Our team at Children's of Alabama has been taking turns on who leads this magazine with each new issue—and it was finally my turn.

With the cover story revolving around a new Physician-in-Chief, I knew I wanted the cover to have an impact. Our team recently captured headshots of Dr. Lau, but I wanted to create a more editorial look for the magazine. I partnered with Maurice Adams to execute the creative direction—photography that felt editorial, high contrast, and elevated but still intimate and warm. We used several comps to guide the shoot, with Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights shoot as our guiding compass.

The featured stories across this piece are technical and dense for non-medical audiences. To bring levity to the piece, I wanted to add more illustrative micro-elements that helped tie together the story but also helped move the reader along.

The final "News" section was a complete rework from years past. This format allows us to flood text easily and focus imagery on the featured story of the section. This refresh was a massive hit with the editing team!