field and developed video project concepts for internal and external communications and liaised directly with the media
Conducted several audits of social media and web presences for IAVI and two related publications and issued recommendations for future social media and web strategy to inform the forthcoming global communications strategic framework
Developed a website transition plan from SharePoint to open source CMS and project managed the corporate website’s complete transition, coordinating outside vendors and the IT department to an improved corporate website with optimized template, mobile-friendly design, and significantly improved SEO and loading times
Drafted social media policy and strategy, provided social media training to senior staff and field staff and live tweeted at high profile events during major international aid, development and health conference and written blog posts for top flight global health and social good blogs including GHTC Breakthroughs and Idealist.org
New Media and Communications Specialist
Vestergaard Frandsen
June 2009 – April 2013 in New York, New York
Responsible for developing and expanding Vestergaard Frandsen’s web presence including day-to-day maintenance on the corporate website. Coordination and daily management of social media channels and special online projects, including live tweeting of $30 million public health campaign in Kenya over five weeks and building out special microsites for specific events and programs. Ensuring consistent branding and web strategy, encouraging open dialogue across social networking spaces with nonprofits, partners and media. Working to promote website usability and accessibility, improve information architecture and SEO, and optimize business content for the web. Designing branding materials for both print and web, creating and editing content for presentations and PR materials, event planning, and video editing.
Resident Advisor
Pratt Institute
January 2008 – May 2009 in Brooklyn, New York
YP4 Web and Communications Intern
People For the American Way
September 2008 – December 2008 in New York, New York
UN Works Intern
United Nations
May 2008 – August 2008 in New York, New York
Model UN Trainer
United Nations Association USA
October 2006 – May 2008 in New York, New York
ArtStart Here & There Project Coordinator
Vibewire
July 2007 – November 2007 in Sydney, Australia
Editor-in-Chief
Absynthe Muse
January 2005 – November 2007
Model UN Trainer
United Nations Association USA
October 2006 – May 2007 in New York, New York
Editorial Intern
Firebrand Literary
August 2006 – January 2007 in Brooklyn, New York
Senior Editor
Kiwibox.com
June 2003 – March 2005
Publications
Innovating toward the end of malaria: What actually works?
MakingMalariaHistory.org
November 2014
Which malaria control strategies that have been proven to work in other settings can we use to eliminate malaria in sub-Saharan Africa? Which approaches are cost-effective and keep kids under five years of age, the most vulnerable population, out of clinic beds and bouncing on their mother’s knees?
Vaccinate against the brain drain
Global Health Technologies Coalition
October 2013
Access to quality education not only can help prepare tomorrow’s HIV/AIDS scientists—it can also help them beat the odds of becoming tomorrow’s patients. Nearly half of all new HIV infections globally occur in young adults of 15 to 24. The more education, the lower is the risk that young people will contract HIV.
5 Things Every Student Who Wants a Career in Global Health Should Know in GIFs
Global Health Corps
September 2014
Maybe it was a documentary, a friend from church who came back from a mission trip to Peru or South Africa who came back with stories, or a parent who is a doctor or nurse—there are many early influences on teens that lead them to consider studying and a career path working toward global health.
“Even nshima has side effects”: Explaining malaria research trials to community members
MakingMalariaHistory.org
November 2014
It’s 98 degrees outside and nineteen community members have arrayed themselves under a leafy green tree in a part of Gwembe an hour off the tarred road in Southern Province, Zambia. Some have traveled for hours—some setting off as early as 4 a.m.—to attend this important meeting convened by the representative of Chief Chipepo to learn about the piloting of a new malaria health strategy that will take place here.
Education
The Johns Hopkins University
MA Communication, Concentration in Health Communication
2011 – 2013
Pratt Institute
BFA Writing for Publication, Performance, and Media
2005 – 2009
University of Sydney (Study Abroad)
2007 – 2007
References
Available upon request.
