Leading the Public Health Response
Three months after starting at the state health department I was abruptly thrust into the pandemic response. This is a snapshot of my work throughout the pandemic.
Social media management | Graphic design | Content strategy and creation | Content management | Website and UX design
Social media management
Introduced the official hashtag
As soon as the governor declared a state of emergency in Colorado I established the official hashtag to help Coloradans and visitors easily find the source of truth.
Provided consistent, accurate and timely updates
I kept our audiences well-informed with consistent, frequent (up to 10 posts per day), timely, life-saving updates and utilized a variety of mediums including press releases, blogs, infographics, data visualizations and video.
Promoted CDPHE leadership
A key strategy in CDC’s pandemic playbook is to designate a trusted, credible, non-politician spokesperson. Therefore, I pushed for State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy to get more time on camera, as politicians were dominating the response and creating political divides.
Appealed to Coloradans
Understanding Colorado’s culture played a big part in developing winning content. Using the length of skis as a visual reference for six feet of social distancing was the most Coloradan thing on Twitter. In fact, it was very common to see business owners print these and display them in their storefronts, food trucks, etc.
Design credit: Joe Schlue.
Targeted messaging
Using available research, I targeted certain populations (e.g., the moveable middle, high-risk adults, Spanish speakers) through social media ads, Google Ads, geotargeting on NextDoor, hashtags and Facebook Groups.
Impressions
New followers
Engagements
New followers (% change)
Wrote a weekly blog
With so many updates throughout the pandemic, it was challenging to stay on top of the latest news. To meet this need I published a weekly blog targeting local public health departments and healthcare organizations.
Implemented environmental cues
My idea was simple: to create visual cues that businesses could print and display in storefronts. These signs were displayed just about everywhere, including gyms, restaurants, food trucks and even Vice News.
Design credit: Joe Schlue
Created toolkits and fact sheets
As part of my evergreen strategy to promote vaccines, I developed shareable content that local public health agencies (or anyone) could use on their social media channels.
Design credit: Joana Segura
Launched Colorado’s COVID-19 website
After quickly realizing the limitations of CDPHE’s existing website I developed Colorado’s official COVID-19 website. I redesigned the website a few times to improve navigation, design and accessibility. The website logged over 100 million pageviews among 16 million user devices.
UX design | Front-end design | Content management | SEO | Analytics
Version 1.0
Version 2.0
Version 3.0
Version 4.0
Campaign messaging
To adapt to the fast-evolving and complex situation I helped develop themes throughout each phase of the pandemic ––
from the importance of staying home to getting vaccinated.
