Preston Merchant Email & Phone Number

San Mateo County, California, United States

• Lead communication strategies that support the health department, with 200+ programs, 2,200-member workforce, and $1.3B budget• Serve on Health Executive Council, health department’s leadership body• Support crisis communications as public information officer for Department Operations Center• Participate & advise on local, regional, and national preparedness exercises• With internal division content teams, lead the reorganization of department’s public website• Manage Communications budget and vendor contracts• Serve as primary press contact

San Mateo County, California, United States

• Lead County coordination with six other Bay Area jurisdictions on health officers’ joint shelter in place orders, draft press releases & respond to media• JIC liaison for County Office of Education on school closings and protocols for staff and students• Support Medical Health branch in County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in outreach to and support of congregate care facilities for assessment and COVID-19 testing• Lead public communications for Department Operations Center, which manages COVID-19 vaccinations for county• Produce documentary and informational videos about alternative care and housing sites, testing and vaccination facilities.• Contribute to strategic direction for communications from Joint Information Center, Department Operations Center, other County departments for COVID-19 response• Ongoing responses to media and public

San Mateo County, California, United States

• Strategic communications development and implementation for county health department and twelve internal divisions• Media relations, press outreach and management• Crisis communications: completed FEMA Basic Public Information Officer Course (G290) and JIC/JIS (G291) course, plus FEMA Incident Command courses IS-100, 200, 700 & 800• Completed Terrorism Liaison Officer (TLO) course through Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC)• Deployed to Sonoma County as Public Information Officer in Health Department Operations Center and County’s Emergency Operations Center through Mutual Aid during response to North Bay fires (October 2017)• Deployed to Butte County Joint Information Center during Camp Fire recovery response (December 2018)• With communications team, recipient of Epic Award from the California Association of Public Information Officers (CAPIO) for re-branding of San Mateo County Health• Manage smchealth.org, department website with 100 internal content contributors• Oversee social media channels (Facebook and Twitter)• Visual storytelling through photography and video• Writing, editing, graphic design• Training workshops for staff in role of public information officer, media response, on-camera interviews, video production, photography, writing, messaging

Greater New York City Area

Digital Photography Bootcamp, Intermediate Photojournalism, Adobe Lightroom,Photography Adjunct to New York Times Wire Service course

Greater New York City Area

General administration, bookkeeping, event planning, publications, communications

Greater New York City Area

Support for Women’s Division fundraising, Spirit of Achievement Awards gala

Greater New York City Area

Fundraising for maritime organization, special events, annual dinner, publications

Greater New York City Area

Triennial conference organizer (Delhi & Toronto), publications, member relations

Sewanee, Tennessee

Supervise staff of 10 for daily operations of two-week writers’ conference

Gainesville, Florida Area

Composition, Creative Writing (poetry)

Sewanee, Tennessee

Teacher and Dormitory Resident AdviserSophomore English (World Literature), Spanish III, Spanish IV (AP)

Augusta, Georgia Area

Teacher and CoachSixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade EnglishMiddle school boys basketball, JV girls soccer

Graduate Certificate, Crisis/Emergency/Disaster Management

Mfa, Creative Writing

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, English Language And Literature/Letters