In my current role, I'm responsible for developing and executing the digital components of AACP's strategic communications plan. A strong portion of my work involves helping draft and execute communication plans and strategies on behalf of our “internal clients,” promoting their programs, meetings and ultimately stories, all with a bend toward proving pharmacists’ ability to help communities live healthier lives.

As the sole proprietor of our social channels, this means I’m ultimately responsible for cultivating and maintaining the voice for our organization to appeal to our target audiences.

For reference, our pages at “@AACPharmacy” across all major social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Prior to my working at AACP, however, these social channels were placeholders only. I’ve since expanded our reach across new channels and have grown our following by developing and executing the association’s first strategic social media plan, aligned with our company brand and goals. In calendar year 2020, I helped our social channels grow by an average of 26%, and since the plan’s implementation in 2016, have grown our following at a clip of about 140%.

Recent Social Media Highlights:

In addition to my work within AACP, I was the sole generator of organic content for “Pharmacists for Healthier Lives,” a multi-organizational awareness campaign run by AACP and a third-party PR agency, to promote the role of the pharmacist. This work is largely contained to Facebook, but expanded to Twitter in 2020.

Further, my responsibilities include developing print and basic video content aligned toward our ultimate goals of promoting academic pharmacy and the pharmacy profession; compiling our bi-weekly newsletter for our membership; writing marketing copy to promote our meetings and programming; monitoring news to ensure we're staying relevant; tracking e-mail, website and social media metrics in order to better tailor future output; and more.

For the culminating project of my master’s program, I developed a communications plan to build, at low-cost, a coalition of grassroots advocates the association could organize and call upon to help them move the needle on certain issues.

Redacted sections included internal or sensitive information.

For a reputation management course within my master’s program, I diagnosed and developed steps to counteract reputation issues plaguing D.C.’s metro system (WMATA). This included suggested changes to internal communication processes to ensure better ultimate outcomes.

As part of an extra credit assignment for my PR Writing course, I successfully pitched a letter to the editor to The Washington Post. The text (slightly edited by the Post from the original submission) is recreated below.

Opinion: Major League Baseball should put its money where its mouth is

May 5, 2017 at 5:43 p.m. EDT

The May 3 Sports article "Fight shouldn't be Jones's alone" asserted that the racial taunts aimed at Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones require more than hand-wringing. As a longtime sports fan and onetime athlete, I agree but submit that this doesn't take it far enough. Major League Baseball held a conference call with the Red Sox and Orioles to say "enough is enough" but gave no specifics toward discipline. This is weak; a backroom slap on the wrist won't grow a grass-roots movement, particularly in a sport where players wax poetic about "unwritten rules."

If MLB wants to put its money where its mouth is, it can take a page from the Union of European Football Associations’ book, in European soccer, and start handing out bans to entire stadiums on game days. Maybe then fans could use the silence to contemplate the gravity of their words and actions.

Kyle Bagin, Arlington

For a PR Writing course at Georgetown, we had to argue for multiple sides of an issue in competing op-eds. The exercise involved using the same opening and format, to argue another side of the issue.

How Switching to Daylight Saving Time Is Killing You

This past Sunday, Americans woke up and set their clocks forward one hour. In doing so, they unknowingly increased their chances of heart attack, depression, dying in a car crash, higher electrical bills and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity. To defend against these unseen consequences, Congress must establish a year-round, unchanging standard for U.S. time.

Despite popular belief, the financial cost of setting our clocks forward is actually greater than any savings in electrical use. In fact, the effect is opposite of its intent. On the Monday after switching to Daylight Saving Time, America’s lost hour of sleep costs them $434 million annually, as a 20% decrease in productivity accumulates a deficit not recovered during the “fall back” to Standard Time. Indiana found, after adopting Daylight Saving Time in 2006, that while its citizens did use less residential lighting during this period, they ended up using 1% more electricity overall (with monthly increases as high as 4%), as their demands for heating and air conditioning increased to acclimate to the temperatures during their new waking hours. This fell in line with findings by the Australian government in 2000, when, for the Olympic Games in Sydney, they increased Daylight Saving Time by two months, only to find later, it didn’t reduce demand for electricity. Further, a recent study using decades of U.S. mining data found that not only do workers sustain a greater frequency of injuries the Monday following the switch to Daylight Saving Time, but they suffer more severe injuries. The severity of an injury is measured in days of work lost—which grew 67% from injuries occurring on that one Monday alone.

