Senior Health Writer

Outstanding U of A benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; U of A/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; retirement plans; access to U of A recreation and cultural activities; and more!

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• Lead efforts to identify and curate the most impactful university health projects and write stories and news releases for the university's flagship communications channels.
• Serve as a senior institutional representative with external media.
• Generate story leads and media opportunities.
• Oversee the development of narratives and framing for complex, sensitive, or high-visibility topics.
• Conduct faculty interviews and produce compelling and accurate stories about newsworthy health research from peer-reviewed journals and similar sources. Pitch those stories to local, state, national, international news media, along with health-specific news organizations.
• Identify university experts and researchers across a variety of disciplines and assist in developing key messaging for media opportunities. Establish relationships with these key research faculty and college leadership to deliver a consistent pipeline of story opportunities.
• Keep track of publication timelines, embargoes, and editorial calendars.
• Cultivate relationships with health reporters, editors and producers to anticipate coverage and place and pitch stories and university experts.
• Engage with incoming media requests from journalists seeking university experts and facilitate those requests.
• Create briefing sheets, talking points and assist with interview preparation.
• Advise senior leadership on emerging opportunities related to key health-related initiatives.
• Work with the wider University Marketing & Communications team and with campus partners to develop health stories, visual assets and cultivate expertise to generate interest in the university's research portfolio.
• Provide coaching and direction to staff on advanced media practices.
• Serve as a resource for campus partners seeking to amplify their research initiatives.
• Lead media trainings and writing workshops.
• Tailor news releases and feature stories into short-form content for the university's social media channels.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex health-related topics into compelling stories about the value and impact of the work for general audiences. Proven track record generating story leads.
• Excellent grammar, writing, editing, AP style and research skills; project management skills; ability to handle multiple projects with short- and long-term deadlines; excellent communication skills; an ability to work with various constituencies and audiences.

This job posting reflects the general nature and level of work expected of the selected candidate(s). It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities. The institution reserves the right to amend or update this description as organizational priorities and institutional needs evolve.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent advanced learning attained through experience required
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant professional science and/or health writing and editing experience.

• A Master's degree in journalism, communications, English, science or related field and 10-plus years of professional news-writing and editing experience, preferably in an academic or researdh setting.
• Experience writing in-depth stories relating to health research, clinical care, wellness initiatives or other related fields.
• Established track record of news media placements that feature significant health discoveries.
• Experience creating engaging short-form social media posts to effectively communicate complex ideas for lay audiences.