On Monday, July 31, Claire McGranahan will join the department’s communications team as Associate Editor. McGranahan will initially be focused on adding to the department’s library of content through reporting and writing feature stories, video scripting, and designing and implementing social media strategies across various channels. She will also provide additional photography for the department’s Design Center.

McGranahan joins the department from the UI Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, where she has led communications since 2020 as their first department-appointed communicator. There, she installed multiple channels, systems, and best practice processes for the department’s internal communications, academic website, intranet, social media, and alumni engagement. Additionally, she has worked with our Design Center to produce recruitment videos for the pediatric residency program, 11 fellowships, and 16 divisions in their department. She also helped found and sustain the college’s Department Communicators Group (DCG), a forum and resource for members of other departments in the institution with communications-related responsibilities.

“We are fortunate to have worked with Claire while she was in her role in Pediatrics, and we are excited to apply the skills she’s honed there and in the DCG to Internal Medicine,” Trevor Jackson, director of communications, said. “Her familiarity with how we work and our unique needs will allow her to hit the ground running. We look forward to her meeting faculty and staff within each division in the coming months and hearing which stories they would like told.”

McGranahan brings with her a varied skill set from leadership roles both in other higher education settings and in the private sector. She has also been accepted into UI Health Care’s 2023-2024 Executive Leadership Academy, in which she will build a centralized on-boarding tool for communicators across the institution.

“Internal Medicine was always my compass as I built Pediatrics’ communications,” Claire said. “Trevor and his team have been a valuable resource for me. Working with him and the Design Center team in the past nearly three years has been like finding my people, and when I saw the position open on the team, I knew I wanted to join it. I’m so happy the feeling is mutual, and I can’t wait to get started.”