Not a paid Harpy engagement.
Background
From 2021 to 2022, Alexander González served as COVID-19 Public Response Supervisor with the Washington State Department of Health's COVID-19 Response Team, part of the agency's emergency activation to protect Washingtonians during the pandemic.
The Challenge
In the middle of a deadly global pandemic, the Department of Health turned its focus to an unprecedented task: rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine statewide. Questions poured in from the public, local health jurisdictions, government agencies at every level, businesses, and nonprofits. There was no system to handle them. One person was answering fewer than 50 inquiries a day, and every answer had to reflect guidance that changed constantly.
The Approach
Built a 13-person multidisciplinary team of communications professionals, public health experts, and customer care staff.
Designed workflows and a shared knowledge bank so agents could pull current data and past responses instead of researching every question from scratch.
Created clear manuals and escalation protocols, so new or complex questions reached public health leaders quickly and with the right context.
Launched a new multilingual response process: Spanish handled in-house, with a third-party partner covering additional languages.
Managed executive correspondence about the vaccine and drafted responses on behalf of agency leadership.
Kept messaging consistent across every channel of the response, grounded in what constituents actually needed.
The Results
More than 15,000 questions answered: That's enough people to nearly fill Climate Pledge Arena, each one getting accurate, up-to-date vaccine information.
From 1 to 13: A one-person inbox grew into a high-performing multidisciplinary team at its peak.
7x daily capacity: Inquiries answered per day grew from fewer than 50 to more than 350.
75% faster responses: Average response time dropped by three-quarters.
59% less research time: The knowledge bank let agents find answers instead of starting from scratch.
Experts freed up: Smarter escalation meant public health advisors spent less time on individual inquiries and more on the response itself.
Equity built in: For the first time, a dedicated process got Spanish-language inquiries answered in-house, with other languages covered through a trusted partner.
One consistent voice: Executive correspondence and public responses stayed aligned across the entire vaccine response.
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