Annually, the Louisiana Department of Education honors its distinguished educators at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. An overall teacher of the year is also selected. For three consecutive years, our president led all internal and external communication surrounding this event, including media relations, speech writing, and event scripting.
Our team lead was charged with managing the communication about the event, deciding how, what, and when to communicate news and updates about the gala with the 650-employee staff. Additionally, she managed the communication sent to media statewide surrounding the gala, working with trusted reporters to embargo news of the winners until the minute after the awards were announced during the celebration.
In addition to these efforts, she and her team were also tasked with providing full-text speeches and time blocks for the talent, officials, and entire production team. Each gala ran smoothly; they went off without a delay in production or any gaffes.
As a direct result of these coordinated efforts, the events received coverage statewide in every daily newspaper across Louisiana, including those in Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans annually. Our team lead also partnered with Louisiana Public Broadcasting and Louisiana Hometown Networks to ensure the galas were streamed and aired across multiple public access channels. This not only generated millions of impressions for the Department, it also helped shift the narrative about public education across the state. Instead of focusing on polarizing policy decisions or unpopular budget adjustments, the public could unite to celebrate the outstanding teaching and learning happening statewide.