Ian Hanigan serves as chief communications officer for the Orange County Department of Education, overseeing the Communications and Media Services unit. Along with producing stories and videos for the OCDE Newsroom, this team facilitates copywriting, video production, media relations, graphic design, web design and event support for OCDE.
Prior to joining the department in 2015, Ian spent eight years as public information officer for the 30,000-student Irvine Unified School District. Before that, he was a local journalist, writing for the Long Beach Press-Telegram from 1999 to 2003 and the South Bay’s Daily Breeze newspaper from 2003 to 2006. His beats included education, city government, business and aerospace.
The Orange County Friday Night Live Partnership turns 30 year, and to put that in perspective, consider that the first students to take part in the program are now in their mid-40s — and some may have high schoolers of their own.
Presented by former California Secretary of Education Dave Long through his firm, Dave Long & Associates, in partnership with OCDE and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Safe Schools Conference was established to amplify best practices and to increase collaboration between the education and law enforcement communities.
More than 650 enterprising students showcased their creativity, ingenuity and ability to tackle real-world problems at this year’s ocMaker Challenge, which featured more than 160 STEM-infused projects.