Resumé

Writing Experience

2013-2023
Organization Founder: Developed and implemented messaging for the public, donors, young farmers, retiring farmers and landowners for the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust. Managed social media, media relations, monthly e-updates, annual reports, video production and all other aspects of organizational communications while raising funds, identifying and completing farm preservation projects and successfully applying for accreditation by the Land Trust Alliance. Built the organization from $10,000 in seed money to $5 million in assets in 10 years. 

2010
Book Editor: Anthropology of Class and Consciousness. Presenting prehistoric, historic, and ethnographic data from Mongolia, China, Iceland, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, The Anthropological Study of Class and Consciousness offers a first step toward examining class as a central issue within anthropology. Contributors to this volume use the methods of historical materialism, cultural ecology, and political ecology to understand the realities of class and how they evolve. University of Colorado Press.

2008-09
Book Editor: Gambling Debt: Iceland’s Rise and Fall in the Global Economy. Chapters from anthropologists, sociologists, historians, economists, and key local participants focus on the neoliberal policies—mainly the privatization of banks and fishery resources—that concentrated wealth among a select few, skewed the distribution of capital in a way that Iceland had never experienced before, and plunged the country into a full-scale economic crisis. University of Colorado Press.

2003-2011
Newspaper Managing Editor, Voices of Central Pennsylvania (no longer publishing). Supervised a volunteer corps of 30-50 community members and Penn State students to produce an independent monthly newspaper. Cover stories included an expose on the industry behind artificial hormones in milk and labeling issues, expansion of land trust and conservation easements, the hand of developers in local planning and zoning, the lack of sex education in the high school and Penn State’s manipulation of statistics regarding sexual assault on and around campus. Sold advertising, increased distribution from hundreds to more than 20,000 readers monthly.

2009
Book Author: AFGE Then and Now: Proud to Make America Work. Organized, researched and wrote a 75th anniversary coffeetable-style book for the country’s largest union of federal workers. Coordinated photos and timeline with graphic design professional to create a book distributed to all guests at the union’s annual convention.

2008
Book Author: On the Global Waterfront: The fight to free the Charleston 5, with Paul Durrenberger. Monthly Review Press.

2009
Member communications: Plumbers and Mechanical Contractors of Northern Illinois. Research and write in-depth industry trend stories for union plumbing contractors in northern Illinois for reprint in national trade magazines.

2006
Book Editor: Anthropology Unbound: A field guide to the 21st century, with Paul Durrenberger. (Now in second edition.) Oxford University Press.

2007
Marketing: Kreiter, Byck and Associates. Developed new Web content for a small Illinois law firm.

2006
Cause-related marketing: Infant Welfare Society. Developed and wrote fundraising brochure as leave-behind and direct mail literature.

2005
Member communications: Utility Workers of America Local 102. Coordinated production and wrote content for new Web site for a union spanning four states.

2001 – 2005
Member communications: AFSCME Iowa. Develop and write weekly bargaining bulletins, edit legislative agendas and other political materials and redesign website content for statewide union representing more than 22,000 public employees.

2001 – 2004
Cause-related marketing: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Illinois. Develop and write tri-annual publication highlighting the fundraising, research and patient services of the statewide organization.

2000 – 2003
Member communications: Teamsters Local 705. Interviewed members and staff to write a quarterly newsletter in familiar voice for 21,000 union members.

2004
Book Author: Class Acts: An Anthropology of Urban Service Workers and Their Union, with Paul Durrenberger. Taylor and Francis Press.

2003
Book Author: Do I Want to be a Mom? A woman’s guide to the decision of a lifetime, with Diana Dell, M.D. Contemporary Books/McGraw Hill.

2001
Book Author: Labor Pains, Inside America’s New Union Movement. Monthly Review Press.

2001 – 2002
Newspaper: Iowa City Press-Citizen. As opinion page editor, wrote daily editorials for Iowa City’s primary newspaper. Edited letters to the editor and opinion pieces and did page layout. Awarded second place in Associated Press Managing Editors competition within first three months of employment. Gannett Corp.

