A Digital Strategist, writer, and storyteller.
The Department of Education
For two years I served as the Digital Director for the Department of Education. My role was initially to help the Secretary rebrand and find his voice as a leader, a father, a teacher, and a Cabinet Secretary. After a year of running the Secretary’s social media program and showing consistent growth and results, I was promoted to lead the full political digital team, serving as the Senior Digital Director and the Secretary’s digital advisor.
Throughout the past two years I’ve had the privilege of leading on creative projects, engaging with our partners, building our influencer program, and helping to tell the story of how the Department fights for America’s teachers, students, and parents.
Rebranding and Growth
One of my first goals in starting at the Department of Education was to rebrand the Secretary's voice so that we were authentically using his voice as a father, a teacher, and a leader. In rebranding I decided to lean into the parts of the Secretary's identity that make him invested in our public education system. The Secretary had two children who were in school, his wife worked in education, and he spent his entire life in public schools while also teaching full time before stepping into this role.
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At the core of the Secretary's brand identity he was a leader for the communities that he served and his voice had to reflect that. When sitting down with him in our first meeting he told me, "I'd rather you try and fail than be scared to try at all", giving me the creative liberty I needed to try something new, so we did.
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We leaned into the gentler parts of being a teacher while also speaking up on issues like book bans, teacher pay, and the need for diversity. We had him interview elementary school students on what they liked and disliked about their schools, we had him talk about how being a father shapes his leadership, and we even used some dad humor.
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The results spoke for themselves.
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Inside Voices: Hearing from our smallest Americans
To break away from the stuffy politician brand we see all over social media, we decided to think outside the box and we launched "Inside Voices". Inside Voices was a series where the Secretary sat down with students from most of the schools he visited and asked them questions about their school. It was a way to showcase his experience as a teacher, with students, in an authentic and organic way.
Creators at the Department of Education
Engaging with content creators in a meaningful way is important when it comes to building a strong and successful digital campaign. That's why we created the first creator's program at the Department of Education; this included treating influencers like press and inviting them to events, hosting briefings where they could ask questions about new policies, opening the door of communication to any questions they had related to Ed Policy and our work, and briefing the Secretary and Under Secretary on working with influencers one on one and in a group. We were able to generate content on platforms that we normally couldn't reach like TikTok. We were also able to build strong relationships with creators who are passionate about public education.
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And when a content creator wasn't available, I was always excited to step in...