current + recent projects
Promoting financial equity for low- and moderate-income taxpayers for the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation. Advising on program strategy during the pandemic, creating a cohesive narrative and messaging to drive behavior change, overseeing social media and website strategy to increase reach, and speechwriting for corporate leadership and Congressional partners for community public awareness events.
Providing strategic communications consultation, training, and capacity building to the WA State Department of Social and Health Services and helping the agency reframe the big issues facing Washingtonians, including its 2025 poverty reduction goal, the pressures of an aging population, and moving to a new model for case management.
Heading up ivoh, a global network of media makers leading the emergent movement in strength-based media. There I helped to expand ivoh's physical presence in selected cities and to engage media makers from all sectors in an innovative approach to asset-based storytelling. Raised $250,000 to expand the organization’s media fellowship program, and led efforts to redesign the organization’s website, creating an open story bank for journalists.
For the National Human Services Assembly, I helped to launch a multi-year initiative to deepen the public’s understanding of social issues while encouraging more vibrant civic participation. I was brought in to mobilize community and national leaders across the country to build capacity on this new approach to messaging and storytelling grounded in a multi-disciplinary research. With my team, we trained over 4000 nonprofit and public sector leaders on how to integrate this new narrative to increase their visibility and influence. In Atlantic City we created a space for media and community leaders to come together to identify and tell stories that moved beyond the boom or bust narrative to a fuller, more authentic representation of all that Atlantic City is and could be.
not too long ago
Founded and launched two offices of sustainability at LaSalle Bank (now Bank of America) and the University of Chicago. In both institutions, we focused on the development and implementation of an institution-wide culture change effort to understand and mitigate impact on the environment, measure and evaluate progress, establish an ethos of sustainability, advance intellectual debate and analysis, and position them as leaders in the field. At UChicago with the support of faculty, students and staff, we created a data-driven strategic sustainability plan aligned with institution outcomes, including over 100 metrics to track and evaluate progress against goals.
As the head of public policy, positioned the United Way system as an integral voice on Capitol Hill. Led capacity building efforts for United Way Worldwide’s 1300 state and local members, providing customized workshops around the country and aligning the network behind national advocacy priorities. Public policy gains included: federal assignment of “211” to human services information and referral; a 30% increase in Emergency Food and Shelter appropriations; and enrollment of 500,000 in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a partnership with the Office of Senator Kennedy (D-MA).
Convened a broad coalition of national and grassroots partners for nationwide designation of the 3-digit telephone code, “211”, for human services information and referral (as a complement to “911”). Managed nationwide implementation of 211, including $500,000 in grants to support those efforts. Drafted legislation and secured bi-partisan support in Congress for $200 million in federal funding for building and sustaining a nationwide 211 system.