Congratulations to Susan Reeves, October’s CommuniGREATER!

October is National Pretzel Month, and you were asked to nominate communicators who have gotten you out of a “twist”

The list of nominees, along with comments submitted by peers is below.

SUSAN REEVES, Duke Pathology

  • Susan wears many hats and among all her responsibilities has also taken on creating the layout, section headings, formatting, etc. (and doing some writing), for our Alumni newsletter. We are very proud of the publication and work with the development office for it’s distribution. Susan’s dedication and willingness to take the extra time for this publication is greatly appreciated!
    She is an invaluable member of the department!

JONATHAN LEE, University Communications

  • It seems like every time I have a question and no one else has the answer, Jonathan does. I’m not sure if he just knows how to find everything, or if he actually does KNOW everything, but either way, he saves my butt all the time.

AARON WELBORN, Duke Libraries

  • Aaron has been such a great communications partner and support to me and the digital team in Duke’s Comms Office. He’s gotten us out of numerous twists! Aaron is always willing to offer help and insight particularly on the multitude of ways the material at the Library can support various projects. In addition, Aaron has also generously offered helpful insight about filming locations inside the Library. Also, he has a very positive attitude and is awesome to collaborate with.

SEAN ROWE, Nicholas School of the Environment

  • Sean is always thinking of creative and timely solutions to all sorts of issues and opportunities we put on his desk.

ORLA SWIFT, Duke Gardens

  • Orla is a natural communicator through and through and she is just so helpful. Whenever I have a question for her (which is actually a lot), Orla is more than happy to meet or write me a thorough email and help me solve my current issues or open new ways of thinking about problems. So glad she’s on the team.

LEANORA MINAI, Office of Communication Services

  • For keeping the Duke community informed during all the twists and turns of Hurricane Florence.

JESSICA CASTRO-RAPPL, Duke University Press

  • We were pleased to announce that a Duke University Press author won a MacArthur Genius award. Because this individual is transgender, we were careful to select the correct pronouns and consulted a published bio. After I pushed out the publicity, Jessica found out through another source that this individual’s pronouns had recently changed and she edited our blog, Facebook post, and tweet in record speed.

BRADEN WELBORN, Duke Energy Initiative

  • Braden has endless depths of enthusiasm for her initiative. When the DEV team won the world record for fuel efficiency, Braden really showed up to help promote the achievement beyond our usual audiences,
  • Braden saved me a TON of time when I first came to Duke. She took the initiative to set up a time to get coffee with me and share her wealth of knowledge from her years as a Duke communicator. I know she’s a busy person, so it was touching that she still takes time to mentor comms newbies at the university. It was much easier to get up to speed after meeting with her, and I’m so grateful for that.

ERIKA HANZELY-LAYKO, Center for Child & Family Policy

  • I came to Duke just four months ago and felt completely lost as the only communications staff person in a new and growing program. Erika has been a lifeline! She’s graciously answered all of my stupid questions, introduced me to others, and pointed me in the right directions. I’m grateful to have such a wonderful colleague!

SUSAN GALLAGHER, Duke Global Health Institute

  • Countless times, Susan has dug up original photo files and created and shared valuable content in a pinch.

STEPHEN SCHRAMM, Office of Communication Services

  • There have been many occasions when I really wanted to share a great story about our work in the Libraries, but I simply didn’t have the time or bandwidth to tackle it. But sharing stories about the people who work at Duke is what Stephen does. Over the last couple of years, he has taken an active interest in the Libraries and has written some great stories that not only highlight our terrific employees but also demonstrate our value to the Duke community. Many times these are stories I wish I had been able to work on, but I’ve appreciated having the much easier job of simply sharing them through our channels and enjoying the positive publicity they generate. So the twist Stephen (and his other colleagues at the Office of Communication Services) have helped me out of is the twist of time and never having enough of it to tell the stories that need to be told.

ANDREA MARTIN, Community and Family Medicine (CFM)

  • Andrea has really transformed the way the PA program understands communications. She has helped us drastically increase our social media presence, redo our website (more than once) and taught us all the value of good, consistent branding. And on top of that, she is an incredibly kind person who’s a lot of fun to be around!  We couldn’t be more thankful for Andrea at the Duke PA Program!
  • Andrea is the communicator for the Department of Community and Family Medicine and is very good at working all of the programs within the department to communicate what is happening.  The Physician Assistant Program would love to recognize Andrea for all of the time she spends promoting the PA program and profession and getting the word out about our program through the many different media platforms that are available.  We appreciate all she does for us!

RUTH ECKLES, Duke Service Learning

  • Ruth is an eager collaborator and has made herself very accessible to me as a relatively inexperienced communicator. She has provided helpful recommendations and advice, from new programs and platforms to just making me aware of additional Duke networks to tap into.

PAUL FIGUERADO, Office of Communication Services

  • Always helpful and pleasant when asking for last minute items that stumped OIT (specifically Apple decals at points of sale!)

ANDY MEDLIN, Fuqua

BARBARA PUCCIO, Duke Web Services

and a late entry, which came in after the nomination deadline: 

PAUL GRANTHAM, Office of Communications Services

  • I never cease to be amazed at what a resource Paul is to our sustainability efforts at Duke – from strategic thinking to the resources his staff provide through web support and graphic design — he has greatly enhanced our efforts. I truly appreciate all his support!