Jessica Cavazos Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

- Identify and coordinate communication needs and effectively communicate the work of the Newborn Screening program initiatives to internal and external stakeholders.- Plan and lead in the development of print and electronic communications to stakeholders of the Newborn Screening program and the Public Health Laboratory including legislative reports, annual reports, fact sheets, presentations, and journal articles.- Plan and lead efforts to advance effectiveness and coordination of newborn screening communication with local, regional, state, and federal entities.- Plan media relations in consultation with MDH Communications office, including development of strategies for release of information, writing news releases, and creating talking points for spokespeople.

• Collaborate with SMEs to create, design, plan, and implement educational efforts for expectant and new parents, providers, general public related to newborn screening. Work with SMEs, develop content and design layout for the Public Health Laboratory Annual Report.• Provide graphical and technical expertise (writing, editing, material production, illustration, photo-editing, graphic design, accessibility).• Lead the social media team for the Public Health Laboratory, developing written and visual content for Newborn Screening and assisting other PHL sections with their content. • Member of MDH Social Media team• Co-lead the Accessible InDesign Practices (AIdP) group for state agencies, developing and testing best practices for accessible InDesign documents.• Co-lead the MDH InDesign User Workgroup, to continually share research from the statewide AIdP group, maintain an MDH InDesign Best Practices group, create resources for MDH staff, and share expertise.

United States

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Maple Grove

•Create, revitalize, and implement wellbeing activities including but not limited to: pedometer challenges, weight-loss/maintenance challenges, company-wide community service activities, donation drives and silent auctions, Total Wellbeing Fair.•Work with community resources and vendors to provide employees with: Lunch and Learns, biometric screenings, flu shots, onsite fitness classes, Weight Watchers onsite meeting, onsite massages.•Lead the Total Wellbeing Team (approximately 12 employees).•Update internal wellbeing website.•Communicate and educate employees on wellbeing via bimonthly wellbeing newsletters, intranet articles, online resource library, and weekly newsletters during health and activity challenges.•Create branded communications (posters, table-tents, newsletters, handouts, etc) for passive programming using Adobe Creative Suite.•Coordinate employee community service leave hours, WellRewards Days Off, physical activity event reimbursement paperwork.•Continually creating new ways to improve employee wellbeing, especially programs and opportunities that are sustainable are results oriented. •Researching how to include evidence-based programming into current and future programming.

Rochester, Minnesota

• Instituted and organized a peer-judging program for over 300 students in the Rochester Regional Science Fair• Experience with science fair database, a combination of Excel and Access• Four years experience in training and supervising adult volunteers• Cultivated relationships with local resources• Recruited volunteers• Trained new board members in responsibilities• Organized awards ceremony, award judging and ribboning• Contacted press and media outlets• Fundraising

• Oversaw all aspects of a 400+ cage mouse colony which included breeding, weaning, tagging and tailing, genotyping (PCR and flowcytometry), and other forms of mouse husbandry.• Monitored NOD mice for spontaneous diabetes and treated with insulin and EDCI-antigen coupled cells• Tissue harvests, sectioning and staining• Organized lab, created protocols and continuity binders• Managed ordering of lab supplies, managing incoming orders, POs and receiving items through PeopleSoft• Interviewed and trained new staff

• Designed experiments• Prepared figures and writing for manuscripts and presentations• Developed techniques and created protocols for experiments• Molecular biology techniques (mRNA/DNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, qRT-PCR, primer design, XL-PCR)• Organized timed harvests and tissue storage• Experience in Access database• Tissue harvests, blood draw (sub-mandibular, occipital, tail vein and heart puncture)• Injections (intra-peritoneum, intra-muscular, sub-cutaneous)• Public speaking

Supervisory/Leadership Skills•In charge of general meetings, budget, interviewing and training new members•Fostered a positive environment to encourage collaboration and optimize team performance•Interviewed, hired and trained 16 new students, and recruited and managed hundreds of student volunteers for events and health information boothsFundraising/Developing Skills•4 years experience in garnering donations in the form of prizes and food for events, and monetary donations for events and fundraising•Composed grants to fund free HPV vaccines and prizes for an incentivized exercise program•Raised $42 K for the American Cancer Society and the Make-A-Wish Foundation over 4 years through Night To Fight CancerCommunication Skills•Prepared and presented speeches to large and small groups•Wrote health promotion articles for college newspaper, The Record, and college monthly alumni newsletter•Created and implemented targeted media campaigns utilizing poster, pamphlets, email, informational booths, and non-traditional forms of promotion•Coordinated development, layout, design of brochures and newsletters•Developed a campus wide exercise incentive program with weekly recess games, website to log points, pre/post participation health survey, and wrote bi-monthly articles on fitness and physical healthEvent Management Skills•Created, organized and instituted 6 new on-campus health education events and revamped 10 existing health programs with 10-400 attendees•Instituted multiple health promotion programs that included multiple day events, informational booths, print media campaigns and speakersOrganizational Skills•Cultivated relationships with multiple departments, community health agencies and businesses for programs and events•Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Mac and PC) and various statistical software•Knowledge of social media to increase knowledge of events and health education

Primarily responsible for mouse husbandry, DNA isolation, PCR, gel electrophoresis (genotyping), animal harvesting and assisting lead techs with experiments.