Portland, Oregon, United States
Columbia Bank, formerly Umpqua Bank, is the largest bank by asset size headquartered out West. I helped shape the company's enterprise narrative and led an expert team of storytellers spanning corporate communications, content marketing, thought leadership, and copywriting. As a senior leader, I oversaw our internal and external communications functions, helping to craft and deliver strategic messaging for media, customers, shareholders, and associates. We helped the company navigate COVID, several rebrands, cybersecurity and legal crises, and significant M&A activity (including a merger of equals), and developed effective marketing and sales content that led to new business.
I've written for consumer brands including REI, Subaru, and Umpqua Bank. My corporate storytelling has been published in or covered by publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, USA Today, and The New York Times. I've received awards from the Public Relations Society of America, Society of Professional Journalists, and AVA Digital (for internal communications). I'm in the market for FTE, but still enjoy tackling passion projects when I have time. Feel free to reach out if you want to connect! I'm always happy to introduce you to some of the great copy/communications/content professionals in my network if I don't have time to help you out.
I spent this stretch writing copy good and managing a great team that spans both strategy and execution. In November, 2018, we won a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) award for one of the Alaska Airlines advertorials I wrote. In January, The New York Times picked up one of my data stories. On March, 14th 2019 Vacasa eliminated its National Growth Marketing team. I accepted a severance package and moved on.
I wrote good copy, helped lead the voice/tone portion of our rebrand, and created data stories that were picked up by national publications including USA Today, Business Insider, Travel & Leisure, FOX Business, Coastal Living, and Forbes.
I wrote good copy and helped our leadership team tell big stories. My ghostwriting during this time was featured in Forbes, Fortune, and leading personal finance, real estate, short-term rental, vacation rental, and investment publications. A story I wrote about an employee's acts of heroism during Hurricane Irma resulted in that employee being featured on news broadcasts and invited to speak at industry events.
I wrote good copy and managed another great team. In her keynote at the 2017 Portland Digital Summit, best-selling author and digital marketing pioneer Ann Handley featured an excerpt from a blog post I wrote during this time at Simple. The post highlighted Simple's culture by telling the story behind our most popular email.
I wrote good copy and helped create a vibrant content marketing ecosystem in the typically unadventurous banking and finance industry. We produced a steady stream of high-quality, millennial-focused personal finance stories—ranging from editorialized budgets to customer stories and GIFs—despite compliance and regulatory roadblocks.
I wrote good copy and co-led a small but mighty creative team in promoting daily 'flash' sales to five million+ members. I helped create our award-winning blog and published over 2,000 stories written by authors ranging from National Geographic explorers to adventure athletes and Oregon’s poet laureate. One of these stories was named "Best Travel Feature" by the North American Travel Journalists Association.
I wrote good copy and built a team of scrappy copywriters to crank out brand, digital, social, and product copy in a fast-paced e-commerce retail environment. We helped launch three activewear apparel brands that The Clymb created and A/B tested our copy through every piece of the funnel.
The Clymb's first copywriter and the second hire on its marketing team, I wrote good copy while mastering humility in the face of A/B testing. I helped set brand voice and tone, create brand and style guidelines, and build production, creative, and digital advertising copywriting processes.