Communication Portfolio

I’ve collected a selection of communication and outreach projects I’ve worked on. For more about my experience, see my resume. For graphic design, please see my Behance portfolio.

Jump to: Strategic Projects  | Outreach Programs | Reports and Articles

Strategic Projects

EnviroStars Regional Green Business Program

We photographed each local business recognized through the program to build social proof. I designed the refresh of an existing logo.

When twenty-odd local governments and utilities banded together to create a regional green business program, it was important to have a comprehensive marketing strategy to reach businesses – especially small and minority-owned businesses.

For two and a half years, I led a marketing committee to create a marketing strategy, implement major marketing initiatives, develop a new website, and build a library of marketing tools. I facilitated committee discussions, directed consultant work, and presented recommendations to program leadership. I also provided editorial guidance and prepared content for a website upgrade to improve the experience for interested businesses.

See design work for EnviroStars.

Sustainability Communications Program

We needed to plan our new environmental portal without knowing what the new website would look like. I created simple mockups of two approaches to content organization for discussion. This resident-oriented approach was preferred to a resource-focused approach.

Seeing a need for cohesive sustainability communications from the many City teams involved in environmental programs, I stepped up to lead sustainability outreach. When the city launched a new website, I facilitated discussions with environmental staff across departments to create an online sustainability portal that satisfied a shared vision. To help promote the new Sustainability Master Plan, I reinvigorated an existing email newsletter, curated content from multiple teams, and arranged for cross-publishing on other city channels.

Pandemic Outreach Program Pivot

Earth Month Bingo Card
Every year I coordinate development of one main Earth Month activity for all the City’s environmental teams to promote. Fortuitously, in 2020 I’d suggested an activity residents could complete at home: Earth Month Bingo. We adapted the actions to things people could do at home.

As Washington locked down at the start of Earth Month 2020, a key time of year for environmental programs, I adapted our messaging to support our residents’ new needs, pivoting to focus on food waste. With people cooking at home more, I offered a giveaway of food scrap pails to encourage composting food, one of our major goals. After a clamor of demand, we expanded our giveaway to over 300 pails.

As the pandemic continued, both our programs and outreach needed to shift due to limitations and uncertainty. Unable to promote events far in advance, I needed a way to let people know about events quickly. I created an email list, and more than 1000 people subscribed within months. With outreach booths at events no longer an option, we shifted programming online; a virtual recycling center tour drew nearly 100 people, many times more than past in-person tours. Based on these successes, I kept many of the changes in place.

Outreach Campaigns

I’ve created outreach and educational materials for a wide variety of programs. See my graphic design portfolio at Behance.

New Waste Hauling Contract Outreach

spread from outreach plan for Council, showing a timeline and a budget, illustrated with photographs and bold yellow graphics

City Council accepted a new ten-year contract for curbside waste collection services following a competitive process. A wide range of factors, including changes to the recycling system, wage and benefit increases over the past ten years, and increased contamination, led to a relatively significant rate increase for customers. Communications needed to explain rate increases as well as changes to services.

I created an outreach plan split into three phases over nine months, including communications from the city and the hauler. The plan identified goals and tactics for each phase, as well as key messages for target audiences. Outreach tactics included direct mail, social media, email, in-person booths and site visits, and a virtual event. I developed the rates mailer and a dedicated landing page for the project. My approach was to pair information about rate increases with promotion of waste reduction practices and an underused low-income senior discount program, which garnered significant interest and an increase in participation.

It was vital all residents could access the information, so the mailer design incorporated headlines in multiple languages and instructions on requesting translation; we received a Title VI request for translation of the mailer, which I managed. Machine translation was also available on the website.

Green Home Challenge

Fewer people were attending our in-person events, so we wanted a new approach to our Earth Month environmental education. Hoping to reach a broader audience and provide actionable content people could do at home, I created an email course inspired by Apartment Therapy’s The January Cure.

Each email identified a task to make their home greener and provided guidance and resources. Content covered several environmental topics, including recycling, waste reduction, pollution prevention, and hazardous waste.

We reached three times the audience we had at our most successful in-person events, with high open rates and rave reviews. Participation more than doubled the second year. I later adapted the content into a gamified online course.

Fill Your Own Bottle Initiative

Preventing waste is one of the recycling program’s most important goals, yet most challenging to promote. Noticing that two major park redesigns called for drinking fountains, I saw an opportunity to highlight reuse, and offered the project managers funding to upgrade to water bottle filling stations.

To promote the stations, I created a summer-long outreach initiative promoting reusable water bottles across Facebook and Instagram. An initial educational campaign was popular and garnered high engagement. An insert included with residents’ water bills emphasized the waste of bottled water.

Just before our followup engagement campaign launched, the City experienced a water main break that necessitated its first ever boil water order. We delayed our campaign several weeks; despite the interruption, we had higher participation than past engagement efforts.

three wooden signs shaped like water drops are placed on a slate gray background beside a bottle filling station
To accompany installation of a new water bottle filling station, I created a set of three simple wooden signs shaped like water drops to promote reuse.

Reports and Articles

Sustainability Plan

overview page of the report lists completed actions and highlights selected statistics using icons and colors aligned with the report chaptersThe City wanted its first Sustainability Plan to engage both staff and the public with a guide to action over the next ten years. I refined the plan to improve ease of use and increase its impact; I received a City Manager’s Award for my contributions.

To improve accessibility of the information, I created one-page summaries and a rich website at kirklandwa.gov/sustainabilityplan. Working closely with the project manager, I developed an engaging, easy-to-read format for the first annual progress report.

Food Service Ware Policy

visual scale aligns policy options by their level of regulation
I used a visual scale to display policy options by their level of regulation.

After my team successfully implemented a plastic bag ban, leadership was interested in other policy options to reduce single-use plastics. I analyzed food service ware policies across the US. To assess level of support and identify potential impacts, I conducted interviews with business owners.

After presenting leadership with initial findings on possible policy directions, I evaluated policy options for impacts to the environment, small businesses, and environmental justice. Based on the literature and to reduce impacts to small and minority-owned businesses, we recommended a different route than originally anticipated. The followup report was scheduled to be presented in Spring 2020, but the pandemic prevented further action.

Cart Tagging Program

We implemented a new protocol for cart tagging contamination in recycling. I created new, simpler cart tags that featured the most common problem items. Based on the success of the tagging protocol, I wrote this article to share the project with other local governments.