About

I've spent 30 years working with organizations and leaders on complicated communications, public affairs and strategic challenges, often when the stakes are high and the path forward isn't obvious.

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I'm a proud University of Washington alumna and a member of the Leadership Tomorrow Class of 2005. My work has taken me across public, nonprofit and private sectors and across issues including education, public infrastructure, land use, energy, technology, telecommunications, environmental conservation and regulated industries.

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The work has changed over the years, but the underlying challenge hasn't changed much: understand what's really going on, figure out what matters, and help people make decisions they can act on.

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I've worked both inside organizations and as an outside advisor, and I know the difference an outside perspective can make. I've also learned that an outside perspective is only useful if it helps the people doing the work become more effective.

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That's part of what I like about this work. I can step in when something needs to be led, work alongside an existing team when that's more useful, or bring a particular kind of experience to a problem that needs it. Good work creates opportunities to take on more interesting and more diverse challenges, and after all these years, I still like doing it.

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Communications disciplines rarely stay in one lane. A communications problem may actually be a strategy problem. A public affairs challenge may have more to do with relationships or trust than messaging. Often, the thing that looks like a problem from the outside isn't the problem at all.

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I've learned to stay curious, ask a lot of questions and pay attention to what isn't being said.

I'm particularly interested in the space where communications, public affairs, public opinion and civic life intersect. It's where strategy meets people, institutions and the messy reality of trying to get something done.

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If you've read some of my Perspectives, you probably have a sense of how I think about that work. If not, that's a good place to start.