Aside from the financial burden, the sudden shift in sleep patterns due to changing time places a burden on our physical health. The human circadian clock is primed to adjust gradually, “in response to the changing length and intensity of sunlight,” and the sudden shift between Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time can have jarring effects. The risk of having a heart attack can increase 25% the Monday following the shift to Daylight Saving Time, which experts say is “compounded by one less hour of sleep.” By the Tuesday following the shift to Daylight Saving Time, the American Academy of Neurology finds an 8% higher risk of stroke overall, a 20% higher risk for those over 65, and 25% for those with cancer. And the resulting loss of sleep from shifting times has a physical affect for us on the roads, as well, as drivers are involved in 8% more traffic accidents, with a 17% increase in traffic fatalities on the Monday after the switch.

And no matter the direction the shift in time goes, the disruption of sleep patterns is detrimental to mental health as well. In the weeks after the start of Daylight Saving Time, suicide rates rise. This suggests that, despite increased sunlight and the science behind Vitamin D’s role in emotional health, “small changes in chronobiological rhythms are potentially destabilizing in vulnerable individuals.” At the other end, when clocks are set back to Standard Time in the fall, and observers gain an hour of sleep, the shift is followed by an 11% increase in the number of depression diagnoses—an increase that lasts an astonishing 20 weeks before leveling off. Unfortunately, this isn’t followed by a decrease during the switch to Daylight Saving Time—meaning the specific switch to Standard Time during the fall is the culprit.

It is time to Congress to stop the practice of switching timeframes, simply in the name of tradition and unpursued ideas. Whether they continue Daylight Saving Time throughout the year, or switch to another system, the effects of jumping from one to the other is having real consequences. Citizens should phone their representatives and advocate for a standard, year-round timeframe. Their financial, physical and mental well-being depends on it.

Set Your Clock, and America, Forward

This past Sunday, Americans woke up and set their clocks forward one hour in observance of Daylight Saving Time. Despite temporarily entering this safer, health-promoting, economy-boosting, and crime-reducing time zone, they did so with plans to abandon it in the fall. Congress should make this switch permanent and legislate year-round Daylight Saving Time.

Adding an hour of daylight to every evening saves lives. Year-round Daylight Saving Time would save 350 American lives annually, as Standard Time’s darkened evening commutes are associated with a 300% increase in fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents. More travelers take to the road during the nighttime rush hour, producing about twice as many accidents as morning commutes regardless of time zone. As such, the steep increase in fatalities suffered during the Standard Time evening rush far outpaces the reduction of those in the morning. And further, the disruption in sleep cycles from changing times contributes to increases in accidents at both ends: in switching to Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time. Aside from saving lives through preventing accidents, Daylight Saving’s extra light-hour does so through promoting health: a study of 23,000 children from nine countries found a definitive increase in their exercise on days with later sunsets, even when controlled for weather or time in school. As for adults, researchers found that during 2007, the Daylight Saving period yielded an additional three percent of Americans who engaged in outdoor recreation, that otherwise would have stayed indoors. Further, the lost sleep from switching time zones causes a whole host of health issues: On the Monday following the shift to DST, the risk of heart attack can increase 25%, the risk of stroke 8%, and there’s a major increase in the frequency and severity of workplace injuries. 

Crime thrives in darkness, and adding an additional hour of evening daylight would reduce crime across the board. Researchers have found robbery rates fall 27% during the extra sunlit evening hour, and 7% for the entire day, at the start of Daylight Saving Time in the spring. And while robbery, assault, car theft and other types of common crime peak between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.—when the sun is setting and potential victims are less able to identify attackers—they remain steadily lower during morning hours, despite time setting. Steve Calandriollo, law professor at the University of Washington, summarizes that a permanent switch to Daylight Saving Time would “remove an hour from the criminal workday,” reducing crime and its ripple effects. Crimes carry a cost beyond their initial tear in the societal fabric, from direct costs like medical fees to legal services to indirect costs like pain and suffering. Research from the Brookings Institution and Cornell University finds that at an estimated social cost of $42,000 per robbery, and $240,000 per rape, a three-week extension of Daylight Saving Time in 2007 saved the U.S. $246 million, simply from crimes reduced by added daylight. This would equal at least four billion in “social savings” each year.

