ACTS News

ACTS Evaluation SIG Webinar Recording Available

Join the ACTS Evaluation Special Interest Group for a webinar entitled Storytelling through Data: Intersecting CTSA Evaluation & Communications, presented by Michelle Maclay, Luke Morales, and Christine Drury.

This session is part of a series co-sponsored by the ACTS Evaluation SIG and the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Translational Research Evaluation Topical Interest Group (TRE TIG) and was recorded July 21, 2021. Learn about more previous webinars here.

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Description: Energize your evaluation findings with communications techniques tailored to inspire action-oriented responses.  Learn about best practices & collaboration strategies for successful storytelling as three CTSA Communicators share their team’s recent impactful evaluation-inspired projects.

Meet the Presenters

Michelle Maclay is the Director of Communications for the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, the NIH CTSA Hub at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In her role as director she is responsible for spearheading strategic initiatives, planning, coordinating, and managing integrated marketing, public relations, and strategic communications. Michelle works with both external and internal constituencies (customers/clients) to promote communication, awareness, education and engagement of/with the Institute.  Michelle and her team create and communicate the organization's messages and ensure overall continuity of institutional brand consistency and image.  Michelle manages the creation, writing and editing of news and informational materials as well as managing graphic design and production of materials; preparing and disseminating news releases and feature stories through various media outlets.  As director she and her team develop and recommend communication strategies to a broad variety of “clients” inside and outside of UNC.  Before coming to UNC, Michelle worked in the Pharmaceutical world in marketing and brand awareness, taught high school students and worked in the documentary series production world in New York City.  Michelle considers herself to be a collaborative, result – driven communications and marketing professional with a desire to develop and implement strategies that creates awareness,  influences behavior, and provides understanding.

Christine Drury is the Associate Director for Research Communications for Indiana University School of Medicine. She wears several hats in her current role, specifically directing research communications and marketing for IU School of Medicine’s entire research enterprise, plus the IU Grand Challenge Precision Health Initiative and Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. Prior to her newest venture, for more than 10-years, Christine worked at Eli Lilly and Company. Nearly seven of those ten years, Drury severed as the director of Research and Development (R&D) Communications, focused on promoting the company’s pipeline of experimental medicines and R&D transformation initiatives. Prior to Lilly, Ms. Drury served as a broadcast journalist for the Indianapolis-market´s NBC and ABC-affiliates, working primarily as a morning show reporter. She covered a variety of breaking news, ranging from weather to traffic-related deaths and house fires. She took a break from her television career in the late 1990´s to establish a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and education about a little-known medical condition she used to suffer from called idiopathic craniofacial erythema, often referred to as chronic facial blushing. She was relieved from it following a surgical procedure performed in Sweden.

Ms. Drury’s story is documented in Dr. Atul Gawande´s New York Times bestselling book “Complications” as well as “The New Yorker” magazine. Ms. Drury graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Golden Key National Honor Society from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in Telecommunications.

Luke Morales is communications lead at Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute. As Manager of Digital content, Luke directs multi-channel messaging campaigns with a focus on developing content that increases the awareness and consideration of Wake Forest’s Academic Learning Health System. With 10 years of experience in marketing and digital production, Luke has worked with brands such as The Alzheimer’s Association, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, United Concordia Dental, USAA, S&P Capital IQ, Pep Boys, and Hanesbrands. Luke delights in relating the passion behind translational research in a way that connects investigators, fosters community, and advances medicine.