Michele Alexander Magruder, senior digital strategist, applies strong communication, digital strategy, and organizational skills to advocate for public health and social justice issues. Since joining Burness in August 2017, she has provided strategic and digital communications support to clients including the Rockefeller Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, its grantees—including County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and the City Health Dashboard—and CityHealth. In her work, she helps advance strategies, policies and programs that create healthier, more equitable places for us all to live, learn, work and play—from promoting local data resources to lifting up stories from communities across the country who are building a Culture of Health and improving health for all residents.

Prior to joining Burness, Michele was a digital strategy assistant with Veracity Media, where she designed and implemented digital media strategies and created content for political candidates and nonprofit organizations. She was also a policy, advocacy and communications associate at the global health nonprofit, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), where she communicated MSH’s expertise and impact to influence and educate key internal and external stakeholders. Before working with MSH, Michele interned with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget and was a Fulbright Fellow in Ukraine studying the public health consequences of Chernobyl.

Michele graduated from American University with a Master of Arts in strategic communication and from the University of Mary Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in political science with minors in economics and Middle Eastern studies. During her graduate studies, Michele worked as a graduate fellow with AU’s Center for Media & Social Impact. She lives in Rockville with her husband, Matt, son, Nathan, and pit mix, Rhylan.