Marrianne McMullen
Director of Communication and Dissemination
Marrianne McMullen is the Director of Communication and Dissemination for Chapin Hall. McMullen drives Chapin Hall’s communications strategy, including dissemination planning, media relations, branding, and effective use of digital platforms. She developed and implements Chapin Hall’s dissemination framework and advises on the effective use of communication to manage change in systems to improve the lives of children, youth, and families. In 2021 and 2022, she served as the principal investigator for a national survey of human service providers to determine their communication preferences. (See Disseminating research to youth and family service professionals: Results of a national survey.) In 2024, her book, Persuasive: 40 Lessons in Communicating for the Common Good was published by Georgetown University Press.
McMullen came to Chapin Hall after serving in the Obama Administration at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs, overseeing the division’s 10 regional offices, and the news, digital, and FOIA departments in the Office of Communications. Prior to joining ACF, McMullen worked with the District of Columbia Public Schools as Chief of Staff for Public Engagement, and at the Service Employees International Union, where she was the Communication Director for Illinois before becoming a senior aide to the international president. Her journalism career included being the news editor at Sojourners magazine, a reporter at the Palladium-Item in Indiana, and the editor and co-publisher of The Dayton Voice, an alternative newsweekly in Dayton, Ohio.
McMullen holds a Master of Arts in Communications from the University of Dayton and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from West Virginia University.
Master of Arts in Communications, University of Dayton
Bachelor of Science in Journalism, West Virginia University
McMullen, M. (2023, December). Applying AI: Chapin Hall and its current use of machine learning and large language models. Elevate national all-staff meeting.
McMullen, M. (2023, October). The Promise and Peril of Chat GPT: Using Large Language Models for Writing. Chapin Hall professional development session.
McMullen, M. (2023, September). Writing Effective Policy Briefs. Guest lecture at University of Illinois at Chicago for social work graduate students.
McMullen, M. (2022, October). The First Commandment of Communications: Know Your Audience. A detailed look at how Chapin Hall used a national survey to determine human service providers’ communication preferences. Communications Network National Conference, Seattle, WA.
McMullen, M. (2022, April). Effective Communication with Human Service Providers: Results of a national survey show preferred messengers, channels and formats. National Webinar hosted by Chapin Hall.
McMullen, M. (2020, September). Chicago Communicator Racial Justice Survey Results. Presentation to survey participants in this limited circulation instrument designed to compile and share statements, resources and updates among local nonprofits on their racial justice initiatives in Chicago.
McMullen, M. (2019, May). Persuasion for change: Applying evidence-based strategies to promote organizational change or adoption of a new practice. Workshop conducted at Good Tech Fest, Chicago, IL.
McMullen, M. (2018, October). Persuasion: How to push for change in behavior that can improve outcomes for children and families. Presentation at the Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management Conference, Chicago, IL.
McMullen, M. (2017, September). Building change: How to use the tools of persuasion to make positive change for children and families. Presentation at the Doris Duke Fellows Retreat, Chicago, IL.
Persuasive: 40 Lessons in Communicating for the Common Good, by Marrianne McMullen, Georgetown University Press, 2024.
10 Lessons from Serving in the Obama Administration: If I could turn back time, here are the tips I’d give myself. Website of “apolitical,” an international organization for public employees, December 2020.
Dear Chicago: This is how other cities have reduced gun violence. Another Chicago Magazine, February 18, 2019.
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