Jeremy Gaines

Work

Center for Global Development, Washington, DC

Senior Communications Manager | May 2022–Present

• With no current communications director, serve as CGD’s senior-most media relations person and comms strategist
• Lead and execute comms for flagship $4 million grant on World Bank and other multilateral development bank reforms
• Design CGD’s comms strategy for World Bank/IMF spring and annual meetings, coordinating or overseeing press outreach, research launches, and major events, including with World Bank President Ajay Banga and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
• Manage multiple consultants and supervise members of the press and digital teams on assigned projects
• Represent communications team across the organization, including with fundraising, policy outreach, and executive leadership, and to external partners, government agencies, and funders

Communications Manager and Press Secretary | March 2021–April 2022

• Served as principal comms strategist for five CGD research teams with a total of ~35 researchers
• Planned and executed several of CGD’s most successful research launches ever, including research on China’s lending program and India’s COVID excess mortality, leading or coordinating press, social, events, multimedia, digital, and more
• Edited several hundred research blog posts, copyediting and providing support on structure, content, and framing
• Co-led creation of new analytics program, defining metrics, building dashboards, and empowering research teams with data
• Managed email marketing automation platform, designing engagement programs, training staff, and managing consultants

Deputy Press Secretary and Communications Associate | March 2019–February 2021

• Served as comms lead for CGD’s education, Africa, technology, and China teams, creating communications plans for programs and launch plans for new research, and coordinating content calendars across research and comms
• Co-led CGD’s press outreach, handling incoming requests, booking interviews, and placing hundreds of stories featuring CGD research and experts, including in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR’s All Things Considered, and Reuters.
• Wrote op-eds, press releases, and regular program newsletters to communicate complex research to broad audiences

Communications Assistant | June 2017–February 2019

• Wrote weekly newsletter to communicate new CGD research to 27,000 subscribers in concise and accessible language
• Managed publication production pipeline and formatted more than 170 policy briefs, reports, and papers
• Posted 250+ blog posts, updated website content and homepage, and helped plan website redesign and taxonomy revamp
• Helped draft press releases, built press lists, and fielded media requests as needed

Wilson Center, Washington, DC

Communications Assistant, Africa Program | January 2016–June 2017

• Managed 18 policy briefs, research papers, and reports from initial proposal to final publication, extensively content- and copy-editing, in some cases selecting authors and making editorial decisions, and designing in Adobe InDesign
• Edited program blog Africa Up Close, soliciting submissions, editing, and managing posting process for more than 50 blog posts
• Fielded program media requests, drafted press releases, and pitched reporters for print, radio, and television interviews for staff and scholars, including interviews with CCTV-America, Voice of America radio, Foreign Policy, and Newsweek
• Drafted, proofed, and sent newsletters to 8,500 subscribers, reported on analytics, and adapted new templates when needed
• Administered program Twitter and Facebook accounts, grew Twitter following from 1,350 to more than 4,000, designed social shareables, and ran targeted social media ad campaigns

Communications Intern | August 2015–December 2015

• Assisted in editing and designing program’s research briefs, policy papers, and reports in Adobe InDesign
• Worked on program blog Africa Up Close, editing and laying out 23 posts, selecting photos, and assisting with redesign
• Ran program Twitter and Facebook accounts, substantially growing followers and increasing engagement with program work

Political Science Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Research Assistant to Professor Richard Joseph | June 2014–June 2015

• Researched issues of governance, democracy, and development across Africa, with focus on Nigeria
• Researched and monitored media around timely events like the Boko Haram insurgency and the 2015 Nigerian election and its aftermath
• Content and copy edited articles published by the Journal of Democracy, the World Bank, and AfricaPlus
• Collaborated with other research assistant to turn 40 years of professor’s work on Nigeria into an edited volume
• Built database of Nigerian presidential and gubernatorial electoral results and analyzed voting patterns

Byliner, San Francisco, CA

Media Intern | June–September 2012, June–July 2013

• Processed and edited images for website and mobile apps of start-up digital publisher of long-form journalism and fiction
• Managed author photographs for top-tier signed authors like Amy Tan and Margaret Atwood and worked independently to determine rights status of available images of unsigned authors

Bevan Dufty for Mayor of San Francisco Campaign, San Francisco, CA

Assistant Communications and Social Media Coordinator | June–July 2011

• Drafted copy and coded HTML fundraising emails with graphics and photos to facilitate fundraising campaigns that raised over $1,000,000 for the candidate
• Assisted Communications Director in writing content for campaign Facebook and Twitter and for press releases

Education

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science | June 2015

• Honors: Deans List, Alice Kaplan Humanities Scholar, National Merit Scholar
• Study abroad: University of Ghana, Legon, Fall 2013

Lowell High School, San Francisco, California
Class of 2011

Campus

North by Northwestern Magazine
Photo Director | April–December 2014 (Fall 2014 issue here)

• Collaborated daily over 8-week production cycles with Creative Director and Managing Editor to set overall creative tone of award-winning independent 60-page campus magazine
• Recruited and managed staff of 9 photographers and concepted, assigned, and edited photos and photo illustrations for all magazine stories

Skills & Tools

Skills: Media relations, communications strategy, project management, editing, email marketing, communications analytics, page design, data visualization

Tools: Marketing automation platforms like Pardot and Marketo. HTML/CSS/some limited JavaScript. Meltwater, and other media databases and monitoring tools. Drupal, Wordpress and other web content management systems. R (mostly data wrangling and visualization). Salesforce, Insightly, and other CRMs. InDesign, Photoshop, and basic familiarity with the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Google Apps Suite.