Andrea Takash
Arnold,MD
Summary
Communications leader with extensive experience at FDA, recognized for strategic thinking and effective crisis management. Led integrated marketing campaigns resulting in a 307% increase in website engagement. Skilled in building collaborative teams to improve organizational messaging and outreach.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Executive Director, Office of Communications
Health Resources and Services Administration
12.2024 - Current
- Oversee all communications for $16B in federal health care spending.
- Position my agency as a leader in expanding access to health care services in underserved communities and improving health outcomes through public events, earned media, and digital media engagement strategies.
- Manage 25 communication professionals.
- Direct 3 vendor contracts, valued at more than $6M.
- Championing the enterprise-wide integration of three communication offices, facilitating executive decision-making on organizational design and strategic implementation for new federal agency.
- Spearheaded the creation of an agency-wide communication council, aligning messaging strategies across all departments.
Senior Advisor (Temporary Appointee)
U.S Food & Drug Administration
02.2024 - 12.2024
- As part of a prestigious senior leadership program, I achieved the coveted temporary assignment to advise the FDA Commissioner and other agency leadership on opportunities to achieve agency-wide initiative to improve public trust in science and health.
- Collaborated and built coalitions with federal agencies, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, and clinicians, to ensure cohesive messaging and amplification of information.
- Collaborated across FDA to create an agency-wide workgroup to build a foundation.
- In less than 3 months, unified 50 employees from various specialties into a cohesive, high-performing team.
- Developed marketing strategy with a 5-year road map, outlining 10 goals the agency could use to guide close to 20K employees to continue to build trust into the future.
Director, Corporate Communications
U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Center for Tobacco Products
07.2020 - 02.2024
- Built and led a 30-person, award-winning, multi-skilled team that delivered comprehensive communication and marketing strategies, digital strategies and branded campaigns to Center’s C-suite.
- Drove transformation efforts through strategic direction, new brand identities, communication plans, executive and partnership engagement, outreach materials, and event planning.
- Made data-driven decisions, based on audience feedback, web analytics tools and Google Analytics, surveys and social media tools such as Sprinklr, greatly expanding audience reach.
- Oversaw creation of a robust material portfolio and delivery of all communication material, social media and web content.
- Led the development and implementation of national, comprehensive communication strategies on controversial, complex topics, including the youth vaping epidemic and the proposal to ban menthol cigarettes.
- Counseled the Center’s C-suite for media interviews and high-level public engagements.
- Directed external relations program, including exhibits, speakers bureau, Spanish translation, and a variety of diverse partnerships.
- Managed annual budget of $5M, directing vendors on development and implementation of national public health education programs.
- Transformed siloed division of 4 separate communication teams into an integrated division of 30 experts across the spectrum of communication.
- Scores on the employee survey result question, 'considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization,' went up by 11 percent in the year following the reorganization.
- Designed and implemented new listening sessions as part of the outreach for the proposed rules to ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars.
- More than 1,000 people attended and over 80 people provided formal input, including people from communities we typically didn’t hear from (law enforcement, religious organizations, and consumers and their families).
- Using data from our target audience, we transformed our vaping education resource program into a 'one-stop-shop' for educators: the Vaping Education Resource Center.
- The site receives ~150,000 visits a year—a 50 percent increase over the previous page.
- Led the rebrand and reorganization of our digital resource library with material available for free print orders and download.
- Improved usability testing by creating a more user-friendly home page that included plain language topic names and identified the target audiences, such as teachers, retailers, and health care providers.
- Since the rebrand, the library has received an average of 119,702 page views per month, a 20 percent increase.
- Established a new, audience-centered approach to administering a digital media program—including social media, fda.gov/tobacco-products, and the digital resource library.
- Introduced efficacy and user testing, which guided a redesign of our website.
- In 2023 alone, website engagement increased 307 percent, time on page increased 8 percent, and social channels received over 1.2 million impressions.
- Managed the nationwide communication announcement of the FDA's authority to regulate all e-cigarettes.
- Collaborated across the government and White House to develop an announcement that reached multiple audiences.
- Reached more than 130 million people through print and broadcast media alone.
- Transformed the email marketing program into a lifecycle email campaign.
- I worked with my team to develop A/B testing and surveys to gauge our audiences’ needs.
- Under my direction, the program became one of the most successful ones in the FDA, reaching more than 50K subscribers.
Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
11.2002 - 05.2015
- Collaborated with subject matter experts to develop and implement integrated communication strategies—translating technical language into focused, plain language messaging, press releases, and other written material.
- Managed multiple crisis communication efforts and advised the C-suite during crises.
- Served as a spokesperson on high-profile projects, working with local and national media.
- Provided media training to 40 staff across the country.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Communications
Youngstown State University
Masters of Business Administration -
Columbia College
Key Executive Leadership Development Program -
American University
Skills
- Strategic thinking
- Integrated marketing campaigns
- Leadership training
- Internal communication strategies
- Multi-channel marketing
- Crisis management
Outcomes
- Crafted compelling narratives and launched 8 branded campaigns, reaching millions of people in the educator, retailer, youth/young adult, and public health communities.
- Created a first-of-its-kind vaping education campaign geared toward teachers, which surpassed other educational campaigns, with over 33,000 downloads reaching 1+ million students.
- Led strategic planning process that engaged 100+ public, private and nonprofit organizations, reaching 800,000 people every year.
- Negotiated and administered multi-million dollar communication contracts, while driving financial planning and cost-control initiatives.
- Created and facilitated federal C-suite strategy sessions for brand development, integrated communication and marketing plans.
- Under my guidance, we generated over 17 billion traditional and social media impressions from more than 40,000 news stories and close to 300,000 social media mentions in three years.
- Earned 20+ awards for videos, digital exhibit booth, campaigns, and earned media tours.
Timeline
Senior Executive Director, Office of Communications
Health Resources and Services Administration
12.2024 - Current
Senior Advisor (Temporary Appointee)
U.S Food & Drug Administration
02.2024 - 12.2024
Director, Corporate Communications
U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Center for Tobacco Products
07.2020 - 02.2024
Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
11.2002 - 05.2015
Bachelor of Arts - Communications
Youngstown State University
Masters of Business Administration -
Columbia College
Key Executive Leadership Development Program -
American University
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