[ Portfolio ]
A cross-section of campaigns, strategy, and storytelling. Inside: social campaigns, video, audio clips, strategic plans, and presentations.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
My interest in data started at MICHR, tracking event participation, newsletter engagement, and social performance before it was even part of my role. Since then I've built formal reporting practices everywhere I've worked — monthly KPI reporting, analytics stacks built from scratch, and now Detroit PBS's data governance, reporting structure, and Digital KPI framework. Building the infrastructure is only half the job; the rest is turning that data into narratives that show impact to leadership, funders, and the communities we serve.
Detroit PBS · Data Governance & Reporting Framework
A leadership-level briefing distilling KPI ownership, reporting cadence, and the case for consistent data storytelling into a single executive-ready deck.
Detroit PBS · Data Governance & Reporting Framework
An SOP covering KPI definitions, ownership, pulling methodologies, and benchmarks, complete with a glossary, best practices, and the formulas behind every metric.
Detroit PBS · 2026 Mackinac Policy Conference
372,156 total views across broadcast, livestream, and VOD, reaching audiences in 42 states and 13 countries — my first year reporting on Detroit PBS's 16th consecutive year of coverage.
Detroit PBS · MPM Studios
Reporting 312,057 organic views across 111 videos in 12 months — including how one hyper-local hit drove 64% of all-time views, and why the baseline held after the spike.
Detroit PBS · YouTube Ads
Auditing $20,550 in YouTube ad spend across 72 campaigns revealed a structural blind spot — reach tools locked to views, not conversions — and built the case for redirecting Meta budget into a $6.97-per-subscriber playbook already proven on PBS Books content.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
This work goes back to my first job at the University of Michigan Credit Union — researching competitors, analyzing audiences, building personas, and mapping user journeys. I specialize in researching the needs of underserved communities, having studied 50+ specialized communities across 5 Michigan counties and populations in 4 countries abroad. I use that research to build organic and paid campaigns and shape SEO, GEO, and AIO strategy. Good strategy starts with knowing the audience.
WKAR · WKAR Is For You
Leading three interconnected digital properties through a federal funding crisis — collecting 30+ community testimonials, doubling YouTube subscriber growth, and authoring the 20+ page playbook that kept the campaign running through FMLA leave and past my own departure.
WKAR · Guest Lecture
A guest lecture for Shawn Turner's COM 480 class at Michigan State, laying out where public media digital strategy stands today and the open challenges I posed for students' upcoming consulting assignment.
WKAR · Social Media Transition Plan
A plan to unify 5 platforms and 15 handles into one purpose-built presence per platform — sharper targeting, cleaner data, one voice.
Center for Academic Innovation
A self-initiated market analysis for Michigan Online, built during the interview process without being asked for it — proof of how thoroughly I understood their products and audience, and well-received enough by senior leadership to help carry me to the final round.
Michigan Language Assessment · "Test MET: Reaching Brazil"
A market-entry brief built as part of my interview case study for MLA, covering demographics, influencer mapping, competitor research, and messaging for a Brazil launch — elements of which later shaped our actual South American market strategy once I was on the team.
Michigan Language Assessment · Florida Market Activation
Region-specific messaging and a full posting calendar split by audience and platform, built around a single Miami test-center promotion.
MICHR · University of Michigan
Survey-driven research into where community members actually go for news — the foundation for reaching audiences MICHR wasn't yet serving well.
Michigan Law · Digital Distribution Strategy
A multi-channel email and social campaign built to move alumni from reading the Impact Report to actually giving — part of a broader push to strengthen the culture of alumni giving.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
I write internal and external communications designed to create opportunity, awareness, connection, and conversion — tailoring internal comms for clarity, trust, and adoption, and external ones for attention and action. That includes executive communications for four Detroit PBS leaders, two e-newsletters I've launched and managed, grant materials, and copy across websites and every type of collateral, always centered on the reader.
Michigan Language Assessment · Executive Letters to Stakeholders
Annual letters on the company's progress, commitments, and roadmap — voiced for her, read by test centers, partners, and recognizing institutions worldwide.
MICHR & Michigan Language Assessment · Press Releases
Media announcements written and distributed for NIH-funded research initiatives and product & partnership launches, from a COVID-era community contest to international test-center partnerships.
MICHR · Community Solidarity Statement
A public letter to community partners on racial justice and MICHR's commitment to dismantling racism in research systems, written during 2020's dual pandemics.
