I currently plan and execute communications for a team of more than 150 clinicians, scientists, and research staff in the Department of Radiology at NYU Langone Health and the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Here are some of the projects I’ve owned or made significant contributions to. Each summary can be opened to show more detail.
Storytelling
I produce effective, engaging stories that grow, convert, and influence audiences ranging from the
general public to experts in specialized fields. A digital storytelling campaign I launched at NYU
Langone’s Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research in the fall of 2022 nearly tripled the
center’s web audience during the first year.
Storytelling
I produce effective, engaging stories that grow, convert, and influence audiences ranging from the general public to experts in specialized fields. A digital storytelling campaign I launched at NYU Langone’s Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research in the fall of 2022 nearly tripled the center’s web audience during the first year.
Storytelling in my current role includes:
- Writing stories about research discoveries, technological breakthroughs, and the people behind them. Examples:
- Pitching research advances, in collaboration with NYU Langone’s media relations team, leading to press releases and earned media. Examples:
- Covering international and inter-institutional research events. Examples:
- Using novel digital formats, such as Web Stories, to reach new audiences with illustrated, SEO-friendly content. Examples:
- Providing editorial assistance to researchers seeking to elevate scientific manuscripts or stories about their discoveries. Examples:
- Collaborating with faculty members on persuasive storytelling for sophisticated, specialized audiences such as NIH reviewers and academic promotion committees. See the grant writing section below for more info.
- Digital writing and design for SEO and social media. See cai2r.net and med.nyu.edu sections below, or visit the research center’s Twitter (X) or LinkedIn for examples.
- Producing newsletters and writing email marketing campaigns.
Complete Website Redesign for cai2r.net
I delivered a comprehensive website overhaul for the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research,
bringing the portal’s performance metrics and its more than 100 pages of content up to world-class
technical and editorial standards, and leading to 66 percent conversion growth in the first year (a durable gain sustained since).
Complete Website Redesign for cai2r.net
I delivered a comprehensive website overhaul for the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research, bringing the portal’s performance metrics and its more than 100 pages of content up to world-class technical and editorial standards, and leading to 66 percent conversion growth in the first year (a durable gain sustained since).
Need
In 2020, the research center needed to replace its aged web portal, cai2r.net. The website represents the organization’s mission, vision, and research to an audience of peer scientists, NIH reviewers, prospective talent, and the public; it is also the main vehicle for sharing the research center’s open-source software, data, and hardware resources.
We had a $0 budget, due to an institution-wide spending freeze prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, and I was the only person on the project.
Solutions
I delivered a comprehensive redesign, rewrite, rebuild, and relaunch of the portal within one year.
At launch, the new site measured by Google’s Lighthouse audit scored:
- 100/100 in performance; up by 77
- 100/100 in accessibility; up by 8
- 100/100 in best practices; up by 27
- 100/100 in SEO; up by 18
- User conversion jumped by 66 percent year-over-year, as measured by the number of human-verified resource downloads.
- The “Time to Interactive” metric dropped on the homepage from more than 16 seconds to less than 1.5 seconds for a simulated mobile device with a 3G connection, as evaluated by Google at web.dev/measure.
- The site’s CO2 emissions dropped by 80 percent, according to an estimate by Website Carbon Calculator at websitecarbon.com.
Other improvements include:
- mobile-first design
- streamlined navigation
- dedicated research blog
- automated scientific publication lists
- extensive metadata for social sharing
- schema markup for rich search results
- custom functionality for verification and tracking of resource downloads
- hidden, password-protected sections with confidential information for the research center’s external science advisory board
Science Writing and Information Architecture for med.nyu.edu
I serve as lead science writer on NYU Langone’s digital presentation of radiology research and the
biomedical imaging PhD program on med.nyu.edu, a portal that showcases science and education at NYU
Grossman School of Medicine for an audience of peer researchers, prospective colleagues, doctoral and
postdoctoral trainees, and the general public.
Science Writing and Information Architecture for med.nyu.edu
I serve as lead science writer on NYU Langone’s digital presentation of radiology research and the biomedical imaging PhD program on med.nyu.edu, a portal that showcases science and education at NYU Grossman School of Medicine for an audience of peer researchers, prospective colleagues, doctoral and postdoctoral trainees, and the general public.
Need
In 2019 and 2020, as part of an institution-wide digital transformation, NYU Langone sought to develop a new presentation of its radiology department. The department ranks in the top 10 by NIH funding and operates a dynamic research enterprise.
Solutions
Working with research leadership, faculty, and digital editors, I created information architecture and web copy to present a large amount of complex information in a handful of SEO- and reader-friendly pages set in concise, clearly structured, authoritative prose.
Page topics include:
- mission, vision, and values
- scientific investigations
- technological advances and their clinical applications
- artificial intelligence research
- facilities and instrumentation
- research partnerships
- team culture
I also wrote the web presentation of the PhD training program in biomedical imaging and technology, aimed primarily at prospective doctoral students.
