Introducing the AAMC’s new main communications and advertising and marketing officer

When Susan Cato joined the AAMC as senior director of electronic communications in January 2020, she experienced no notion that her 30 a long time of top electronic strategy and engagement efforts for many nonprofit associations would grow to be so essential. Just a several small months later on, the complete entire world was speaking practically, studying to leverage know-how to attain what previously had been done in-man or woman. 

Cato’s wide expertise with utilizing electronic tactics to change the way associations communicate with their members enabled the AAMC to host a scientific assistance repository for clinicians to discover about the novel coronavirus, established up a digital community for users to communicate directly with just about every other, and host a wide variety of on the internet events, such as the preferred Mask Me Anything at all function that captivated media and customers.  

On January 19, Cato was named the chief communications and advertising and marketing officer for the AAMC, wherever she will direct the development, oversight, and implementation of a in depth communications and marketing application to guidance the AAMC’s strategic priorities, manufacturer recognition, plan priorities, standing, crisis communications, electronic practical experience, and internet marketing campaigns.  

AAMCNews recently sat down with Cato to examine the issues and chances she sees in her new function, as nicely as her priorities for the next calendar year.  

You worked for a number of associations main electronic approach and stakeholder engagement. Can you converse about this function and how you imagine utilizing these expertise in your new job as AAMC Main Communications and Marketing and advertising Officer? 

I have worked for nonprofit associations for 30 years, like expert societies, business associations, and membership corporations. There are two themes that have emerged from my journey, despite the fact that my complete profession fairly a lot has been in electronic. My focus has been centered close to how we leverage electronic to make what we’re performing arrive alive. How do we strengthen engagement? How do we enhance being familiar with? How do we produce mechanisms that help us not just to do what we’ve normally completed, but most likely do issues differently? It’s the digital transformation state of mind. A lot of persons believe digital transformation is getting what you’ve always completed and just putting it on the net. That is not it. Electronic transformation genuinely is determining alternatives to use technologies to do one thing perhaps absolutely various, something pretty modern, a thing even extra impactful … asking ourselves what the option for us is to have interaction additional, to partner, to leverage engineering in strategies that fix difficulties, give men and women suggestions, [and] inspire them. The other factor is really all about what I connect with becoming local community centric. The wonderful matter about electronic know-how is it provides us the possibility to co-produce ordeals, material, and options with our customers, our constituents, our communities in ways that would not have been attainable if we did not have these systems.  

You came to the AAMC right before the pandemic as senior director, digital communications. This was an very tricky period of time for educational drugs, as hospitals have been overcome with people, health-related exploration was suspended and then refocused largely on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, and professional medical schooling was upended. What have been your priorities as the chief of digital comms to assist our customers during this very tough time?  

Well, first and foremost, I had to make sure the crew was Ok, for the reason that if not, we wouldn’t be in a position to support and aid our users in the strategies that they genuinely, desperately required at the time. We promptly introduced some methods to interact the electronic group to make sure we remained linked, and to make sure we have been continuing to produce relationships even while we had been all remote. Next, communications is additional than messaging. Of study course, the messaging piece, the community relations piece, the disaster communications piece is genuinely vital to keep on best of what was going on and to communicate about those people issues. There are other ways that are exceptionally significant, especially coming from a digital viewpoint. We questioned ourselves what job could we engage in as a communications staff to help support our constituents, assist aid the people today on the entrance lines, no matter if it be generating mechanisms for persons to share very best techniques or protocols or tips, developing mechanisms for our constituents to in fact chat to every other and have conversation again and forth in real time as a result of either virtual community, or other mechanisms so that they were capable to master and go to each other for trouble fixing. Once again, this is actually all about the collective functioning with each other to address massive problems. 

When we were chatting about masking, we leveraged platforms like YouTube and other social channels to host dwell occasions like Mask Me Nearly anything to tackle a deficiency of comprehension, and some of the misinformation. We partnered with our Health Treatment Affairs cluster [to create a clinical guidance repository], and we manufactured it nimble so that we could repeatedly add new content, files, [and other] facts incredibly, really promptly. In buy to increase to the challenge, we wanted it to be agile and nimble utilizing the instruments and mechanisms at our disposal. And that was a crucial, vital source. 

COVID-19 was new territory for all of us. We have been in a scenario that we had in no way been in and it was seriously essential to discover from the journey. We felt it was critical to doc this journey the two to honor these on the front traces and to remind us of how we taken care of the expertise, so the staff produced a quick sort documentary called This Is What We Do: Tutorial Medicine’s Rising to the Obstacle of COVID-19, telling the story of our journey as a local community via COVID-19. We’re not done [with COVID], of training course, but I’m truly proud of that piece due to the fact it tells the tale from the perspective of the clinical facilities and the men and women who actually manufactured a change throughout the pandemic.  

