Melissa Shipley

This was a national campaign launch from home. This is Communications Next. Western’s new Chief Communication Officer tasked me with leading the university's Digital First initiative, including our first national brand-awareness advertising campaign, deployed through social, web, video and print to the world stage reaching more than 8-million members of our targeted audiences (2021).

We wrote a new chapter. We spent months with twelve amazing scholars and researchers, each working in… Show more

This was a national campaign launch from home. This is Communications Next. Western’s new Chief Communication Officer tasked me with leading the university's Digital First initiative, including our first national brand-awareness advertising campaign, deployed through social, web, video and print to the world stage reaching more than 8-million members of our targeted audiences (2021).

We wrote a new chapter. We spent months with twelve amazing scholars and researchers, each working in the name of a safer, more equitable future. I spent months working with incredibly creative, resilient and strategic communicators. We splashed across the national stage - their words, code, design and imaginations hitting feeds, screens and newsstands.

Researchers across our campus see a different world ahead of us, post-pandemic. As communicators and storytellers, we stood right beside them to say we are here to do our own work differently, tell their stories differently, wield our tools differently - with ambition, and a renewed understanding of our responsibilities.

As a team, I believe we are proud and at peace with the work that we put out into the world. We navigated many, many things to get to a finish line on this one and had a lot to say by the time we were done. Not directly related, more than half of the core project and creative team are no longer with the university, myself included. I am intensely grateful for the chance to have worked so closely with such a talented, creative, patient, resilient and professional cohort of colleagues before ending my Western chapter. Show less

Convocation is one of the most significant milestones in the life of a graduate, often generations in the making. It is heavily tied to the in-person traditions of wearing the gown, walking across the stage, shaking a presidential hand and physically receiving the degree. At Western, it also means welcoming your supporters to campus, taking photos on UC Hill, and final celebratory moments with the professors and classmates that were part of your education.

In the midst of navigating… Show more

Convocation is one of the most significant milestones in the life of a graduate, often generations in the making. It is heavily tied to the in-person traditions of wearing the gown, walking across the stage, shaking a presidential hand and physically receiving the degree. At Western, it also means welcoming your supporters to campus, taking photos on UC Hill, and final celebratory moments with the professors and classmates that were part of your education.

In the midst of navigating daily COVID-19 communications updates, and helping each unit of the university pivot to virtual operations, I was tasked with bringing campus-wide stakeholders together to deliver an online convocation experience. I interviewed our graduating students and learned what their graduation day meant to them – what would be important to translate to a virtual convocation. I brought the four corners of Western’s Communications Department together to build a new hub for graduating students that would host their virtual experience, tell their stories and ensure they had all the information they needed to navigate a convocation completely unlike what they were expecting. We offered graduates a virtual photobooth that let them take their longed-for grad day photo on UC Hill. They found digital assets that could be printed and used to create an at-home graduation, or shared on social media to celebrate with loved ones in a time of no gathering.

On graduation day, our new alumni and their families tuned in and saw iconic tower of University College at sunset. To the sound of the Western Mustang Band, they saw their pictures and messages projected onto the tower. The most common request from Western students, other than free parking, is to climb the steps of University College and view the campus from its tower. It was the most attended convocation in the university's history and continues to be the communications template for this annual moment at Western. Show less

In the early morning of January 8, 2020, Western University was informed that four of our graduate students were among those who died when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down shortly after takeoff in Iran. As information was being quickly shared across international media outlets and through social media, we knew we needed to move fast, but also with sensitivity and accuracy, as we communicated about this terrible tragedy.

This was one of the saddest times in our… Show more

In the early morning of January 8, 2020, Western University was informed that four of our graduate students were among those who died when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down shortly after takeoff in Iran. As information was being quickly shared across international media outlets and through social media, we knew we needed to move fast, but also with sensitivity and accuracy, as we communicated about this terrible tragedy.

This was one of the saddest times in our University’s 142-year history. We approached this crisis with a focus on four core audiences who needed timely information as well as access to supports. These audiences included: the families of our four graduate students; the friends and close colleagues of the victims; the broader Iranian student community at Western and within London, Ontario; and our entire campus community of students, faculty, and staff.

