Melissa Ray a Rhode Island native, is a graduate student by day and a dance teacher by night. She holds a B.S. in Public Health and a B.A. in Theatre and Dance from Keene State College. She currently attends the University at Albany (UAlbany) where she is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Social Behavior and Community Health and will be graduating in May 2025. In addition to her studies, she is a Prevention Navigator with Project ACCESS at UAlbany, a student board member with the New York State Public Health Association, a dance teacher at Dance Dimensions Albany, and a student researcher with the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research. Outside of her jobs and studies, she enjoys working out at the gym, hiking, eating tasty food, and of course dancing.
Communications and Co-Editing
I had the opportunity to work as the Research Project Assistant for the University at Albany (UAlbany) Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program. In this role, I focused mainly on communications for the MCH Leads National Trainee Blog and email communications for the UAlbany MCH Program. Each day of this role, I lived and breathed Competency 5: Communication. Although I had experience crafting outreach materials and social media marketing, I had no prior experience editing blog posts, assisting in managing a website, or working with a team in a different time zone. Through this role, I gained invaluable experience strengthening my communication competencies online, over Zoom, and in person.
Blog Communications
The greatest learning curve that I had in this role was working collaboratively with a team that was in a different time zone. Since the MCH Leads Blog operates with UAlbany and the University of Minnesota team members, communications went smoothly 99% of the time. I realized how important deliverables and approaching deadlines are. A procedures manual from previous editors kept us organized. Even so, both editors and teams require flexibility and understanding while collaborating on blog materials. For example, on the day before Thanksgiving, my co-editor Mary and I made the time to meet virtually while we were both home for our break to ensure that we accomplish all of the remaining tasks before the end of the fall semester. Instances like these are a great example of how teamwork, open communication, and flexibility are crucial to working on a team that spans across the country.
If I am being candid, editing the blog came naturally. I attribute this to the in-depth training required by the MPH Program at UAlbany and from my undergraduate studies at Keene State College and Boston Conservatory at Berklee. This training allowed me to be well-versed in how to critically appraise literature, or in this case, MCHLeads blog posts. It also helped that many of the authors wrote stellar blog posts that simply needed a second eye to identify grammatical errors or small issues like missing links. The other aspects of editing the blog–such as web design and outreach to authors–were relatively straightforward as well. Since Estefanía and Maha, the editors before me, created many procedures for operating the MCHLeads Blog, I essentially followed their editorial methods. Overall, my strong foundational skills and the pre- existing operations behind the blog made the work feel seamless.
Newsletter Communications
As I said above, my role as a Research Project Assistant with the UAlbany MCH program revolved around MCH Competency 5: Communication. This competency transpired across the work that I did with blog posts and in newsletter communications for the MCH Program. Each week, I curated and edited the newsletter with approval from my supervisors. This experience bolstered my marketing and communication skills in conjunction with the blog; when speaking about my experience learning about communications it is hard to separate the two.
I specifically catered newsletter communications to the UAlbany readers and chose both the format and the content for the newsletter. Each week, I reviewed materials based on timeliness and relevance. I checked grammar, spelling, and formatting for the newsletter too. Content for the newsletter came from partner organizations’ websites, webinar listings, events on campus, job boards, and MCH-related news outlets. We also aimed to cater to the needs/wants of readers, which we discovered after sending out a newsletter poll. The findings indicated that readers valued content about job opportunities most. I needed to be responsive and adaptable in order to provide enjoyable content for our readers. Each week, I made last-minute edits to the newsletter to ensure that it included everything students wanted to read. It took extra intentionality to produce a quality product for students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community partners.
Biggest Takeaways
My biggest takeaways from this experience apply broadly to all types of public health communications. Regardless of the title of my role, or the place I’m working in, these lessons apply to communications and outreach work.
- Web outreach is not enough.
Sharing information about the MCH Program or other events that were happening at the College of Integrated Health Sciences in group texts, via flyers or in person resulted in more engagement. This was documented in our evaluation surveys from MCH Program events, increased click rates and open rates for the UAlbany MCH newsletter, and anecdotally from program staff. In my opinion, collective team outreach proved more valuable than a single posting in the newsletter because it allowed the team to leverage their networks and ultimately spread the word about blog posts, programs, jobs or events much further than online-based communications allow.
- Learn to identify misinformation.
I had the opportunity to attend the Axelrod Prize in Public Health award ceremony in 2024. At this ceremony, award recipient Katelyn Jetelina, also known as “Your Local Epidemiologist,” spoke about the prevalence of misinformation as it relates to public health. Though the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this issue, it continues to persist. Learning about these issues within public health communications helped me to be more attuned to the information that I consume and share in my communications-based role.
- Find ways to vary communication methods.
While making the newsletters, which took up the bulk of my time, I found ways to keep things interesting. This meant changing things up and tapping into my creativity. Though simple, I incorporated more images like animals, scenery or students’ photos in email banners. I switched up the order of the newsletter, included information based on the wants and needs of the audience, and featured alumni interviews to engage with an audience beyond students. Although some of these things were not in the original scope for the newsletter, it made the experience more enjoyable because I added new content each week. This captured the attention of the readers, which is ultimately a win-win. This shift may even have contributed to the 8% increase in open rates and the 15% increase in click rates in 2024.
Reflecting and Looking Ahead
I loved the team that I worked with at the UAlbany MCH Program. Though I held my graduate assistant position for a short amount of time, I learned a lot. One of those things that I will be taking with me is that working with a team of collaborators who have a shared vision and mission makes the experience in a role more rewarding – even when some aspects of what you do feel mundane. Working with such an awesome team gave me a blueprint of the type of team I would like to work on going forward: a team that has a shared goal to center best practices to health, community development, creativity and innovation. Having had such a great experience with my graduate assistant job curating the blog and the UAlbany newsletter, it will certainly be challenging to settle for anything less.
*Pictured left to right: Melissa Ray, Abigail Ulofoshio, Christine Bozalak, Rachel De Long, Sapphire Correa
As I look ahead past my graduate assistant role, I have my eyes locked in on my future goals. Being in my last semester at UAlbany, I am counting down the days until I begin job applications, take the Certified Health Education Specialist Exam, and embark on many more big life decisions. By the time you read this, I will be in the thralls of sending my resume and cover letter to companies and studying for the exam. I hope to land a job working in health promotion starting in July/August. After graduating, I plan to take some time off to finish off the dance season and hopefully work trade via WWOOF at a local farm. It is exciting to think about what the future holds, and although there is so much unknown, one thing I know for sure is that I will be using the skills I gained from this role in the future.
My last parting words of wisdom for readers or a future editor is…sometimes you don’t feel passionate about everything that a job entails, but if the people are the right fit, those sticking points of the job are just a blemish on an otherwise perfect fruit. So just eat the fruit and put the blemished part in the compost when you’re done with it. Though that blemished part might not have nourished your soul, it still can reach the soil to help you grow.
About The Author