Internal Communications for a Matrixed Research Team
In-house, I have driven team engagement and alignment with a communications strategy anchored by two complementary
products: an intranet and a weekly newsletter. Both vehicles have proven invaluable since the transition
to sustained remote work caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Internal Communications for a Matrixed Research Team
In-house, I have driven team engagement and alignment with a communications strategy anchored by two complementary products: an intranet and a weekly newsletter. Both vehicles have proven invaluable since the transition to sustained remote work caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Need
Around 2018, the imaging research enterprise at NYU Langone experienced rapid growth and turnover. These conditions called for new and more efficient ways of distributing information vital to labs and individual contributors. The research center also needed new and better ways of keeping its interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams aligned.
Solutions
I created an internal information platform and an ongoing communication campaign.
Intranet
In 2019, I developed a high-quality, mobile-first intranet, called Radiology Research Wiki, which offers always-on, up-to-date, curated information about shared resources, including:
- available MRI systems
- standard operating procedures
- telework resources
- presentation assets
- grant-writing resources
- recurring meetings
- contacts responsible for particular research systems
The internal knowledge base has been a boon to efficiency, unburdening team members from having to seek information and resources by emailing or calling around, and sparing many from having to repeatedly reply to identical queries from different colleagues.
Weekly Newsletter
In January 2020, I launched a Monday newsletter titled Radiology Research Weekly, which briefs the team on new honors, funding, publications, new and departing personnel, meetings and events, housekeeping matters, and research center milestones.
Highlights:
- in-house audience of more than 200 people involved in imaging research at NYU Langone
- 130+ weekly issues
- 76+ colleague profiles
- high praise from recipients, who have called the newsletter “wonderful,” “incredible,” and “a godsend”
Reliable, informative, and concise, the Weekly is a quintessential leadership communication product that tracks the pulse of the research enterprise.
Past issues are archived on the intranet, where they form a searchable repository of institutional memory.
Event Planning, Branding, and Campaigns
Working with the research center’s leadership, I grew and promoted the center’s brand through international
conferences and exhibits.
Event Planning, Branding, and Campaigns
Working with the research center’s leadership, I grew and promoted the center’s brand through international conferences and exhibits.
Need
There was a need to establish and cultivate the research center’s brand—virtually unknown at founding in late 2014—among its primary audience: the medical imaging research community.
Solutions
I cocreated international workshops that brought together hundreds of people under the center’s brand, and designed booth exhibits that took the brand to thousands at the field’s largest global expos.
i2i Workshop
In 2016, 2018, and 2023 I co-organized the research center’s first, second, and third editions of an international conference called the “i2i Workshop.” Collectively, the meetings drew nearly 800 participants affiliated with more than 100 institutions and earned recommend rates as high as 94 percent.
Guests and speakers included high-ranking medical device industry scientists, med-tech startup cofounders, current and former NIH officials, and academia’s leading imaging researchers.
My contributions included:
- Developing a distinct visual identity for the workshop, integrated with the center’s identity and consistent with NYU Langone’s brand guidelines.
- Creating and executing communication campaigns to market the events, manage abstract submissions, support day-of logistics, and gather feedback.
- Planning abstract submission and registration pipelines.
- Designing all digital and print collateral, including landing pages, digital screens, slide decks, award certificates, merchandise imprints, posters, etc.
- Working with IT and in-house media services to record talks; creating on-brand intros and outros for the recordings.
Booth Exhibits
I designed the center’s booth exhibits at the annual meetings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in Honolulu (2017) and Paris (2018).
The ISMRM is the medical imaging research community’s largest conference, with an attendance of about 6,000, and combines scientific sessions—the traditional province of academic research—with a technical exhibition that showcases industry players and med-tech startups.
Our booth was the first such programming offered by a university at ISMRM’s technical exhibition in the expo’s 25-year history.
More than an innovative way to introduce the research center to a large audience, booth presence was also an opportunity to gather valuable feedback, which I later used to clarify the center’s messaging and strengthen its brand.
Grant Writing and Reporting
In 2018 I was part of a team that wrote a winning P41 grant proposal, securing $6.5 million in renewed
federal funding for the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research at NYU Grossman School of
Medicine. The application earned perfect scores from reviewers at the NIH.
Grant Writing and Reporting
In 2018 I was part of a team that wrote a winning P41 grant proposal, securing $6.5 million in renewed federal funding for the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The application earned perfect scores from reviewers at the NIH.
The threshold for a successful P41 proposal is high. P41 sites, also known as National Centers for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, are considered innovation force multipliers for NIH-funded research. There are 24 such centers nationwide.
Our center’s “competing renewal” proposal comprised about 30 component drafts of varying lengths and granularity, written by a dozen coauthors working together to craft a compelling argument about the team’s scientific findings, technological advances, and organizational wherewithal to push the field of biomedical imaging in new, promising directions. The final application ran over 600 pages long. My contributions included:
- drafting sections of the proposal
- working with faculty authors through rounds of substantive editing of component drafts
- editing for rhetorical flow, clarity, and intended meaning
- proofreading and copyediting for style, consistency, and impeccable grammar
I also contribute to a range of other grant-related products:
- annual progress reports
- white papers
- custom information products for an external scientific advisory board