By Luke Ilgenfritz – The Minerva team is gearing up for summer, which means our new intern is on board! Meet Sabrina Gonzales, who is joining our virtual environment from Allendale, Michigan. Her background in English and passion for environmental sustainability mixes well with Minerva Strategies’ mission to create positive change through smart communication. Read more to learn more about Sabrina and her goals…
The Goddess Speaks
Minerva Strategies Want to get our newsletters delivered to your inbox? Subscribe now! *|MC_PREVIEW_TEX Dear Minerva Fan Club, Like many people in the U.S., I am thrilled to be fully vaccinated. I cannot heap enough praise on the science, and people behind the science, who made this possible. Between the vaccine and a recent 10-day stretch of…
Who else feels like we’re all just yelling into a void these days? That even our most thoughtfully prepared, well-researched ideas and solutions to big problems only lead to arguments where both sides are more concerned with being right than reaching a mutual understanding? Just me? I didn’t think so. This style of approaching community discourse and problem solving is especially troubling amid a…
Kayla McMenamin By Sara Veltkamp– At Minerva, people hire us to help them solve communications challenges. Together, we wrestle with how to tell their story in a way that resonates with their audiences or figure out which platforms will reach and move people to action. But sometimes, if we’re lucky, our clients help us, too. I’m not going to mince words: I’ve struggled…
Sara Veltkamp By Kayla McMenamin— What does it mean to be a leader? And not just a leader by title only, but a truly effective leader. This is something I’ve thought a lot about throughout the past decade, both in my own personal experiences with leadership or being led, and in watching the events of our national leadership…
By Elise McGlothian— Astead Herndon is a national political reporter for The New York Times. He was previously a Washington-based political reporter and a City Hall reporter for The Boston Globe. As an undergraduate at the Marquette University in Wisconsin, Astead took a year off to work inside of a classroom through AmeriCorps. His experience eventually landed him…
Elise McGlothian By Sara Veltkamp, Minerva Vice President — As communicators who work with funders, nonprofit organizations, and coalitions consisting of both, the team at Minerva is in a good position to spot words and phrases that are losing meaning and specificity or can advance harmful narratives that make our work more challenging. I was excited to include “Now more than ever” and “pivot” to this list of words and phrases I’m so tired…
By Elise McGlothian— Kamara Daughtry is the creator of the Young Professional Network, Digital Career Opportunities Worldwide (DCOW) on Facebook that boasts more than 5,000 members. Its paid options provide different levels of membership, which you can learn more about here. The group is designed for journalists from all over the world to provide mentorship, opportunities, and career advice about…
By Elise McGlothian— In honor of Black History Month, The Goddess Speaks is highlighting the work of Black communicators. We begin this series with poet Kandice Head – whose first book explores her relationship with her late mother, civil injustices, and defining Black womanhood. This conversation has been edited for clarity. Where did you get the inspiration…
By Malia Mackey— Unlike most people living in Seattle, you are actually from Seattle. Where have you been and why did you come back? I came back to Seattle after four years of college in Eugene, OR at the University of Oregon (go Ducks!). I was here in Seattle for spring break during the pandemic…and we all know how that ended. After…