From issuing our initial statement, then holding an emotional and uniting campus memorial service, appropriately honouring the lives of Hadis Hayatdavoudi, Milad Nahavandi, Ghazal Nourian, and Sajedeh Saraeian was fundamental to everything we did. We accomplished this through telling the stories of four exceptionally talented students whose lives were cut short due to this horrible tragedy – and shining a light on the impact they made at Western.

Our care and efforts continued through an extended mourning period, as is the cultural custom for many of those who lost close loved ones to this incident.

One year later on January 8, 2021, we gathered with our community members to reflect and remember our losses. While navigating restrictions on in-person gatherings and keeping community safety as a priority, we met many of the extended community of mourners online through an anniversary landing page and social media effort that was delivered in both English and Farsi. Show less

The Stratford Festival's in-house lead on an annual special edition of Postmedia's Stratford Beacon-Herald. From pitching to print to distribution throughout the entire Postmedia network of papers and sites, this required close collaboration with the paper’s managing editor, writers and the creative composer. Each year, the scope of work included scheduling and supporting interviews with two dozen or more directors, designers, actors, adaptors and playwrights for an edition of twelve to fifteen… Show more

The Stratford Festival's in-house lead on an annual special edition of Postmedia's Stratford Beacon-Herald. From pitching to print to distribution throughout the entire Postmedia network of papers and sites, this required close collaboration with the paper’s managing editor, writers and the creative composer. Each year, the scope of work included scheduling and supporting interviews with two dozen or more directors, designers, actors, adaptors and playwrights for an edition of twelve to fifteen stories. Show less

In 2022, I hosted ByBlacks Magazine for an exclusive behind-the-scenes opening night experience at the Stratford Festival. Later that season, I was proud to support and coordinate the nominations of Stratford Festival artists through the ByBlacks People’s Choice Awards, including wins in both the Actor and Stage Director categories.

In 2023, we further partnered with ByBlacks lead entertainment writer, Ann Marie Collymore, to host a media event for Black Women in the Arts & Arts Media… Show more

In 2022, I hosted ByBlacks Magazine for an exclusive behind-the-scenes opening night experience at the Stratford Festival. Later that season, I was proud to support and coordinate the nominations of Stratford Festival artists through the ByBlacks People’s Choice Awards, including wins in both the Actor and Stage Director categories.

In 2023, we further partnered with ByBlacks lead entertainment writer, Ann Marie Collymore, to host a media event for Black Women in the Arts & Arts Media. We welcomed Ann Marie proudly as our host, and a dozen of her colleagues from across the CBC, CTV, Refinery29 and the Black Business & Professional Association for lunch with several of our Black female-identifying artists and the red carpet opening of Alice Childress' Wedding Band. Show less

We were excited to pitch and land a Toronto Star feature featuring Wahsontí:io Kirby, a Stratford Festival conservatory actor and company member who translated and performed from Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well in Kanien'kéha (Mohawk) on a Festival stage. Kirby's translation work was in addition to their role as Evelyne Rice in 1939, a new play that explores the resilience of Indigenous children at a fictional residential school in northern Ontario.

For this play, I worked with… Show more

We were excited to pitch and land a Toronto Star feature featuring Wahsontí:io Kirby, a Stratford Festival conservatory actor and company member who translated and performed from Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well in Kanien'kéha (Mohawk) on a Festival stage. Kirby's translation work was in addition to their role as Evelyne Rice in 1939, a new play that explores the resilience of Indigenous children at a fictional residential school in northern Ontario.

For this play, I worked with the artists to ensure that covering media had the cultural context and resources that would enable them to approach the art with understanding. In particular, it was important to the artists that the piece be presented to media as a celebration of resilience, joy and self. Supporting 1939 also meant crafting an opening media list with the creators that included Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives and outlets. Radio stations operated within First Nations communities across southwestern Ontario were a priority. We also explored our traditions and "how we’ve always done things" with the playwrights and director, considering whether or not the play would be open for review and whether to have a red carpet. Show less