WKAR · Michigan State University · On-air Talking Points
Radio talking points written for hosts to promote WKAR NewsTalk, streaming, and the NPR app across on-air reads.
WKAR · Michigan State University · Cast & Family Communications Guidelines
Clear do's and don'ts for cast families posting about WKAR productions — protecting kids, guests, and brand messaging alike.
Michigan Language Assessment · Recruiting Collateral
A one-pager built to help international-recruitment offices understand and adopt MET Digital.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
I built and managed a team of two in-house staff plus a contracted agency in Latin America at Michigan Language Assessment, then a social media specialist and 2–4 interns each semester at WKAR. Now at Detroit PBS I supervise our social media specialist, guide four digital specialists, and advise initiative leads on paid media and large-scale strategy — plus the less visible side of leadership: budgeting, workflow documentation, and serving as Teamwork superuser. To me, leadership is advocacy: empowering people and removing the barriers between good people and good work.
WKAR · Michigan State University
A full transition plan I wrote for my own parental leave — coverage assignments, a training plan for my direct report, and the digital priorities timeline that kept the department moving without me.
WKAR · Michigan State University
Reorganizing a sprawling production workbook into a single production checklist and platform guide, so any producer or student can ship a project without guesswork.
WKAR · Michigan State University
A 25-page living guide covering voice, KPIs, SEO, accessibility, and platform specs — the reference I built so digital strategy doesn't live only in my head.
WKAR · Michigan State University
Interns were too siloed, so I proposed a new month-long flow — brainstorm, train, create, review — that brings them together across departments instead of working in isolation.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
My multimedia work starts with social: designing graphics and GIFs, shooting photography, and leading digital-first video strategy for social and YouTube at Detroit PBS, WKAR, and Michigan Language Assessment. Almost all of it is self-taught, learned on the job because the tools and platforms never stop changing. That same hands-on instinct led me to independently produce and edit Taking Care, my podcast for family caregivers, in Adobe Audition.
Digital-First Video & Social Strategy
Social-first audience growth built on original graphics, photography, and video.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
My path into communications started in a laboratory, where teenage histotechnology research earned publication, and continued through three years as an editor of MSU's Red Cedar Review, student blogs, freelancing for Sun Times News, and, while abroad, Harmonia's Food & Wine Magazine in Ireland. At the University of Michigan Law School, I wrote feature profiles and news coverage — published under my byline, Jordan Poll — and served as lead copy editor and style-guide author. Precise, audience-aware writing has been the throughline of my whole career.
Law Quadrangle · Winter 2019 · Cover story
Cover feature on Professor Margo Schlanger's class-action suit on behalf of Iraqi detainees, and two students who volunteered as legal aid for asylum seekers in Dilley, Texas.
Law Quadrangle · Spring/Summer 2018
How U-M law, art & design, and business students helped launch Detroit Sip and other small businesses of color.
Law Quadrangle · Fall 2017 · Profile
Profile of the global managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs and a driving force in Cleveland's renaissance.
Michigan Law News · Nov 2017
Event coverage of Rosenstein's Q&A on the DOJ, the Russia investigation, and 30 years of public service.
Harmonia · FOOD&WINE Magazine
Feature writing for Ireland's Magazine of the Year while studying abroad, cover issue included.
ING Magazine · Journalism · April/May 2014
Feature article in the spring issue of this Michigan State University student-run magazine.
Mikro-Graf · Michigan Society for Histotechnologists · Summer 2010
Where it all started: teenage laboratory research that earned a spot in a professional publication.
[ PORTFOLIO COLLECTIONS ]
I've represented my organizations at national conferences including TESOL, NAFSA, AACRAO, and NETA, and staffed a steady rhythm of campus and community tabling for MSU's Council of Graduate Students, UM Credit Union, and WKAR — from casting calls for PBS KIDS' Curious Crew to prize wheels at the East Lansing Art Festival. I've also planned and hosted a livestreamed international facility tour and run-of-show for a 175-person staff recognition gala. Community outreach is something I actively seek out — I'm at my best when strategy turns into an actual room full of people.
Michigan Language Assessment · Livestreamed Test Center Tour
Wrote the run-of-show and interview script, then hosted a Facebook Live walkthrough and Q&A with the exam manager of the new digital test center.
MSU Council of Graduate Students
Staffing the table that introduced MSU's new Graduate Resource Center to campus — one of many student-facing events I helped run as a graduate assistant.











[ LET'S TALK ]
Jordan Nightingale
© 2026 Jordan Nightingale · Marketing & Communications Strategist