CEHS Communications Plan

Goal: To elevate Shana Peeples’ visit to Morgantown/WVU in statewide media and education-centered audiences; additionally, CEHS should use her visit as an opportunity to promote the college and the value of education degree through dialogue about relevant trends in education.

Logistics: Peeples will be speaking at the Erickson Grand Hall at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, with a reception to follow. CEHS to work to schedule visits at local schools and Hoppy Kercheval’s radio show on day of event. 

Primary Audience: Students, statewide educators.

Secondary Audiences: Parents, faculty/staff, community members, elected officials. 

Focus of story: Elevate Peeples’ visit and speech; use as opportunity to tie in key messages and relevant trends in education to lift up CEHS, including:

• Common core/academic standards survey results,          
• Peeples’ work with disadvantaged children, 
• Incorporate encouraging message for college students to pursue teaching through her story of unconventional path into education field (she was a DJ and worked in news prior to her teaching career); talk about available scholarships, 
• Address why her visit is relevant; what can WVU and statewide educators gain from her insight and experiences

• Mary Beth Sickles/Christie Zachary should work to secure Dr. Gee or Provost Joyce McConnell to introduce Peeples; Dean Denzine should provide opening comments and introduce Dr. Gee or Provost McConnell. This should be completed ASAP; their calendars fill up months in advance.  
• Christie should fill out a photo request form to secure a photographer for the event.  This should be completed ASAP so that our photography team can get it on their calendars; her visit is scheduled for a high-volume event time.   
• CEHS should determine if they want to broadcast Peeples’ speech via webcast; if you decide to move forward, contact Joe Webb at Joe.Webb@mail.wvu.edu in January 2016 to coordinate.   
• Christie should reach out to Hoppy Kercheval and pitch Peeples for his radio show the day of visit; this should be completed on or around Monday, Feb. 1.    
• Mary Beth should reach out to local schools and schedule visits for Peeples in January 2016; work with Peeples in advance to determine her comfort level in deciding how many schools to visit and length of each visit.   
• Dean Denzine and Christie should craft a letter for CEHS faculty, staff and students from the Dean inviting them to event; this should be completed by Friday, March 4.   
• Dean Denzine and Christie should work to produce a letter to school superintendents statewide from the Dean inviting them and their educators to the event; this should be mailed no later than Friday, March 11.    
• Dean Denzine and Christie should work with Peeples to develop talking points for media inquiries in advance of her visit; this should be completed by Tuesday, March 28. You should also secure her contact information in case reporters want to interview her in advance of her visit.   
• A media advisory that answers the five W’s should be developed by Christie and sent to UR/News for statewide media distribution via Vocus Monday, April 4.  (UR/News should receive this no later than Friday, April 1.) Christie should follow-up with media with phone calls in days leading up to event.   Christie should write an advance story that outlines her agenda, key themes of her speech, logistics of events, biographical information and headshot (Christie should secure her bio and headshot in advance). This should be sent to UR/News for a Thursday, April 7 launch (UR should receive this no later than Wednesday, April 6).
• A spot story should be written in advance by Christie and sent to UR/News so that it can launch the morning after the event (Wednesday, April 13); this story should be developed based on elements listed in the ‘focus of story’ section of this plan and the comments you will develop with Peeples’ in advance of her speech.  UR should receive this no later than the morning of the event on Tuesday, April 12.  (Heather and April will be out-of-pocket at a conference that day; please send story to John Bolt at John.Bolt@mail.wvu.edu.)

hr/10/28/15

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