Projects from the NIH
Since 2020 I’ve been onsite at the NIH Clinical Center, supporting the Communications Department with project management – below are a few examples of deliverables from the past few years.
NIH CC Treasure Tour
I had the good fortune to work with a third party developer – Breakaway Games – to build a video game app so that pediatric patients could have exposure to the hospital ahead of their first appointment.
As part of the project I personally pitched the project to the hospital’s CEO, describing the intended outcomes and defining criteria for success.
I worked with pediatric doctors and staff to find out what their needs were – to give the youngest patients a fun, interactive online game that introduces them to the Clinical Center.
In many cases I worked as a liaison between pediatric hospital staff, the software developers and the communications director to explain in layman’s terms what is possible, what time-consuming, and how to make the available resources go further.
After the initial release, we worked with Breakaway Games to create a significant expansion to the original game: integrating Spanish localization and adding features to make the content more accessible to more patients. I worked directly with interpreters to record the voice over and edited into the format that would be game-ready following Breakaway’s guidelines.
CC News article on Treasure Tour
Both with the initial release and the expansion, I worked with our internal communications teams to promote the game – including working with a colleague to write the above article and putting slides that went up on the hospital’s TVs and screensavers.
70th Anniversary Outreach Campaign
The Clinical Center was first opened in 1953, and leadership wanted the 70th anniversary to be big. Among the physical deliverables were a 10’x4′ banner, elevator stickers, a 10’x12′ custom backdrop, posters advertising 70th anniversary events, TV slides, ten foot window stickers – and all with easily recognizable branding.
Special coordination was necessary between stakeholders, designers, printers, and facilities crew to bring these to fruition.
Our office partnered with the NIH History office to find images from the past 70 years, putting together a montage shown at special events.
I also worked directly with the Clinical Center’s CEO to design a limited-run 70th anniversary ‘challenge coin’.
Additionally I coordinated events to celebrate the milestone. We created a partnership with the National Smithsonian to show some of the If/Then Women in Science exhibit for several months.
Data Reports
Produced the Data Report documents each year from 2020-2025. This process begins with acquiring information and compiling the data into a spreadsheet of content. That content is reformatted into visually-friendly documentation and sent out to get feedback from various stakeholders (where the real challenges lie).
Once the document has been greenlit, it is processed into a 508-compliant .pdf and uploaded to the nih.gov website. Most years the document is also reformatted, and sent out to a third-party subcontractor for a final print edition.
The 2025 edition has not been printed yet, still getting final approval.