The AAMC is acknowledged for the MCAT^® exam and for the AMCAS^® and ERAS^® plans, but in truth, the association does a lot of other get the job done with the community. How do you approach to converse that value to the users?  

Just one of our obligations is to make guaranteed that our audiences recognize the depth and breadth of what we do. We have been extremely great about climbing to the challenges in the minute and responding to things that could impression our clinical facilities and our constituents from a societal and political point of view. There are a total host of other issues that we do that I consider we need to do a far better position of communicating … [including] increasing the visibility and awareness of the important get the job done that this corporation is accomplishing on the floor, every little thing from The Rules of Trustworthiness, to partnerships to handle vaccine hesitancy and obtain to care, to elevating the worth and require for funding for professional medical study. A whole lot of people today in our local community do not know this. Specific viewers teams, such as policymakers and pupils, never actually recognize the depth and breadth of what we do and the impression that we have on the wellness and nicely-becoming of people, households, and the local community. We are regarded for the MCAT exam and ERAS, and that is only a smaller piece. 

The AAMC has for a lot of years been operating to grow to be an antiracist, inclusive, far more varied firm. More a short while ago, the AAMC has published DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] competencies, launched the Heart for Health Justice, and produced statements in guidance of DEI challenges. As the association has become much more vocal, it has gotten some criticism for getting “too woke.” What part does the communications division at the AAMC enjoy in responding to this criticism — and is there much more it should really or could do?  

I consider we have been undertaking a wonderful position of responding to each situation that arrives up as it takes place. I am of the impression that [we have] to do a improved career, selection a person, of telling the tales of effect when we employ these initiatives. We converse specifics, we demonstrate figures, we share details and methods all the time. If we want to boost being familiar with about these difficulties, we have to do a better work at the storytelling piece. AAMCNews does a good occupation of storytelling in the prepared format. I do believe that we have to do additional with unique mediums, no matter whether it be video, case studies, on-the-floor perspectives of the folks who are included or impacted. Next, I do feel we need to have to begin rounding out how we are speaking about these topics and problems. If our North Star is “better overall health for all” and we have knowledge that display the good impression of implementing issues like the DEI competencies, how race-mindful admissions is crucial, or the worth of obtain to reproductive care, we require to be telling that story in a way that aids link our audiences to that message. Is this going to alter everybody’s head? No, but it’s vital to aim on escalating being familiar with. We are listed here to show from a info-pushed standpoint why these things are essential to acquiring better wellness for all. 

What are your top a few or 4 priorities for the coming calendar year from a communications perspective? 

The breadth and depth of what we do as a communications staff is broad. Not only do we [the AAMC] have Strategic Communications, which incorporates media relations, general public relations, AAMCNews, crisis communications, [and] advocacy communications. … We also have advertising projects, systems, and solutions alongside with resourceful layout groups, user practical experience, the multimedia team, social media, and virtual communities. My to start with priority is again to the group, because if the group is not set up in a way that will allow them to be agile, revolutionary, and productive, we would not be ready to rise to these troubles in meaningful and creative strategies, and we won’t be as powerful. So my variety a single precedence is getting our workforce to a spot exactly where we can do these matters correctly and that’s an ongoing journey.

A further priority would be … growing the visibility of the breadth and depth of what the corporation does and especially with particular audiences. I do believe [we need to] come to be a small bit additional community centric and companion with our members and constituents. For us to address and address massive issues, we are likely to have to do it collectively with our local community, with our constituents. … Our fourth mission is group collaboration. If we can hold room in a way that lets folks of various views to come in and add, I consider that will be a win for the communications workforce, for the corporation, and for the local community at huge. 

Will our constituents observe everything diverse in the coming year?  

We, as an group, since of all the factors we’ve just talked about, [are] escalating and evolving. … We are a really happy organization that has accomplished amazing points around the decades, and we will proceed to evolve. From a brand point of view, it is genuinely vital to honor that and to be incredibly clear and genuine with how we present up and how we talk about who we are. Our brand as an firm is going to be a thing we’re likely to be looking at to make confident it signifies who we are nowadays and exactly where we’re going. Next, how we interact on the net, on social channels will be focused on bringing men and women into discussions that are meaningful and useful for most people included. How do we share third-social gathering information and resources from other men and women who are inspiring or practical? So we’re going to see a little bit of a big difference in how we’re interacting on the social channels as well. Lastly, we are earning absolutely sure that our over-all digital person working experience is the best attainable model that it can be at any presented time — furnishing a useful on the internet household that supports our constituents in impactful and significant strategies.