Scheduled Hours

37.5

Position Summary

The Senior Science Writer and Assistant Director of Communications promotes, through top-tier storytelling and developing story coverage plans, the university’s and School of Public Health’s strategic goals to build a school that leads with excellence in interdisciplinary population health science and scholarship, distinction in educational programs, and deep commitment to local and global impact. This position will support the school’s strategic priorities and initiatives and help build the school’s reputation for research, and educational and community impact by expertly characterizing, both internally and externally, faculty thought leadership, innovation, and interdisciplinary work. This will be achieved via news stories, faculty and student profiles, multifaceted analysis of research efforts, and long-form magazine-quality feature stories. This position will provide leadership in mapping out strategic, compelling coverage of a new school from the bottom up, helping to determine the communication team’s storytelling roadmap and best methods toward achieving team and school goals in the short and long term. This position is responsible for writing lay-language, clear, concise, high-quality content stemming from academic research for a variety of audiences in multiple channels. This position works closely with school leadership and with faculty from various disciplines, research centers, and WashU Marketing & Communications to identify and promote stories that enhance the reputation of the school and the university’s emphasis on public health as a strategic initiative. This team member should have significant professional experience in science and health-related writing and be a creative, strategic thinker who thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

• Interviews faculty, school leadership and students to identify and then write articles for internal and external audiences — in school and university online publications, and for the school’s and university’s magazines — about public-health related news and events that help to highlight the school’s strategic initiatives and innovations. Much of this work will stem from faculty research published in public health-related science journals, and from faculty-led programs and activities that address public health. Solid news judgment will be required to identify and best present stories about the school. This writer also will function as the school’s lead magazine writer.
• Works with faculty to understand and translate their work into lay language as subject matter experts through intense collaboration. This will require developing and nurturing relationships with faculty, students and staff to best understand and characterize various efforts at the school. Reads and evaluates in-press journal articles by faculty to assess newsworthiness. Works with communications director and University Marketing & Communications to determine how to best to promote such research
• In collaboration with the communications director and University Marketing & Communications, develops and executes a strategy to inject faculty research expertise into coverage of timely and topical news events. A key part of this is identifying faculty experts in subject matters of interest to the media and the public.
• Works closely with communications director to develop, and follow through on, a strategic roadmap of how to comprehensively cover this new school from the bottom up, on multiple platforms, establishing practices and protocols for the communications team in its aim to best support the school’s strategic short- and long-term goals, and elevate the overall brand of the school.
• Works closely with graphic artists, photographers, videographers and social media coordinators to prepare top-level assets for stories, and to help strategically identify where and how stories should be shared.
• Keeps abreast of news and trends in public health, medicine and related sciences, with a keen eye toward interdisciplinary work in public health. Drafts a quarterly summary for internal leadership about such trends and how they relate to the school and its personnel.
• Performs other duties as assigned, including assistance with podcast and video efforts; and developing and co-leading planned internship program.

Working Conditions

Job Location/Working Conditions

• Normal office environment.

Physical Effort

• Typically sitting at desk or table.

• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement.

• Ability to move to on and off campus locations.

Equipment

• Office equipment.

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