Media relations
Sharing the right stories with the right reporter at the right time for maximum impact.
Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health makes local, national headlines
In February 2022, VCU announced a record-breaking $104 million gift to its new Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health. I led a media relations campaign targeting national news outlets, which led to in-depth coverage on NBC and MSNBC highlighting VCU’s excellence and leadership in liver research, education and treatment.
To demonstrate the transformative impact of this institute in Central Virginia, I also led a media relations effort to share the story of two patients, whose lives the institute’s leaders had already touched. Nearly every Richmond-area news outlet produced coverage, including a front-page Richmond Times-Dispatch story and in-depth features on three Richmond TV stations. This comprehensive feature coverage reached 18 million Central Virginia news consumers.
This project won two 2023 Award of Excellence honors from the Public Relations Society of America, Richmond Chapter, in the Media Relations, National, and Media Relations, Regional/Local, categories.
Standing out as a research hub with one of the East Coast's first COVID-19 treatment trials
In March 2020, no approved treatments existed for COVID-19, but VCU researchers did not wait to seek out options for patients. Before the governor ordered people home, VCU researcher Dr. Arun Sanyal and his team had brought clinical trials for remdesivir to VCU Health. Through a national media campaign my colleague and I co-led that resulted in 1.75 billion reach, we shared Sanyal’s expertise as one of the nation’s first researchers to lead this kind of clinical research, reminding the public why it mattered in the search for treatments. Coverage included stories on the Associated Press newswire and Reuters newswire that ran in hundreds more news outlets.
This project won 2021 Award of Merit honors from the Public Relations Society of America, Richmond Chapter, in the Media Relations, National, category.
Higher death rate for working-age Americans lands front-page coverage nationwide, days before Thanksgiving
When a researcher approached our team about promoting a 50-state analysis of working-age mortality publishing two days before Thanksgiving, I developed a media relations strategy to elevate VCU’s national research profile and help Americans understand our nation’s rising mortality. Reaching reporters before the holiday and creating supporting visuals were key factors in the research’s national coverage, including front-page national newspaper stories, broadcast interviews with BBC World, C-SPAN and NPR, a 13-hour residency on the front page of Reddit and 1.3 billion in total media reach.
This project won 2020 Award of Merit honors from the Public Relations Society of America, Richmond Chapter, in the Media Relations, National, category.