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Our New ICHP Communications Manager
Meet Melissa Dyrdahl

Feature Article

by Melissa Dyrdahl, ICHP Communications Manager

Hello everyone!  My name is Melissa Dyrdahl and I am the new communications manager for ICHP.  Like many of you, I feel so fortunate to have found a job that I really enjoy, and I look forward to sharing that passion with all of you. 

I think my interest in creative digital/media arts (photography, graphic design, writing, etc.) probably started when I was a pre-teen growing up in Byron, Illinois.  I have always loved taking photos, reading, writing, and making videos (this was way before YouTube – thank goodness!) In high school, we had the chance to shadow individuals pursuing various careers that we were interested in, so I got to intern with a commercial photographer at a print company and at a radio station.  I was hooked.  I knew I had to do something creative.   

My passion for media followed me to college. I attended Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota where I majored in Mass Communications with an emphasis on broadcasting.  There, I participated in my university’s forensics (speech) team. I also spent two years as a radio personality and the program director for the campus radio station, 89.5 KQAL.  During my senior year I was lucky enough to land a job at a local television station, WXOW-TV 19, in La Crosse, Wisconsin as the weekend producer.  I would also fill in as a reporter during the week, between classes and radio responsibilities. The week prior to graduation, I was promoted to morning producer of News 19 Daybreak, a 90-minute morning television newscast. I was pretty pumped to have found a fulltime job before even graduating - Woohoo! 

I stayed with WXOW for three-and-a-half years, until 2009, when I took a chance and moved to State College, Pennsylvania. There, I switched gears career-wise for a while, and began working at a local winery. I was quickly promoted to store manager and began planning events, designing promotional materials, and was put in charge of social media marketing and e-mail blasts, among many other tasks. 

In 2013, I took another leap of faith and moved with my husband to Quito, Ecuador for what was supposed to be a 10 month adventure.  Ten months somehow turned into almost five years living abroad.  It was an amazing experience that shaped me and my world views in more ways than I could have ever imagined.  I was fortunate that during a great chunk of this time I was able to continue working for The Winery at Wilcox as their webmaster.  While in Ecuador, I also participated in and helped out with different digital projects for an archaeological project -using and improving my working knowledge of adobe design programs.  In 2016, I welcomed a sweet, perfect, beautiful, baby boy into the world and was lucky enough to stay home with him for two full years.

All of that now leads us to the present.  I’ve come full-circle. I’m back at home in Byron, now with that still-sweet, two-year old son. (The two’s are known for being terrible, but they’re also pretty terrific.) I was still living in Ecuador (getting ready to move back) when I saw the job posting for the ICHP communications manager position and applied.  It seemed like the perfect fit - an accumulation of all my work experience and projects that really gets me excited. I also loved the idea of working for a non-profit organization.  I know it’s all of you pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and students out there on the front lines who make the real “hands-on” difference, but in a way, I feel like I get to be a tiny part of that now, and it makes me pretty proud.

I really look forward to working with all of you, especially Marketing Affairs and the Champions sub-committee. If there is ever anything I can help you out with, please feel free to contact me (even if it’s just for some Ecuador travel tips).  I can’t wait to meet many of you at this year’s annual meeting and put some faces to all these names.  See you in September!