Congratulations to Melissa Carrico, our November CommuniGREATER!
Since November is National Peppers Month, you were invited to nominate a communicator who has spiced up an ordinary communications project. The list of nominees and the comments submitted by peers are below. To all of this month’s nominees congratulations and thank you for all that you do for Duke.
APRIL DUDASH, Duke Regional Hospital
- Since taking over as internal communications manager for Duke Regional Hospital, April has worked diligently to support her coworkers across all departments and units, especially during severe weather and leading up to a national accreditation visit. Among all her day-to-day responsibilities, she’s currently running point to organize a multi-day all-staff event … and she only took on the role a few months ago. She’s gone 0 to 60 without missing a beat.
COLIN COLTER, Duke in DC
- Confession: I subscribe to “The Duke Digest” even though it’s meant for readers OUTSIDE of Duke… I just can’t quit Colin Colter’s witty headlines.
JULIE SCHOONMAKER + BILL SNEAD, University Communications
- Julie & Bill worked with horticulturist Lindsey Luks to make a DIY fall planter arrangement seem achievable by non-plant experts, and alluring for viewers who may not even care about creating a planter. I loved the “thrillers, spillers & fillers” theme, and the variety of types of shots that made the video & IG story lively & fun. Thank you!
JONATHAN BLACK, Office of Communications Services
- Jonathan has worked crazy hours to participate in some of Duke’s most notable work- Class photo, boiler room overnights, running with run/walk club and much more. His personal perspective adds authenticity to his stories that benefit Duke employees.
ROBIN SMITH, University Communications / Research Communications
- Robin has a knack for taking esoteric, academic subjects and making them engaging and easy to understand. Such was the case with some 3-D scans we were making of centuries-old anatomical models in the library. We were just trying out some new imaging technologies, but Robin wrote a piquant piece about it (in keeping with this month’s theme) and even helped create a video of the 3-D modeling process. This was a story we had not planned to cover (and didn’t have time/resources to), but even if we had, she did a much better job than we would have! Robin even let us reuse the article in the print version of the Rubenstein Library Magazine. Thanks, Robin!
MELISSA CARRICO, Sanford School
- Melissa, Sanford’s 2018-2019 Digital Media Fellow, took the old “faculty comment” or “faculty quote” and made a twitter graphic that pops for a recent collection of comments on the midterms. She’s always working to improve our graphics to improve our social media and help spotlight our faculty.
JOEL LUTHER, POLIS
- Outstanding work around the voting effort on campus.
- These midterms, POLIS led the way in an effort to get out the vote. Joel Luther was absolutely integral to that effort. He was at the forefront of managing social media and marketing for POLIS, which was greatly centered on the midterms. While doing this, he was also the coordinator of programming that raised awareness about the elections and issues on the ballot. Ultimately his efforts paid off in a historic way. A total of 10,003 Durham County voters cast their ballots early at the voting site at Duke University —surpassing both the 8,366 campus voters in the 2016 presidential election and the campus record of 9,174 in the 2012 presidential election.
STEPHEN SCHRAMM, Office of Communications Services
- Stephen wrote the cover story for the October/November issue of Working@Duke and got up close and personal with several staff members who have dealt with major health challenges. The color and detail he provided made the story compelling and worth reading every word. Well done!