And that’s not the only monetary benefit to Daylight Saving Time: adding an hour of daylight every evening both saves energy and boosts the economy. Looking at both residential and commercial energy use, the U.S. Department of Energy found a four-week extension could save 0.5% of electricity per day for the entire country. At these numbers, that’s enough energy to power 100,000 households for a year. Permanently switching to Daylight Saving Time can yield further savings of $434 million annually in lost productivity—the estimated cost due to sleep cycles disrupted by the switch from Standard to Daylight Saving. Utah State University Economist William F. Shughart II estimates that the simple physical action taken by every American to change their clocks twice a year can cost the country $1.7 billion annually in opportunity cost—a ten minutes that could be spent more productively elsewhere. Savings aside, year-round Daylight Saving Time can provide a sales boost to certain industries: In lobbying Congress to extend Daylight Saving Time, the grilling and charcoal industries cite an extra $200 million in sales from an extra month of Daylight Saving Time; the golf industry, an additional $400 million per month; and convenience stores, where Americans buy 80% of their gas, $1 billion for the extra month.

It’s time for Congress to stop the practice of switching timeframes, simply in the name of tradition. Daylight Saving Time can save American lives, money, time, and anguish. Citizens should phone their representatives and advocate for year-round Daylight Saving Time. Their physical and financial well-beings depend on it.

As part of a continuing assignment, I was to adapt previously written op-eds on Daylight Saving Time into a speech. The setting was meant to be as if the Acting NIST Director to House Committee on Energy and Commerce had been addressing our PR Writing Class.

Set Your Clock, and America, Forward

An Argument for Year-Round Daylight Saving Time

Introduction

Thank you, Chairman Greg Walden, Vice Chairman Joe Barton and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, for inviting me to speak today.

And thank you, Professor Long, for taking time out of today’s class to allow us to meet—I recognize it’s unorthodox for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce meet in a Georgetown classroom.

With that said, when I took this class 20 years ago, I always appreciated anything that would take up time from going over the homework—I consistently had trouble with the rapport section of speech introductions, so hopefully this will save anyone from getting shamed publicly.

But, the reason I’m here is to prove to you how the U.S. would be much happier, healthier and financially sound if it were to adopt year-round Daylight Saving Time.

To do so, first, I’ll discuss how the current system and Standard Time is killing you.

Second, I’ll discuss how Standard Time is stealing your car.

And third, I’ll discuss how Standard Time is stealing your wallet.

Saving Lives

So, first: Standard Time is killing you.

Whether you switch your clocks forward or backward, there’s a major disruption in the national sleep cycle that occurs as a result. This disruption, every time we switch our clocks, causes an increase in car accidents, regardless of time frame. 

But this goes beyond simple fender benders. Specifically in the switch to Standard Time, when your evening commute goes dark, Americans suffer a 300% increase in fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents.

This is because, throughout the year, there are consistently more travelers on the road during the nighttime rush hour, as citizens are running errands, socializing, going to night school, or doing anything other than simply commuting.

All of these extra travelers, however, means that, across the board, accidents generally double at night compared to the morning.

Knowing these two facts—that accidents double during the evening commute, and increase greatly when that commute is darkened by Standard Time—if we were, year-round, to shift the extra hour of daylight afforded by Daylight Saving Time toward the evening, we can save up to 350 American lives annually.

And that’s not all regarding health—permanent Daylight Saving would save lives through healthy living as well.

A study of 23,000 children from nine countries, found a definitive increase in their exercise on days with later sunsets, even when controlled for weather or time in school.

As for adults, DST yields an additional 3 percent of citizens engaged in outdoor recreation, who otherwise would have stayed indoors for the same period.

