Lance has 10 years of media relations experience. He joined Emory in October 2005 after more than three years as media relations manager with the Shands Healthcare system based at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. At Shands, Skelly was responsible for managing daily media relations activities for eight hospitals, including the academic medical center, Shands at the University of Florida, Shands Childrens Hospital at UF, and Shands Rehab Hospital, as well as a number of community hospitals. During his time at Shands, he also produced for two years "Health in a Heartbeat," a daily radio series carried nationally by more than 75 Public Broadcast stations, featuring two-minute segments providing consumer-health information and the latest news on medical research, patient-care breakthroughs and health-care industry trends.

Prior to his time at Shands, Lance served as assistant director of media relations at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., during which time he helped coordinate national coverage of the university in the wake of the school basketball team's first ever inclusion into the NCAA tournament.

A graduate of the University of Alabama's College of Communication and Information Sciences, Lance served as media relations specialist in UA's Office of Media Relations upon graduation, where he worked for more than four years. During his time at UA, his office earned numerous national awards and recognition, including the Gold Medal for Overall Media Relations Programs from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Lance is a member of the Georgia Hospital Association Society for Marketing and Public Relations, Public Relations Society of America and the March of Dimes State Communications Committee (Georgia).