Experience

  • I’ve spent 20+ years working with leaders and organizations on communications, strategy, reputation and change.

    I’ve worked in-house, led teams, built an agency and consulted across healthcare, manufacturing, technology, transportation, higher education and public service. I tend to do my best work when there’s a lot to understand, a lot at stake or no obvious playbook.

  • I work with leaders and organizations on communications strategy, executive messaging, change, reputation and complex business initiatives.

    My consulting work ranges from multi-year engagements with organizations like Ford Motor Company to focused projects for global companies, professional services firms, nonprofits, startups and public-sector organizations. The work can mean solving an immediate communications problem, establishing a better process or approach, or working alongside leadership, consulting, research, creative and planning teams on complex initiatives with matrixed stakeholders.

    Sometimes I’m there for a defined project. Sometimes the relationship lasts for years. The approach is pretty consistent: understand the business, understand the audience and apply sound research and smart practices to find the clearest path from strategy to action.

  • CARLE HEALTH

    Enterprise & executive communications

    • Lead internal and executive communications for an eight-hospital health system with approximately 18,000 team members.

    • I work with senior leaders across the organization on strategy, change, employee engagement and issues that need clear thinking and careful communication.

    • My team leads executive and leader communications, enterprise storytelling and employee engagement.

    THE RAPID

    Communications & customer experience

    • Led communications and customer experience for a regional transportation authority, reporting to the CEO.

    • The work included executive counsel, employee and customer communications, media relations, labor and board issues, crisis response and public engagement.

    CHAMPAIGN-URBANA MASS TRANSIT DISTRICT

    Communications & brand

    • Led communications, public relations, digital and brand strategy.

    • I advised leadership on organizational priorities and public issues, led two major brand evolutions and built communications across employees, customers, media and the community.

    SURFACE 51

    Strategy & creative

    • I joined SURFACE 51 when we were three people and helped build it into a 16-person integrated agency.

    • Over more than a decade, I worked with executives and organizations on business and communications strategy, brand, executive messaging, crisis and reputation, media, public affairs and long-range initiatives.

    • I also led multidisciplinary creative teams. That experience still shapes how I work. I don’t start with a channel or a deliverable. I start with what we’re trying to accomplish and who we need to move.

  • MBA
    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    BS, Communication
    Purdue University

  • My community work has taken a lot of forms, from serving early on as president of the Champaign Downtown Association to roles across economic development, tourism, the arts and other local initiatives.

    Today, I’m more likely to work behind the scenes with young, dynamic leaders doing work I believe in, offering long-term strategy and communications counsel as they build and grow, including my ongoing work with Camp POV.

    Outside of work, family is everything. You might also find me at the dog beach with Juno & Atticus, on a pilates reformer or writing essays that I never send for publishing.