Assistant Director of Communications
Michaela Dwyer joined FHI in September 2022 as Assistant Director of Communications — the Institute's first primarily dedicated Communications role. At FHI, Michaela manages and produces all internal and external editorial processes across various FHI platforms: from the large-scale and long-term (migrations and content and infrastructural maintenance of the FHI website) to the formal (FHI annual reports) to the regular output FHI audiences encounter across newsletters, social media, blog posts, op-eds, press releases, feature stories, Q&As, and news stories featured within and beyond Duke. Michaela is most interested in building sustainable communications practices that approach questions around "audience" intentionally, use analytics mindfully, and rely on cross-departmental collaboration for creative exchange.
Michaela comes to this role from many years working in impact-building communications and programming work at the intersection of the arts, humanities, and education. Most recently, in two other capacities within Duke University, they worked with the Master of Fine Arts in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis, where they advised and supported graduate students, coordinated co-curricular dance programming, and worked toward building a debt-free graduate program, and prior to that for three years between Duke Performances and the Duke Arts, where they devised artist-in-residence programs in collaboration with artists, public educators, arts and culture workers, and university students, staff, and faculty. Michaela also works as an independent writer and editor, reporting on dance and other art forms for Indy Week and other publications.