Megan Gilbertson has held a number of journalism, communications and advocacy roles throughout her nearly 20-year career.

Gilbertson started as an education reporter with The Arizona Republic. She then served as a communications director for the Arizona Charter Schools Association, Arizona Chamber Foundation, and Maricopa County Elections Department before stepping into her current role as associate vice president of public affairs at the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), where she ventured into lobbying.

However, Gilbertson’s primary passion is storytelling, which has influenced every aspect of her career.

She sat down with the Arizona Capitol Times to discuss her career progression, experience working in various sectors and how communications allowed her to tell more impactful stories.

The questions and answers have been lightly edited for style and clarity.

How did you end up going into communications? 

I started my career nearly 20 years ago as an education journalist, and when the former CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association needed a writer on her team, I was grateful that she decided to take a chance on me. From there, I kind of found a passion for education advocacy, along with some great mentors who encouraged and really shaped my communication skills.

Did you envision yourself building a career not only in communications, but also in advocacy and the political sphere?

I think the thing that’s most important to me is that I believe in what I’m working on, and I think as a journalist and as an education journalist, I was able to tell some really great and impactful stories, and moving into nonprofit communications and then into government work, I really found that you’re able to tell the stories in a more impactful way. And advocacy is more than just kind of sharing one opinion. It’s really telling the story of those who don’t always get their stories told.

You eventually went to the Maricopa County Elections Department, where you were the communications director during the presidential ballot audit in 2021. How was that experience?

Working at the Maricopa County Elections Department and serving voters was truly an honor. It was my job to learn from those subject matter experts who have devoted their lives to running free and fair elections and then find clear ways to tell their stories. You know, it was definitely stressful work. But I was able to kind of work behind the scenes to allow the public a look at how we operate our elections, and really pull back the curtain a little bit to show how our elections are truly run.

What did you learn from that experience?
We put in a lot of hours, and we had a lot of attention and national scrutiny on us. But I was amazed by how hard everyone worked, and really how dedicated, from the poll workers all the way up to the elections administrators and county employees, their dedication to elections, to ensuring that every voter has a chance to cast their ballot, and doing it in a great way. I was really grateful to be part of that team.

How much pressure was it with attracting that type of attention?

Like I said, it was stressful. There was a lot of pressure on us to ensure that we were providing accurate information to the public in a really timely manner. But ultimately, I got to work with some really smart people who knew elections administration in and out, and so being able to tell their stories and provide factual information to the public as it was needed, was so critical, and I was just really grateful to be able to do that.

How did you end up at the Board of Regents?
So the board was looking for additional crisis communication and advocacy support, and I was looking to get back into education. So, it was really a natural fit. Our public universities play such a critical role in our state, and it’s so much more than enrollment. They’re huge drivers of our economy, and they’re some of the largest employers. They’re educating our future workforce, and they’re critical to so much of the technology and health care we have today. It’s really our public university students and faculty who are finding cures for and treatments for cancer, and they’re developing the microchips that are needed to power our cell phones and finding better tests to improve water quality. So it’s been a really great experience here at ABOR.

You started venturing more into lobbying this session. What have you learned from that experience so far?

You know, legislators have a really tough job. They have to be experts in everything from higher education to health insurance, and I really enjoy being at the Capitol and helping provide any information they need or background information as they write new laws and set our … budget.

What are some of the topics and issues that you lobbied for when you met with legislators?

ABOR didn’t run any legislation this session, but we were happy to support bills like Senate Bill 1623. So as our public universities are working to increase the medical student pipeline, we were really grateful to Sen. Carine Werner for her leadership on that bill, which would increase the amount of residency slots in Arizona and help keep medical students here. The research really does show that students who complete their residencies in the state are much more likely to stay in that state. So it was a great and a very important bill to have a voice on. But, with over 1,800 bills introduced this session, the board doesn’t take a position on every bill. But the board does adopt legislative policy positions, and we also receive guidance directly from our regents and ABOR’s executive director, but our team is actively engaged at the Legislature. We work closely with lawmakers and the Governor’s Office on bills that impact our universities.

Was this your first session lobbying?

Yes, it is my first session as a lobbyist. And you know, our top priority this session is really the budget. Last year, public universities were cut by almost $100 million and so one of our budget requests works to address critical infrastructure needs for university construction to support workforce development. So SPEED bonds, and that’s how they’re officially termed, but they’re basically construction loans that Arizona’s public universities used, and they’re supported by Arizona Lottery ticket sales. So the direct support through those sales, rather than through the general fund, and if passed, our universities plan to use this fund to start a new medical school at (Arizona State University), grow the nursing program by 1,200 students up at (Northern Arizona University) and modernize our science facilities down at (University of Arizona) to support some workforce needs in Arizona’s mining, agriculture, energy and water industries.

What do people misunderstand about working in communications and PR?

I think it’s not just about being on TV and answering a reporter’s questions, but it’s really trying to deeply understand a topic to be able to tell it in a way that makes sense to the average person. And some of the topics that we work on … in elections were very complex processes, so trying to figure out the best ways to explain those processes is something so critical. And that’s what makes communications, advocacy, public relations, lobbying, that’s what ties all of those things together. It’s understanding that topic and being able to provide both sides or provide the details in a way that people can understand, they can get behind and they can support.