By Michael Behr— Wow, what a summer! I could not be more grateful for the time I spent learning from the incredibly smart, talented, and experienced goddesses at Minerva Strategies. I learned so much about the communications industry and even more importantly, I learned a lot about myself. As we all know,…
The Goddess Speaks
Minerva Strategies By Catherine Salgado— It seems like only yesterday—and simultaneously a thousand years ago—that our youngest kid’s daycare called to tell us that the center will close because teachers were having cold-like symptoms. This was in the early days of the pandemic, when our oldest, a kindergartener, was still attending school, and tests were not available right away. Two days after that call, Seattle Public Schools announced indefinite school closures, giving us…
Sara Veltkamp, Minerva East— How do we make our Zoom calls more engaging? What facilitation techniques work best in a virtual discussion? Are there ways we can make this online workshop better than the in–person version? Like many of you, we’ve been asking questions like these—for our team and on behalf of our clients—since the pandemic began. While definitive answers are in short supply and we don’t yet have meaningful data insights, we’ve…
Sara Veltkamp By Michael Behr – As a part of The Communications Network’s ComNetLOCAL Event series, I recently had the opportunity to participate in an intimate virtual conversation with Dr. Clarence B. Jones, civil rights legend, speechwriter, counsel, and close personal friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Check out the event with a full recording of the conversation here: ComNetworkSEATTLE: Racial Justice and Renewal with Dr. Clarence B. Jones. …
It’s not surprising that this summer’s reading recommendations have a distinct social justice focus. Our small but mighty team has been reckoning with race and pandemics and finding our footing in the fight for a more equitable world. We present a range of reading options that have informed and inspired our efforts, and we hope you consider adding these books to your list. Toni Morrison’s Beloved is no light read. She weaves a heartbreaking…
Michael Behr is the new Minerva Summer Intern and a current Seattle University marketing student. We [virtually] sat down with him to see how things are going and learn more about what brought him to this team of goddesses. Where are you from and what made you decide to come to Seattle? …
By Rhonda Stewart— Rhonda Stewart is a long-time friend of Minerva, a former client, and we hope, a future collaborator. She’s also a Black woman who’s been working in communications for 20 years as a journalist, consultant, and senior leader at nonprofits. Rhonda has interesting perspectives to share and we were particularly impressed…
Want to get our newsletters delivered to your inbox? Subscribe now! Dear Minerva Fan Club, Minerva Strategies usually lets our work speak for itself. Our team and clients are unwaveringly committed to social justice and focused on equity. People see our work and they know where we stand and what we stand for. So we…
By Sara Veltkamp— I bought a book a few years ago called But What If We’re Wrong by Chuck Klosterman. This book has had an outsized impact on my life—especially since I haven’t even read it. In fact, I don’t know what it’s about or what spurred me to buy it in the first place. Simply seeing the binding of this book on my…
Bookda Gheisar is the senior director for the new Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Port of Seattle. She has been an executive director of many organizations, a volunteer for many more, and has dedicated her life to fighting for social justice. She’s been on the front lines defending Iranians against discrimination at our northern border and, in December, she spent time at our southern border in Mexico with a group of interfaith women of…