Creative Content
When I am flying solo, my primary media for communications are written and spoken words (but I am also trying to dabble more in audio production and music). I work in many different formats: reports, articles, essays, opinion/commentary, fiction, speeches, website copy, scripts, presentations, explainers, press materials, and strategic plans, among others.
I write about my work and I also cover more personal topics such as my life and family background, curly hair (yes, this is a big topic with many layers, pun intended), music, death, and whatever else fires my imagination.
When I am working on a team (and I really really love to work with creative teams!) my media formats get much more expansive: for example, video, animation, explainers, commercials, data visualizations, website development, and guerrilla marketing.
Among my more provocative projects: stock photos and b-roll of responsible adult marijuana use, a made-up sex symbol with multiple online dating profiles to encourage younger people to vote, and performers dressed in Prohibition Era costumes descending upon the United Nations headquarters to draw attention to the failures of the war on drugs.
The Prohibition Times
Dressed up at the UN in prohibition era costumes with a group of performers to hand out copies of a letter signed by global leaders calling for an end to the war on drugs.
Marijuana Stock Photos
Produced a series of free stock photos with Ripple Strategies of normal, everyday adult marijuana use to encourage the media to stop using stoner stereotypes for their stories about marijuana policy and legalization.
Shirtless Ryan
Created a fictitious sex symbol with local activists, promoted with ads and online dating profiles, to get young people out to vote for Measure 91, which legalized recreational cannabis in Oregon.
Multilingual COVID prevention
Managed partnership between ad agency TBWA\Dublin and NGO Translators without Borders to create social media campaign highlighting the need for COVID-19 prevention messages in under-served languages.
Articles
Stigmatizing Drug Use Is Killing Us, But Why Is It So Hard to Stop?
Screenshot of Terrell Jones in Vital Strategies’ “Harm Reduction Saves Lives” advertising campaign Despite significant strides in drug policy in recent decades, and changing attitudes about some substances, stigmatization of people who use drugs remains a pervasive...
Untold: Defining Moments of the Uprooted
For many years as a public speaking coach, I have encouraged people to share their personal stories and open up their lives to strangers. Sometimes this involves deeply emotional and tender subjects that aren’t easy to address but can have a powerful impact in opening eyes and sharing perspective. I have to say, it is much harder to do this in practice than to teach it.
For Brandon
I wrote this to honor my cousin Brandon's birthday on May 19. I am sharing it on the day he left this earth, August 12, four years ago. May 19, 2020 Brandon would have been 43 years old today. He came into the world only six months after me. I was an only...
How to Say I Love You
A Danish friend put out an interesting question recently to his Facebook circle. Speculating that there might be a generational difference in parents saying “I Love You” to their children (as in older generations may have said this much less than parents...
The Way of the Wise Novice
The middle of life feels in some ways like adolescence, what with all the hormones and abrupt body changes. Only sometimes I wish that I felt as confident about taking on the world as I did when I was a teenager. I started thinking of myself as an activist when I was...