Media Relations
This office handles media relations on university-wide issues and stories and also represents central administration and the schools based at the Homewood campus, promoting the work of the university, its faculty, staff and students. The office consists of a director and three senior media relations representatives, all of whom are assigned to "beats" roughly analogous to a newspaper reporter‘s beat. The executive director of communications and public affairs also is involved in some media relations activities, particularly where institutional issues are involved.
With the explosion of non-traditional media and the decline in audiences for traditional mainstream media, Media Relations also is responsible for disseminating news about Johns Hopkins and its people through non-traditional means, including the web, e-newsletters, video, podcasts and other electronic and social media. The office partners with Communications' marketing group, and seeks to emphasize news about Johns Hopkins that tells the "brand story" that emerges from the current brand discovery process. Media Relations provides crisis communications counseling and support to the university leadership and often will become involved in crisis communications on issues around the university.
Staff
| Dennis O’Shea is executive director of media relations and crisis communications. He has been at Johns Hopkins since 1990, starting as director of news and information and becoming director and then executive director of communications and public affairs. Dennis joined Johns Hopkins after nine years as a reporter, editor and manager with United Press International. Previously, he was sports information director at Bucknell University. He graduated from Williams College in 1977 and earned an M.S. in journalism in 1981 from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. 443-287-9900 / dro@jhu.edu |
| Tracey A. Reeves is director of media relations. She came to Johns Hopkins from The Washington Post where she worked for more than a decade as a staff writer and chief of the Anne Arundel and Prince George‘s county bureaus before being named assistant Maryland editor in 2007. Tracey has been a Casey Journalism Center Fellow and a Knight Center for Specialized Journalism Fellow. As a Knight-Ridder reporter, she covered the U.S. Congress and shared in the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service awarded to the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald. She holds a bachelor‘s degree in mass communication from Illinois State University. 443-287-9900 / treeves@jhu.edu |
| Amy Lunday is a senior media relations representative. She joined the media relations staff in November 2001, after five years writing for community newspapers (first as a reporter at the daily paper in her hometown in Western New York and most recently at a weekly paper in Baltimore County). Amy‘s beat as a senior media relations representative includes arts, humanities, student life, social sciences and education research. She holds a bachelor‘s degree in English from Nazareth College of Rochester and received an MLA from Johns Hopkins in May 2008. 443-287-9900 / amylunday@jhu.edu |
| Phil Sneiderman is a senior media relations representative. He joined the media relations in 1996. He covers the Whiting School of Engineering, writing about faculty and student research and other news. Previously, he spent nearly two decades as a magazine editor and newspaper reporter in Chicago and Southern California, including a five-year stint as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. Phil earned a bachelor‘s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a master‘s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins. 443-287-9900 / prs@jhu.edu |
