Work with Strat Comm
Strategic Communications is a small (but mighty) team serving more than 1,600 employees across the state. We rely on input from and relationships with our internal stakeholders in order to promote UC ANR and extend research-based information to new audiences.
5 ways to partner with us to help tell your story:
1. Share information about research findings, popular blog posts you've written, story ideas that are brewing or any major communications initiatives you're working on by emailing contentpipeline@ucanr.edu. We'll discuss your input at our weekly content planning meetings and likely put it in our editorial calendar.
Here is the criteria we use to evaluate stories:
- Topic will appeal to the general news media. It focuses on a pressing issue or innovative solution and is understandable to the lay person
- Addresses an issue that will interest key target audiences (legislators, donors/granting agencies, under-served communities, urban communities)
- Priority is generally given to ANR academics not affiliated with a campus since campus academics have access to campus communications resources. UC ANR has three news writers working to cover the entire state, so it is sometimes more efficient to amplify what campus communicators publish rather than generating the stories
Please provide as much lead time as possible for deadline-driven stories. Stories typically take 1-2 weeks to develop provided stakeholders are timely with reviews.
2. Working on a major initiative? Request an invitation to our weekly content planning meeting (Monday Zoom calls at 11:00 am) to brainstorm how we can support you. Past discussions with internal stakeholders have covered annual report development, how to get your information out to local media, Giving Tuesday campaigns, UC Delivers stories, national 4-H week activities and more.
3. Team with us to help build or promote a thematic website that brings together a wide range of UC ANR expertise in a particular issue area (wildfires, climate change, healthy soils, nutrition, etc.). Centralized content is good for search engine optimization because it gives us search authority - meaning that more Californians can find UC ANR knowledge and expertise when they are searching for information.
4. Request training. Strategic Communications offers a variety of training programs in media relations, social media, content marketing, videography, branding and other communications topics. We can either train you or steer you toward training resources that have been developed internally or are available through LinkedIn Learning and other sources.
5. Invite us to meetings that will include content development discussions so we can gather ideas for our editorial calendar and be aware of what the trending or salient topics are in your work. We can also present at these meetings on communications strategies, ways to partner with us, best practices, etc.
Who to contact
Blogs in English (Food, Green, News, Healthy Communities): Pam Kan-Rice, Saoimanu Sope or Mike Hsu
Blogs in Spanish (Nuestra Comunidad, Blog de Alimentos): Ricardo Vela
Crisis communications: Linda Forbes (backup Pam Kan-Rice)
Graphic design: Design services are provided by the Publications unit. You can request graphic design assistance using this survey.
Home page content (ucanr.edu): Linda Forbes
Media relations: Pam Kan-Rice or Mike Hsu for northern CA; Saoimanu Sope for southern CA (backup Linda Forbes). Ricardo Vela for Spanish-language media
Social media: Dora Garay (backup Pam Kan-Rice)
Spanish-language media relations: Ricardo Vela
Training: Linda Forbes
Translation services: Ricardo Vela
Video services: Fill in the production request survey or reach out to Ethan or Ricardo directly.
Ethan Ireland (English)
Ricardo Vela (Spanish)
Office Hours
Dora Garay: Wednesdays, 11 am - 12 pm | Access Zoom Link Here
Ethan Ireland: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1-5 pm | Contact via email
Ricardo Vela: Thursdays, 11 am - 12 pm | Access Zoom Link Here
Linda Forbes: Mondays, 3 pm - 4 pm | Contact via email
Platforms
The Strategic Communications team at UC ANR supports the ucanr.edu and espanol.ucanr.edu websites and eight social media accounts (be sure to follow us!):
English-language
Spanish-language
Photo by Gina Bonanno