Why Communication Should Play A Bigger Role in Your Family’s Disaster Plan

Ryan Deal
Hurricane Florence Satellite Image Reinforces Need for Emergency or Disaster Plan
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 12, 2018 Millions of people under evacuation orders as Hurricane Florence fast approaches the U.S. east coast should reinforce the need for a disaster plan - and the notion that the time to prepare for a disaster is before it strikes. There’s a lot to learn from the periods of calm between disasters we, in my time at... Read More

CCPH: A Tough-as-Nails Process, But an Amazing Credential

Ryan Deal
In my years of work at the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), I always measured results in improved health outcomes. Simply put, a measurable improvement in the health of our state, for me, constituted success in our work involving social marketing, communications, stakeholder engagement and outreach. And, as I’ve noted in this blog before, we saw many improvements, many successes... Read More

Giving Thanks to my DPH Team

Ryan Deal
This Thanksgiving, I give thanks to my DPH team and the unbelievable results in telling the story of our Georgia Department of Public Health What might be "all in a day's work" for enormous PR firms, might just be monumental within the Division of Communications at the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH). Our team serves as the department’s in-house,... Read More

Video Production Studio Becomes a Reality

Ryan Deal
With video increasingly supplanting traditional web content so rapidly, it was clear we needed to make a move at the Georgia Department of Public Health. After 18 months of planning, my pipe dream became a reality. “Stand-by. We’re on in 30 seconds,” a staffer from my division of communications announced to those gathered, marking the inauguration of our new broadcast... Read More

Seven National Awards Presented to DPH Communications

Ryan Deal
For the third consecutive year, communications campaigns within the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) earned national recognition from the CDC's National Public Health Information Coalition, or NPHIC. DPH’s division of communications, which I'm honored to lead, won seven Awards of Excellence for projects ranging from social marketing and media relations, to the department-wide launch of the agency’s new website.... Read More

“Georgia Responds” Launches

Ryan Deal
After weeks of research and preparation, I couldn't be more excited to announce a program that truly matters: Georgia Responds - the organization representing Georgia’s health and medical volunteer programs, and the simplest way to give back to your community: Less paperwork. More helping. CLICK. CONNECT. CARE. Whether you are a health care provider, an administrative specialist, a retired professional –... Read More

Forget the Facelift: We Started From Scratch to Re-Launch a Busy Government Website

Ryan Deal
It hadn’t happened in more than 10 years and was completely overdue, but my team at the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) accomplished the impossible: reinventing and re-launching the agency’s website. It was a near two year project - completed internally without a single vendor - involving every reach of DPH and including direct input from more than 150... Read More