Tricia Todd, MPH, 2008-2010 Chair, Communications

The Health Administration Section is going virtual under the leadership of two HA members. As chair of communications for the last few years,  I’ve learned it is always good to hand over the reins to the people that know how to drive the wagon, or perhaps it’s manage the virtual steering wheel – in this case, Rajiv and Raed will be taking over as co-chairs of the communications committee…taking the Health Administration Section into the virtual future.

Our Future Vision
Rajiv Ramdeo and Raed Mansour
2011 Co-Chairs of the Communication Committee

Rajiv Ramdeo is an MPH student at the University of California, Irvine. He is the inaugural Dalai Lama scholar and has earned over $22,000 in various personal awards and grants. His communications experience includes UCI, three successful student organizations he founded, and two local non-profits. He has also worked for the UCI Medical Center and the Kansas City VA Medical Center.  As co-chair of the Communications Committee, Rajiv hopes to continue the effort he has participated in over the past year to open new social media channels for our members to interact.

Raed Mansour has a BS in neurobiology and physiology from Purdue University, post-graduate studies in clinical nutrition from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, a certificate in advertising and public relations from DePaul University, and currently is completing a MS in health marketing and communication from Boston University.  Past experience includes being a research assistant in a genetic engineering lab, an instructor in clinical nutrition, and running marketing and public relations in several health care facilities.  In 2009, Raed volunteered within the Health Administration Communication Committee to gain insight into how communication activities are currently developed within a non-profit association.

PURPOSE & GOALS
Tricia challenged us with a goal to increase methods of communication within our section.  In collaboration with other volunteers, we worked to increase engagement through social media avenues by adding a Facebook Page. We also used existing communication venues, e-mail blasts, newsletters, and our website.  Our goals were not only to communicate events and stories of interest for over 2,000 members of the Health Administration Section, but to try to engage all of our members in a two-way symmetric conversation.  We wanted to avoid a one-way conversation that runs the risk of missing valuable membership input that may ultimately discourage professionals and students from joining.   The challenge is to increase volunteering within our section when resources of professionals and students are limited, while leveraging emerging media with traditional communications.

In designing our communication initiatives, new media plays an important role of providing that two-way conversational platform.  Knowing our members’ interests and specialties improves program development.  It also provides an opportunity to get to know one another better, which makes joining our section less intimidating to other professionals as well as to students. 

Ensuring accessibility requires developing many platforms online and off-line through traditional avenues (e-mail, newsletters, Web page, texting, and paper) and new media (Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs).  There are hundreds of social networking sites (Nexopia, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged, Xing, Skyrock, Orkut, Friendster, MySpace, etc.), but choosing to be a party to all of them diminishes the quality of participation, not to mention the great amount of dedicated time required to remain engaged.   Following the lead of APHA, the most popular venues where our members already exist like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. will be considered.  These sites are highly customizable and allow us to be current in a straightforward and fun manner. The CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing (www.cdc.gov/HealthMarketing) and their Gateway to Health Communication and Social Marketing Practice (www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/index.html), among others, will serve as our primary guide. 

Developing several communication platforms to account for the wide variety of preferred method(s) of communication requires volunteers to assist us.  Having volunteers contribute to several different communication platforms increases the value of our section by sharing expertise between professionals and providing opportunities to students, besides being a flexible venue to share similar information across various preferred social media venues.

Our goals for the future are to create a seamless communication platform through a mix of traditional media with social media that will have links to all of our existing sites where any member will find what interests them and allows them to be interactive.

Currently, we are looking to attract professionals in the field through our LinkedIN Group (www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular&gid=1323767) to contribute to our existing knowledge base while providing potential mentors for students wanting to join our section. We also plan to make volunteering easier through increasing the level of engagement for members and students through e-mail, Facebook, and possibly Twitter.  Our Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/APHA.HealthAdmin) applications allow LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and Web pages to be published in different tabs.  We also plan on more polling of our members to determine their interests and their preferred methods of communication for events, program alerts, and content.  We plan to have many rich conversations with our members, and we hope you join us.