Overview: For more than 10 years, I have partnered with the Charles H. Hood Foundation to strengthen and evolve its digital presence and communications in support of its mission to advance child health through innovative research.

What began with website strategy and design has grown alongside the Foundation’s needs. Today, my role spans digital and communications strategy, content development, website management, LinkedIn and audience engagement, analytics, and the planning of new digital resources for the Foundation’s growing network of researchers and partners.

Rather than a series of individual projects, the work represents an ongoing partnership—continually evolving how the Foundation communicates its programs, demonstrates its impact, engages its community, and supports the researchers and innovators it funds.

The Challenge: Over the course of the relationship, the Foundation’s digital and communications needs have evolved significantly.

Initially, the priority was creating a stronger website experience: making grant opportunities easier to understand and navigate, better showcasing funded research and investigators, and creating a digital presence that more effectively represented the Foundation’s mission.

As the Foundation’s programs, audiences, and network have grown, the challenge has become broader: creating a cohesive communications ecosystem that connects the website, social media, Foundation news, grant programs, research outcomes, events,  and network resources while building greater awareness of the Foundation and the impact of its work.

Website Strategy & User Experience: The Foundation’s website serves as the foundation of its digital communications platform. The redesign focused on creating an experience centered around the needs of researchers, grant applicants, partners, and other stakeholders while establishing a flexible platform that could evolve with the organization.

The work has included:

• Restructuring information architecture and navigation to make programs, opportunities, and resources easier to find.
• Developing a more intuitive user experience for researchers, applicants, partners, and other audiences.
• Expanding grant and program content to better communicate eligibility, application requirements, processes, and opportunities.
• Creating a stronger framework for communicating the Foundation’s mission, funded research, investigators, and impact.
• Continually evolving the website and its content architecture as new programs, resources, and communications needs emerge.
• Communications Strategy & Content

As the relationship has expanded, my role has grown from website strategy into ongoing communications support for the Foundation and its network.

This includes communications planning and strategy, editorial planning, content development, website content management, and coordinating digital communications around Foundation initiatives, awards, research, events, and announcements.

The goal is not simply to produce individual pieces of content, but to connect them to a larger communications strategy—creating consistency across channels and finding opportunities for each story, program, or initiative to reinforce the Foundation’s mission and extend the reach of its work.

Audience Growth & Engagement: LinkedIn has become an important channel for expanding awareness of the Foundation and strengthening connections among researchers, institutions, partners, and the broader pediatric research community.

Ongoing work includes planning and developing content, highlighting investigators and funded research, promoting Foundation programs and announcements, monitoring performance, and using engagement data to continually refine the communications approach.

This has helped move the Foundation’s digital presence beyond simply publishing organizational information toward actively engaging and growing a professional community around its mission.

Building for the Next Stage: The long-term nature of the partnership also makes it possible to continually identify opportunities to strengthen the Foundation’s digital infrastructure as its needs evolve.

Current initiatives include improving how research outcomes and Foundation impact are communicated, developing a more sophisticated content taxonomy and information architecture, and planning a portal for public and member-users that will bring together resources, opportunities, events, professional development, and network-focused content for the Hood community.

Together, these initiatives are creating a digital ecosystem designed not simply to communicate what the Foundation does, but to help researchers discover opportunities, connect with one another, access resources, and extend the impact of Hood-funded work.

Capabilities: Digital Strategy · Communications Planning · UX & Information Architecture · Website Strategy & Management · Content Strategy & Development · LinkedIn & Social Media · Audience Engagement · Analytics & Optimization · Taxonomy & Content Architecture