Staff Spotlight: Mallory Bersi.

Collaborative work is key to developing sustainable public health solutions and improving population health outcomes. This weekly series spotlights one SPH staff member who advances public health through collaborations within the field and across sectors.

Can you describe your main responsibilities and priorities as the digital and social media content editor for the Office of Communications?

The bulk of my work centers around maintaining the school’s social media presence and uplifting the great work that our students, faculty, and staff do at SPH every single day. This includes promoting the many research and school news articles coming out of the Office of Communications across all of our social media platforms, as well as live-tweeting our Signature Program events and helping to promote other departments’ and student organizations’ events across the school. In addition to this, I am responsible for gathering media hits for the SPH website and SPH This Week, which are any mentions of SPH community members by media outlets in the news, including any opinion pieces or commentaries. I also compile and send out all SPH Today emails for our internal SPH community members to let them know about daily happenings at the school and relay important messages and updates from the community.

Can you share how collaboration is integral to your role, and what are one or two collaborations that have been most meaningful to you? 

Collaboration is key to nearly every aspect of communications work. Without good collaboration, messages and ideas can become blurred and lost.

This collaborative work has been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as news and updates have been changing seemingly every hour. Throughout this time, I have worked closely with Dean Galea and other assistant and associate deans at SPH to help relay important messages about administration, education, and research updates to our community members through SPH Today. It has been really great to be a part of ensuring these important messages are distributed to our community efficiently and effectively.

Additionally, working and collaborating with the other members of the Office of Communications team has been such a meaningful process. Every week, we work together to build our SPH This Week newsletter and curate content to highlight the work of the school. It is truly a group effort and every person on our team shows up, no questions asked. I am grateful to come to work every day, surrounded by a team that is passionate about the work that we do.

As an SPH alum, what have you enjoyed most about becoming a staff member and continuing to work with the school?

One of the most exciting parts about being an alum and now working at SPH has definitely been seeing the behind the scenes of how things come together at the school, such as our Signature Program events. It has been so fun to see the process of planning these events from the beginning and seeing them come to fruition. It’s also been great to work with faculty, staff, and students that I didn’t have the opportunity to collaborate with while I was a student. SPH is a place where research and public health practice thrive, so it has been very exciting to now help tell stories about the impactful work coming out of the school, both to our community and beyond.

“Social media is about collaboration and Mallory embodies that sense of collaboration. Since she took over eight months ago, her warm, inviting approach has brought people across units to the table, and shepherded them to collectively bring their stories to light while providing multiple audiences with the best information possible. I credit her collaborative approach to the sharp increase we have experienced on social and subsequent brand engagement.”

Elena Kontogli, director of marketing & communications