Three situations. Three different muscles.
Forget the job titles. Here is how I think and operate when it actually matters.
When leadership collapsed overnight, I had 48 hours to stabilize.
Mountain States Legal Foundation was a public-interest law firm in active federal litigation against the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management. When the president departed abruptly under intense scrutiny, I was the communications lead. I built a rapid-response strategy with the board, including a member who now serves in the U.S. House. Every message was calibrated: press statements that defused speculation without compromising the litigation, donor communications that acknowledged disruption without projecting weakness, and internal messaging that kept a small team steady while the ground shifted.
I built a national policy forum and prepped Cabinet Secretaries for the stage.
I built the Energy Future Forum from scratch in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an annual convening of senior government officials, industry executives, and policy researchers on energy, regulatory, and AI-infrastructure questions. I have prepared two U.S. Secretaries of Energy, a FERC Chairman, and a U.S. Ambassador to the EU for broadcast appearances, on-camera interviews, and live audience Q&A. The work is messaging frameworks that translate technical policy for expert and general audiences, anticipating hostile questions, and coaching leaders through high-exposure moments. I coordinate stakeholders from the Heritage Foundation to the Brookings Institution, holding a coherent narrative across competing perspectives.
I turned a small publication into a national editorial platform.
As Editor-in-Chief of the Student Free Press Association, I rebuilt the operation. I recruited and mentored more than fifty writers, set editorial standards, and built a multi-platform distribution strategy before most organizations in our space were thinking about it.