Like with car accidents, the initial act of switching the clocks has major detrimental health effects, no matter which direction the clock moves.

On just the Monday following the switch to DST, the disruption to your sleep cycle increases your risk of heart attack by 25%, your risk of stroke by 8% if you’re healthy, and by 20% if you’re over 65.

Annually, workplace accidents spike in frequency and severity on that Monday, and in the weeks following the start of Daylight Saving Time, suicide rates rise.

Researchers believe this suggests that despite increased sunlight and the science behind Vitamin D’s role in emotional health, “small changes in chronobiological rhythms are potentially destabilizing in vulnerable individuals.”

That is to say, that even small changes to sleep patterns can throw people for a loop. And we’ve needlessly built such changes into the system.

And unfortunately, things doesn’t get any better in the fall.

When clocks are set back to Standard Time, and everyone gains an hour of sleep, the shift is actually followed by an 11% increase in the number of depression diagnoses, not decrease—an increase that lasts an astonishing 20 weeks before leveling off.

So, year-round Daylight Saving Time can save lives.

Reducing Crime

Second, Standard Time is stealing your car.

There’s a reason Batman works at night—crime thrives in darkness. And adding an additional hour of evening daylight can reduce crime across the board.

Researchers have found that in the spring, at the start of Daylight Saving Time, robbery rates fall 27% during the extra sunlit evening hour, and 7% across the entire day.

Robbery, assault, car theft, and other types of common crime usually peak between 5 and 8 p.m.—when the sun is setting and potential victims are less able to identify attackers.

However, despite the time of year, these crimes remain consistently low during morning hours.

Steve Calandriollo, law professor at the University of Washington, summarizes that a permanent switch to Daylight Saving Time would “remove an hour from the criminal workday,” and serve to reduce crime and its costly ripple effects.

Crimes carry a cost beyond just their initial tear in the societal fabric, from direct costs like medical fees and legal services, to indirect costs like pain and suffering.

Research from the Brookings Institution and Cornell University finds that, using an estimated social cost of $42,000 per robbery, and $240,000 per rape, a three-week extension of Daylight Saving Time in 2007 saved the U.S. $246 million.

If Daylight Saving were to be extended year-round, this would yield at least four billion dollars in “social savings” every year.

Year-round Daylight Saving Time keeps your car where you left it.

Economic Effects of DST

Finally, Standard Time is stealing your wallet.

Reducing the cost of crime isn’t the only monetary benefit to Daylight Saving Time—adding an hour of daylight every evening both saves energy and boosts the economy.

Looking at both residential and commercial energy use, the U.S. Department of Energy found a four-week extension could save 0.5% of electricity per day, for the entire country.

That’s enough energy to power 100,000 households for an entire year.

And the current system is costing us—On the Monday after “springing forward,” America’s lost hour of sleep costs us $434 million annually.

This is because, for every hour of sleep lost, researchers find a 20% decrease in productivity.

In America’s case, this accumulates a deficit we don’t recover with the extra hour of sleep in the fall. Do you think you’re suddenly 20% more productive with that extra hour?

And how do you like this? Utah State University Economist William F. Shughart II found that the simple physical action of every American changing their clocks twice a year, can cost the country $1.7 billion annually in opportunity cost—

$1.7 billion!

—for a collective ten minutes that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

With that money, you could buy 25 NBA franchises, or even personally finance the rest of the planned Star Wars movies—and still have half your fortune leftover.

It’s not just about savings though, as year-round Daylight Saving Time can provide a sales boost to certain industries as well.

In lobbying Congress to extend Daylight Saving Time, the grilling and charcoal industries cite an extra $200 million in sales from just an extra month of Daylight Saving Time.

The golf industry? Says that DST provides them an additional $400 million per month.

And convenience stores, where Americans buy 80% of their gas, say DST yields an additional $1 billion in sales for the extra month.

Between opportunity costs, industry boosts, the cost of crime, shifting to year-round Daylight Saving could free up roughly $7.73 billion.

