Public Health Communications Expert Brings Necessary Experience to MELA’s work!
Jackson, MS – April 6th, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mississippi Early Learning Alliance (MELA) is excited to share that communications professional, Chloe Lake, has joined their team as the new Director, Communications. Lake comes to the team with 8 years of experience working in health communications, six of those focused on maternal and child health in Louisiana. Lake holds a Master of Public Health degree from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, with a concentration in Health Education and Communication. She received two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communications and Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Community engagement and audience-centered communications have formed the core of Lake’s professional life. She began her career working to increase family involvement with the Healthy Start New Orleans program, then pivoted to building service, hospitality, and tourism industry support for an ordinance prohibiting smoking inside bars and casinos in Orleans Parish. Following the successful passage of the ordinance, Lake joined the communications team within the Louisiana Department of Health’s Bureau of Family Health. While there, she led a small team in devising and implementing outcomes-focused communications strategies for over 25 programs and initiatives. Lake brings to the MELA team her expertise in crafting messaging and translating public health data for a variety of audiences. In collaboration with subject matter experts, she created nationally-referenced reports and websites on maternal mortality, infant and child health, and injury prevention. During her time at the Bureau of Family Health, she facilitated trainings and workshops on audience research, solutions-oriented media coverage, health literacy, and data visualization. For the past four years, she also co-chaired a communications committee within a multi-agency collective to promote health equity.
“We are very excited to have Chloe join our team. Not only does she have the skills we need to help the early childhood community in Mississippi stay connected, but she shares MELA’s values and is deeply passionate about supporting young children. She is going to be a huge asset,” said Dr. Angela Bass, Executive Director of MELA.
The role of Director, Communications is new to the MELA team. In the position, Lake will lead MELA’s work highlighting the successes of the Mississippi early childhood community. She will also oversee and execute the communications promoting Mississippi Early Learning Resources Shared Services site, a program for childcare and family care providers, as well as the Thrive by 3rd program, a parent engagement texting program among other things.
Please join MELA in welcoming Chloe to the Mississippi Early Childhood community, and learn more about her work and the work of MELA at www.msearlylearning.org.