ALICIA DI RADO

Experienced communication strategist with expertise in higher education and healthcare. Demonstrated success in supporting presidents and senior vice presidents to drive successful initiatives. Proficient in developing and executing strategic communication plans to convey key messages and accomplish organizational goals. Proven collaborator across teams.

Audience focus

• Led redesign of editorial and design of a quarterly print magazine (circulation 300,000) to reflect institutional priorities and audience feedback.
• Established the first use of analytics in university communications to measure audience behavior, informing story choices and increasing page views.
• Reorganized university content and digital marketing teams to align their work and better reach intended audiences through print, email, social media and search.

Budget

• Moved print publications online, saving $600,000.
• Managed budgets exceeding $1 million.

Crisis

• Emphasized key messages across magazine, website and other vehicles to maintain reputation during several university PR crises.
• Conceived and executed “COVID Heroes” morale-boosting digital content campaign highlighting faculty, staff and students who stepped up during the pandemic.
• Wrote internal communications safety messaging during pandemic.

Digital communication

• Launched new employee intranet and two content-focused websites. Created content promotion strategy around email, social media and SEO.
• Started e-newsletters that increased website page views by 97% and users by 76% in first year.
• Instituted SEO on institutional news website, raising traffic 114% within a year.

Leadership communication

• Wrote talking points for president and senior vide president for health affairs.
• Prepared updates and messaging for board of trustees.
• Served as advisor to senior vice president for communications, providing insights and recommendations for university president.
• Requested by university president for high-impact writing projects.

Management

• Coached staff within and outside my team to increase skills and encourage buy-in for departmental and university goals.
• Managed vendor relationships with creatives and market research firms.
• Led teams of as many as 17 employees.
• Changed culture of content-creation teams at cancer center and university to modernize their storytelling with visuals, video and accessible language and formats that appealed to busy readers.

Process improvement

• Instituted shared project management system, creating collaboration spaces for projects from start to finish.
• Automated and digitized systems for responding to publication subscribers and publishing class notes, saving time and improving customer satisfaction.
• Created online process documentation and shared resources for the department, reducing errors, wasted time and risk for copyright violations.

Quality of communication

• Winner of Golden Advocate Award in media relations and Special Judges’ Award from Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing Assn. of Southern California.
• Highest speaker ratings for presentations on digital best practices at Council for Advancement and Support of Education conferences.