Narrative Strategist · Washington, D.C.
I help people with something important to say become impossible to ignore.
About
Early in my career, I lost a trialI should have won.
I focused on the facts and the law, laid them out as clearly as I knew how. What I never gave the jury was a way to interpret what those facts meant. The other side did. They used story to do it, and they won.
What I do
The people who know the mostare rarely the ones anyone hears.
I'm a narrative strategist and former litigator. I work with professional associations, health and science coalitions, foundations, and mission-driven organizations on one problem.
Live showcases
I build live showcases that turn an organization's own members into the most memorable part of its conference, in place of another panel.
Coaching
I coach individual leaders who have the expertise but haven't yet found the story that carries it.
Training
I train groups, advocates heading to the Hill, board members talking to donors, staff walking into a stakeholder meeting, to tell the truth of their work in a way a room actually feels.
Writing
Thinking out loud about narrative, institutions, and being heard.
Case study · APA Showcase
The Other Side of Psychology
What actually happens when you take four psychologists whose entire training taught them to lead with data, and coach them to open with the person behind it instead.
Essay · with benchmark report
What Your Annual Conference Is Actually Missing
Association conferences default to panels and celebrity keynotes because that's what's always been done, not because it's what members remember.
Proof
Three proof moments.
American Psychological Association
Coached psychologist-advocates to pair story with data, so their expertise landed with stakeholders and audiences who'd stopped hearing statistics alone.
National AHEC Organization
Trained advocates to carry their own stories onto Capitol Hill, replacing rehearsed talking points with testimony a room actually felt.
Behind the Headlines
Directed a live show of five journalists telling the true stories behind their bylines, giving a newsroom audience something no panel about “the state of journalism” ever could.