Toa Baja: communications as public infrastructure.
What began in 2017 as freelance graphic design and marketing work evolved into a much deeper role supporting municipal communications, digital strategy, audiovisual production, community engagement, crisis response, and ultimately Digital Communications Director.
- Organization
- Municipio Autónomo de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico — serving a population of more than 80,000 residents, under the administration of Mayor Betito Márquez.
- My Role
- Started as an external graphic design & marketing collaborator; became Digital Communications Director while continuing within the external/supplier structure.
- Tenure
- March 2017 – March 2020.
- Turning point
- Hurricanes Irma and María, which redefined the role around crisis and community communications.
Reaching residents when the infrastructure itself is disrupted.
The municipality's audiences spanned residents, community leaders, merchants, entrepreneurs, older adults, municipal departments, police, elected officials, government agencies, media and community organizations — each requiring information to move across different neighborhoods, demographics, government structures and levels of digital access.
Then Puerto Rico experienced Hurricanes Irma and María. Telecommunications, electricity, internet access and transportation were disrupted, and communities needed safety information, recovery guidance and clear instructions — sometimes without reliable access to the digital channels communications professionals normally depend on. The question became: how do you build a communications system capable of reaching residents across digital, physical, institutional and community environments, especially when the infrastructure normally used to communicate is itself disrupted?
Public communications can't depend on a single channel.
During normal operations, digital platforms might be the fastest path to information. During an emergency, those same platforms might become inaccessible. The model became: Public Need → Understand the Audience → Identify Available Channels → Translate Information → Distribute → Engage → Adapt. The question could never simply be "what should we post" — it had to be "how will the resident who needs this information actually receive it?"
Digital
Social media, municipal web properties, video, live programming and digital content.
Physical
Printed communications, public signage, transportation information, events and community-distributed materials.
Institutional
The Mayor's Office, municipal departments, police, press, elected officials, government agencies and collaborating organizations.
Community
Residents, community leaders, merchants, entrepreneurs, older adults and volunteers.
Where communications became infrastructure.
Eight threads of work, from crisis response to civic wayfinding.
Hurricanes Irma + María — communications during crisis
Responsibilities included communications around safety, prevention, assistance, recovery, community organization, available resources and public information. When internet and telecommunications access were unreliable, information needed to move through physical and offline formats as well — and I contributed to the early development and communication of spaces used for distributing supplies to affected communities. Digital communication is only as powerful as the infrastructure required to access it; when that infrastructure disappears, communication has to adapt.
Crisis + public-health communications
The emergency communications mindset continued beyond María — contributing to communications following earthquake activity, and to health-prevention messaging around influenza and other viral conditions before COVID-19 became the dominant public-health crisis (my tenure was already transitioning by the time COVID-19 significantly affected Puerto Rico, so it wasn't a major component of this work). The lesson: public information needs to be clear before the moment of crisis, not developed only after it arrives.
Toa Baja, Orgullo Llanero — a municipal visual language
This identity incorporated visual elements representing the municipality's environment and character — references to the sea and waves, the sun, and its built environment — giving a diverse municipality a recognizable visual language that could work across digital communications, community initiatives, public information, events, physical materials and municipal programs, not just serve as a logo. Years later, the municipality is still posting under #OrgulloLlanero today.
Fiestas de la Boulevard — branding a place-based economic activation
Invited onto the event's development committee for this Levittown celebration, responsible for developing its brand identity and contributing marketing recommendations around how local merchants could benefit from increased foot traffic. The 2018 edition ran Friday through Sunday, July 13–15, along Avenida Boulevard, launching a weekend of local food, entertainment, artistic performances, kiosks and community activity capped by the traditional Sunday parade. The municipality's official announcement introduced it to the press as a new economic engine for the area and tied it directly to the #OrgulloLlanero identity — the same municipal visual language described below. The relationship: Place → Identity → Event → Promotion → Foot Traffic → Local Commerce → Economic Activity.
Toa Baja al Día — a direct channel between government and residents
A recurring live, podcast-style digital program where Mayor Betito Márquez could communicate news, municipal developments and community issues directly to constituents, rather than relying exclusively on traditional press or third-party coverage.
Civic information design — making public transportation easier to understand
As the municipality developed its collective transportation routes, I contributed design work for the system's bus stops and route touchpoints — civic wayfinding, where the design problem wasn't aesthetic but about helping residents actually navigate a physical transportation system.
Community assets & municipal programming
Supported communications around community-facing municipal initiatives including the reopening of the Avoli sports center. The communications product was never the outcome itself — the public asset was; the job was helping residents understand what exists, what changed, when it's available, how they can participate, and why it matters.
Entrepreneurship & community education
Invited to share knowledge directly with entrepreneurs through seminars on social media, marketing, content and digital communications — introducing a philosophy that carried into later nonprofit work: sometimes the highest-value marketing contribution isn't promoting someone's business, it's teaching them how to promote it themselves.
A public communications capability, built over three years.
The most important result can't be reduced to a single campaign metric — it was building a capability connecting municipal leadership, digital channels, audiovisual production, physical communications, events, community engagement, emergency information and civic design.
Stakeholder groups reached, by communication environment
Counted directly from the audiences and channels named for each environment above.
Same data, as a share of total touchpoints
23 named stakeholder/channel touchpoints across all four environments combined.
Role progression, Mar 2017 – Mar 2020
No campaign-metric time series exists for this engagement, so rather than force one, here's the actual documented progression of scope and title.
Freelance graphic designer + marketing professional
External collaborator, 2017.
Trusted municipal communications partner
Increasingly embedded across visual communications, AV production and live programming.
Crisis + community communications contributor
Hurricanes Irma and María reshaped the role around emergency response.
Expanded digital + audiovisual leadership
Mandate grew beyond individual assets to an integrated communications environment.
Digital Communications Director
Appointed while continuing within the external/supplier structure, through March 2020.
What public-sector communications taught me.
Communication is a public service
It should help people understand what's happening, what's available, and what they can do.
Channel strategy must follow accessibility
A digital-first strategy fails when residents can't access digital infrastructure — the system has to adapt to the audience's reality.
Trust accelerates execution
Strong relationships between leadership, teams, departments and external collaborators make candid conversations and faster decisions possible.
Design is civic infrastructure
A transportation sign, emergency notice, or municipal identity system shapes how residents navigate their community.
Community proximity improves communication
Understanding what people are experiencing produces stronger communications than interpreting their needs from an office.
Government communication should reduce complexity
Residents shouldn't need to understand government's internal structure to understand what it needs them to know.