Showcasing leaders who are advancing research and public health in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

  • By mid-2021, the Pivoting in a Pandemic series had reached more than 12,000 views on social channels and garnered engagement from over 1,000 viewers.

  • We produced 8 interviews with experts ranging from videos, audio interviews and written blogs.

 
 

Skills utilized

  • Graphic design

  • Branding

  • Video Production

    • Filming

    • Editing

    • Interviewing

  • Video animation in After Effects

  • Project management

 

The Challenge 

With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting normal work, I faced multiple challenges/opportunities:

  1. How can I produce helpful, relevant material during this turbulent time?

    Goal: Showcase leaders sharing their experiences and how they've shifted during the pandemic through a multimedia campaign.

  2. Highlight Sabin staff to give them opportunities and a platform to be seen as thought leaders

    Goal: Sabin staff will lead the interviews. This fit within a broader effort to highlight staff.

The Solution

I worked closely with VP of Communications to develop a campaign we titled Pivoting in a Pandemic. I designed the logo and branding for the campaign and recorded and edited the videos. Our first challenge was remote filming. I wanted to get better quality videos than a Zoom call, so I assembled video kits to send to participants. This worked well at first, but wasn't ideal since participants had to set the equipment up themselves. I eventually tested other remote recording platforms and finally landed on Riverside.fm which produced high quality video and sound.

Our team reached out to various partners and recorded 8 interviews through blogposts, audio interviews and video interviews (conducted in multiple languages).

Professors Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim

A notable interview was with Sabin's Roxana Rustomjee interviewing Professors Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim about South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Salim and Quarraisha lead the Durban-based Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). I shared multiple video clips across social media channels. Watch the first clip here and the full interview below.

 

Additional Pivoting in a Pandemic interviews

By mid-2021, the Pivoting series has reached more than 12,000 views on social channels and garnered engagement from over 1,000 viewers

Credits/team

  • Mary Beth Woodin - VP of Communications

  • Jose Alfaro - Social Media