So, depending on your preference, with this extra money in the economy, you could send almost two-Verizon Center’s-worth of people to space, via flights from Virgin Galactic, or buy every remaining NBA team from your opportunity cost money, except the Knicks or Lakers.

But really, the way they’re playing these days, you might be saving yourself a headache.

Daylight Saving Time keeps your wallet in your pocket—and fills it.

Closing

In conclusion, it’s time for Congress to stop the practice of switching the clocks, simply in the name of tradition.

Maintaining Daylight Saving Time year-round can save American lives, health, money, time, and anguish.

I recommend the members of this committee take into serious consideration the ample benefits to such a simple change. Not only are we stuck in a bad system, we’re hurting ourselves by needlessly bending over backwards to accommodate it.

And students, I recommend you phone your representatives, some of whom may even be in this room. Let them know you advocate for year-round Daylight Savings Time.

Your physical and financial well-beings depend on it.

Thank you.

Works Cited

American Academy of Neurology. (2016, February 29). Does Daylight Saving Time Increase Risk of Stroke? Retrieved from American Academy of Neurology.

CBS New York. (2014, March 9). Daylight Saving Time Means More Traffic Accidents. CBS New York.

Coren, S. (1996). Daylight Saving Time and Traffic Accidents. The New England Journal of Medicine, 924-925.

David T. Wagner, C. M. (2014, March 6). The Economic Toll of Daylight Saving Time. The New York Times.

Golden, H. (2016, November 4). The science of why daylight saving time is bad for you. The Week.

Harris, S. (2014, March 6). Daylight Saving Time Takes a Toll on Health. The New York Times.

Matthew J. Kotchen, L. E. (2011). Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indiana. National Bureau of Economic Research. MIT Press.

Michael Berk, S. D. (2008). Small shifts in diurnal rhythms are associated with an increase in suicide: The effect of daylight saving. Sleep and Biology Rhythms.

Pierson, R. (2014, March 29). Daylight saving time linked to heart attacks: study. Reuters.

Rumore, K. (2016, November 5). Daylight Saving Time: 9 things to know. Chicago Tribune.

Schiavenza, M. (2015, March 8). Time to Kill Daylight Saving. The Atlantic.

Stromberg, J. (2015, March 6). It's time to make daylight saving time year-round. Vox.

Gerard, D. (2014, March 6). The Spring Time Change Saves Lives. The New York Times.

Calandrillo, S. (2014, March 6). Keep Daylight Saving Time Year-Round. The New York Times.

Mechanics

Speaker: Kent B. Rochford, Acting Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Date:  Tuesday, May 9

Event: Special Meeting of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce at Georgetown University.

Event Start Time: 5:20 p.m. ET

·        5:20-5:25: Roll Call

·        5:25-5:45: Review of Previous Minutes

·        5:45-6:00: Review of Agenda

Speech Start Time: 6:00 p.m. ET

Location: Georgetown University, School of Continuing Studies; 640 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001

Room: C227

Building Directions:  Proceed through front double doors to the reception desk. After checking in, take the elevator in front of you to the bottom floor. The classroom will be the farthest room in the right corner when you exit the elevator, across an atrium of neon furniture.

Nearest Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown, on the Yellow/Green lines.

Duration: 20 minutes for speech, 10 allotted for Q&A.

Audience: United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and roughly 20 Georgetown graduate students, aged 21-31, studying public relations/corporate communications. Representatives and students will be seated in cramped desks.

Acknowledgements: Professor Mike Long, Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Vice Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX), Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ)

Technology: Laptop and projector system provided. Internet-connected. No microphone.

Speech Delivered From: Small standing desk at the front of the classroom, high chair optional.

Content

Topic & 3 Subtopics: Implement year-round Daylight Saving Time (DST).

• DST saves lives.

• DST prevents crime.

• DST boosts the economy.

Takeaway: Create frustration as to the obvious benefits and unpursued easy change of year-round daylight saving time.

Three Main Ideas:

• Year-round DST saves lives by reducing fatal vehicle accidents, and promoting health.

• Year-round DST reduces crime and its resulting millions in social costs.

• Year-round DST boosts economic activity through increased outdoor industries, negating opportunity cost and energy use.