Office of Communications

Justin leads the product innovation and communications technology efforts at Yale School of Medicine, focusing on integrating cutting-edge AI solutions into core business processes, product development, and automation. He directs the teams responsible for ideating, designing, managing, and supporting the systems and infrastructure that power the school’s academic and clinical websites (medicine.yale.edu and YaleMedicine.org), while aligning the school’s various communication mediums—web, print, digital, and social—to streamline tools, reduce time to market, and boost operational efficiency. Under Justin’s leadership, AI-driven products and automation have increased operational efficiency by over 100% and reduced time-to-market across communication platforms. His work has resulted in the creation of several enterprise-level products, including AI-first solutions, that have transformed business operations and optimized communication strategies. He has spearheaded AI integration since 2018, leveraging predictive models, natural language processing, and generative AI to support new produce development. Justin oversees offshore developers, vendor relationships, budget management, and resource allocation, ensuring technology initiatives are aligned with the school’s strategic goals and growth. His cross-functional leadership brings together teams from design, engineering, and product strategy, aligning the efforts of leaders across the institution to achieve high-impact outcomes. Since joining the Office of Communications as a founding member of its web group in 2006, Justin has been instrumental in shaping the school’s long-term digital transformation. He led the development of the school’s first standardized web templates and now manages the fifth iteration (T5), which transitions the school to an audience-centric communications model, enhancing user engagement and effectiveness. Justin also spearheaded the purchase and implementation of the school’s first content management system (SDL Tridion) and oversaw the creation of Beatrix, an enterprise-grade dynamic content platform supporting over 32,000 profiles and 100,000 calendar events and news articles. Beatrix also enables faculty to import and generate standardized CVs, easing academic challenges and enhancing reporting. Additionally, he introduced standardized digital signage across the school’s campus. Residing in Seattle with his partners Rudy and Randy, and their child Felix, Justin is passionate about CrossFit, home renovation, traveling to visit family in Australia, and exploring new technologies to continue driving innovation in his field. Revised September 2024

Sara joined Yale School of Medicine in March of 2023 as senior director, executive and internal communications. In addition to providing executive communication support to the leadership team, she is responsible for amplifying YSM’s strategic goals and priorities and informing and inspiring the medical school community. Prior to joining Yale, Sara worked for more than 20 years in the healthcare and financial services industries, holding a variety of communication roles at a Connecticut-based health system and multiple Fortune 200 and Fortune 500 companies. Throughout her career, she has led comprehensive communication strategies that have driven measurable results in connecting employees to organizational cultures, brands and business goals. Sara holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a master’s degree in corporate communication from DePaul University.

Lena is the Senior Program Leader & Relationship Manager for YSM Communications. She started out as a Internet Specialist in communications for Yale Medicine in 2004, and in 2006 was promoted to have purview over the web for all of YSM. Within months she created the first iteration of the brain trust dedicated to the mission of a "world-class" web presence for YSM, which has now grown to a full web team. The group is dedicated to these goals: Beautiful, useful, consistently branded websites that as a unit speak to the excellence of YSM All faculty and organizations being able to promote their important work, regardless of whether or not they have resources Ease of accessibility for users and web editors Excellent communication with clients and administration Efficient use of accurate data across websites In 2016, Lena was promoted to be the Operations Director for the Yale School of Medicine Office of Communications, and in 2021 again to Senior Program Leader & Relationship Manager for YSM Communications.

Nicole Wise, Senior Director of Content Strategy & Development for the Yale School of Medicine, and Chief Communications Officer for Yale Medicine, its clinical faculty practice, is responsible for establishing content strategy and standards across all digital and print properties for the organization. She leads four teams – editorial, multimedia, marketing and reputation and audience development (comprising media relations, social media and content partnerships), focused on three strategic goals: elevating reputation, supporting revenue generation, and metrics-driven leadership in academic medical communications. Nicole joined Yale as Executive Editor, Yale Medicine, in 2016, initially focused on building and executing a content marketing strategy to support the new Yale Medicine brand. The vision was to develop a health and medicine site that provides patient education primers on the full range of treatments and services offered by Yale Medicine clinicians, while also engaging readers in conversational features and videos on trending topics in health – all utilizing YSM experts as sources. The Yale Medicine site currently has monthly traffic of approximately 3 million, regularly achieving top search positions for competitive health topics. In the works at present is an audience-based content strategy to engage a wide range of stakeholders (scientists, students, media, donors, etc.) in the exciting scientific discoveries taking place at YSM. AI is playing an ever more vital role in building out content across Yale School of Medicine and its digital (and print) properties – including for ideation, audience development, scaling production and search engine optimization. Nicole has been a journalist and author, a healthcare marketer and an entrepreneur, with a consultancy focused on producing content for healthcare providers around the U.S. She lives in New Haven.