Twenty years in newsrooms, advocacy, public health, and large public-sector agencies. I turn technical, policy-heavy, sometimes resisted material into clear guidance that frontline employees and executives can actually act on.
I started in journalism at the Afro-American Newspapers, where deadlines, accuracy, and a healthy skepticism about official narratives shaped how I work. That foundation has carried through every role since: communications director at a national criminal justice think tank, press secretary for an HIV/AIDS advocacy organization, communications manager inside regulated industry, and senior communications writer at one of the country's largest transit agencies.
What I do, in plain terms, is build the bridge between people who hold technical or institutional knowledge and the audiences whose decisions depend on understanding it. Sometimes that audience is a 13,000-person workforce learning new technology. Sometimes it is a federal judge preparing for a hostile press conference. Sometimes it is the public, hearing about a stigmatized issue for the first time.
I write clean copy, build campaigns that ship, and stay calm in the rooms where things are difficult.
Built the Digital Modernization communications program from the ground up. Led change campaigns across major technology rollouts touching bus, rail, and corporate operations. Designed quarterly IT All-Hands events for 550-plus attendees, ran the agency's annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and developed a Viva Engage strategy that nearly doubled platform engagement and was adopted as a model by other departments.
Produced media landscape analyses across seven states for the Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) initiative, funded by the John and Laura Arnold Foundation (now Arnold Ventures). The analyses gave police chiefs, jail administrators, and reform leaders a real read on the information environments they were operating in. Trained executives on message development and built multi-channel campaigns that helped shift hostile narratives around criminal and juvenile justice reform.
Translated dense regulatory and scientific content into accessible language for industry, regulators, and the press. Developed thought leadership, conference programming, and brand-consistent messaging across a stakeholder base used to navigating heavy federal oversight.
Directed earned media and content for a national criminal justice reform organization. Drafted op-eds and policy contributions placed in national outlets including CQ Researcher, where my writing for JPI leadership appeared opposite FBI Director Robert Mueller in the publication's "At Issue" feature on gang policy. Produced original policy reporting under my own byline, interviewing foundation directors, principal investigators, and national juvenile justice reform leaders. Anchored press strategy for major JPI research releases.
Spokesperson and lead writer for one of the country's longest-standing HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations. Pitched and placed stories that put faces on populations the national conversation had stopped seeing, including a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show built around a young woman living with HIV. Built press materials, prepared leadership for interviews, and worked to reduce stigma in coverage through sustained relationships with national health reporters.
Reported and edited under hard deadlines, including coverage of 9/11 and the DC sniper attacks. Earned recognition for crisis reporting and mentored junior writers. This is where I learned the discipline that shows up in everything I do now.
Originated the campaign concept, strategy, and creative direction for the customer-facing rollout of Metro Connect: natural language IVR, chatbot, and SMS service for a 600,000-rider system. Twelve-week phased plan across digital, station, on-vehicle, and earned media, plus a follow-on customer advocacy campaign.
Researched, piloted, and deployed Viva Engage as a second internal channel, then rebuilt the editorial model around social media behavior. Engagement rose from 17% to a steady 40-50%, and the model was adopted across the agency.
Edited WMATA's agency-wide internal publication across two years and roughly 100 weekly issues. Original reporting on Digital Modernization, across six distinct editorial modes from celebration to crisis recovery, moved open rates from 17% to 27%.
Strategy, campaign, and infrastructure for WMATA technology rollouts. A twenty-page MetroWorkforce change strategy rebuilt from a vendor's seven-page template. A multi-channel Always On VPN security campaign delivered in May 2026. And SharePoint sites with Viva Engage embedded directly into every project's page.
Negotiated a multi-year enterprise contract that saved more than $300,000 while standardizing brand typography across an agency of 13,000.
Managed and facilitated the quarterly hybrid IT All-Hands end to end, from concept through event delivery. 550-plus attendees across in-person and Teams. Run of show, presenter briefings, a hybrid networking format that worked in both rooms, and the surrounding Viva Engage communications that built the audience before each meeting and kept them after.
Built a reproducible media intelligence framework for the Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) initiative spanning California, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington, Virginia, and Arkansas. Funded by the John and Laura Arnold Foundation. Presented at two national convenings.
Built and delivered media training for pretrial reform spokespeople across seven states using the ATMS framework: Address, Transition, Message, Sell. One of the most pre-loaded issues in criminal justice communications, taught as a repeatable discipline.
Surrogate writing, original policy reporting, and major report rollouts at a national criminal justice reform organization. Includes a CQ Researcher placement opposite the sitting Director of the FBI on national gang policy.
Most communications problems are actually translation problems. I begin by understanding who needs to act, what they already know, and what is in the way. The deliverable shapes itself around that.
Resistance is rarely irrational. Change management training, plus years of working on stigmatized issues, taught me to read pushback as a signal about what the strategy is missing, not as a problem to flatten.
A press secretary writes for the reporter, not for the boss. I keep that habit. Active voice, plain words, no filler, and never a sentence the reader has to read twice.
Engagement rates, adoption curves, sentiment shifts, dollar savings. I report outcomes, not activity. If a campaign cannot connect to a number that someone above me cares about, it needs more thinking.
Open to senior communications and change roles, and to consulting work through Control the Story, LLC. Quickest reply is by email.