Anna Waters is the senior communications manager for Policy & Advocacy at JFF, where she helps develop and execute communications strategies that inform and influence the direction of public policy.
Her expertise includes:
- Communications strategy
- Branding and reputation marketing
- News, feature, and technical writing
- Copy editing and messaging
- Creative direction and design
- Web and digital content management
- Social media and email marketing
Before joining JFF, Anna worked for the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a marketing specialist, communications specialist, and web content coordinator, most recently at UAB’s O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. In those roles, Anna served as a writer, social media manager, copy editor, brand manager, graphic designer, web designer, magazine editor, and art director. Anna’s earlier career work included program and communications support for two scholastic journalism nonprofits.
Anna earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. After concentrating on visual journalism as an undergraduate, Anna used her graduate studies to research the relationships between media skepticism, political cynicism, and source and message credibility on social media.
Anna serves on the Academic Success and Student Retention Committee of the University of Alabama Community Affairs Board of Advisors, working with other UA alumni to strengthen systems and programs and provide support and resources for students, educators, and community members across her home state of Alabama.
She says, “I believe in JFF’s philosophy of dual transformation and am excited by the potential to drive projects through longstanding, albeit sometimes outdated, systems while reforming and transforming those systems to make them more effective, efficient, and beneficial for everyone.”
Outside of work, Anna enjoys overanalyzing pop culture, playing video games, and spending time with her dog, Finn, a socially awkward three-legged Samoyed mix.
