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Austen Riggs Center

Website Overhaul

Background: The Austen Riggs Center is among the nation’s oldest and most renowned psychiatric hospitals. It is recognized for its psychoanalytic approach to treatment as well as for significant contributions to research, education, and advocacy in mental health care. Unfortunately, due to a prolonged period of turnover in senior positions at the Center, many of the key means for communicating Riggs’ contributions were neglected. Chief among them was the website, which did not receive any major technical improvements for nearly a decade. 

Upon assuming the director of communications position in 2019, one of the most immediate initiatives I undertook was to initiate the process for completely updating the site, both in terms of the CMS and the content. The first year of the project entailed building internal consensus for the approach, securing budget, and conducting a search for a vendor to partner with on the build. Work began in late 2020, with the site successfully launching in January 2022.

My roles in this project: Organized and conducted meetings with stakeholders ranging from the Board of Trustees and senior leadership team to clinicians, administrative staff, and former patients; drafted the project RFP and oversaw the national search for a web firm; managed the development of copy and contracted with vendors to produce still images and video content; stewarded the review and approval process through multiple iterations to the final product.