2000 – 2001
Member communications: Service Employees International Union, Local 199. Developed communications strategy of bulletins and brochures for a contract campaign. Provide professional design, content and printing in one package.

2000
Marketing: Vortus E-Business Solutions. Developed web content to enhance business plans and trade association causes by creating networks of user-friendly content including interviews, business advice, product instructions and marketing materials.

1993 – 2000
Member communications: Service Employees International Union, Local 73. Communications Director for union local of 25,000 members under 350 contracts at thousands of worksites across Illinois. Designed and wrote a tabloid newspaper and site newsletters, scripted speeches and events, and developed the highest media presence of any union in Chicago.

2000
Cause-related marketing: Growing Home. Worked with a large executive board to develop a catchy fundraising brochure introducing an organization that uses organic farming to job train low income people.

1999
Cause-related marketing: Lawyers for the Creative Arts. Show donors how their money is put to work for artists in need with an annual benefit program highlighting success stories of artists, a clear explanation of the organization’s programs and engaging biographies of honorees.

Other publications

Bucknell University Alumni Magazine, profiles of alumni. 2005-2006.
Penn State Eberly College of Science Magazine, profiles of top researchers. 2004 – 2006.
The Connection, National Writers Union At-Large Local e-newsletter, published bimonthly, editor, 2001-2003
The Joyce Foundation, grant proposal, (with David Osterberg), for the Iowa Policy Project. 2001.
The Iowa Environment, publication of the Iowa Environmental Council, writer and editor, 2001.
Iowa Alumni Magazine, “Gods, Bears, Stones and Stars.” Profile of Spanish professor turned archeologist. 2001.
North American Review, creative nonfiction essay, “Organizing: When it Works” and news article, “Cameras Like Guns,” 2001, 1989 respectively.
Indiana Labor News, “Gary Gets Behind Hospital Workers.” Report on Gary, Indiana hospital strike. 2000.
Intellectual Capital, web magazine (1999), “Why Argue with a Living Wage?”
Sojourners Magazine, “Struggles at Hormel,” 1987. Report on UFCW P-9 Strike.

Ethnographic research

1996 – 2000 Service Employees International Union, Local 73 Ethnographic observation and interviews, attending union and academic meetings, acting as liaison between union staff and researcher, administering survey instruments and participating in the interpretation of data.
2002 – 2003 International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 705 Ethnographic observation and interviews, attending union meetings, participating in the input and interpretation of data and attending national and regional anthropological meetings to present papers.
2003 – 2006 Service Employees International Union, 1199P Ethnographic observation and interviews, attending union meetings, participating in the input and interpretation of data and attending national and regional anthropological meetings to present papers.

Presentations at Academic Conferences

1997
“Selling” anthropology to the union. Society for Applied Anthropology. The Way I See It: Stewards, Staff, and Members. Central States Anthropological Society.1998 Participated in session for anthropologists and activists for Society for Applied Anthropology.
1999
– Leadership and Crisis Among Chicago Hospital Workers. Society for Applied Anthropology
– Who Owes Who? Central States Anthropological Society.
2000
– Image Making in Union America. Society for Applied Anthropology.
– When Anthropology Fails. Central States Anthropological Society meetings.
2002
Anthropology and Unions. Practical obstacles to anthropology in unions. Chicago Association of Practicing Anthropologists, December meeting.
2003
Roundtable on Labor and Anthropology. Central States Anthropological Society.
2005
Panel member: Society for Cultural Anthropology’s Labor Forum in Atlanta, Ga.

Papers published in peer-reviewed journals

(All publications co-authored with E. Paul Durrenberger)
1997 Getting a Raise: Organizing Workers in an Industrializing Hospital. Journal of Anthropological Research 53(1):31-46.
The Dance of Power: Ritual and Agency among Unionized American Health Care Workers. American Anthropologist 99 (3):489-495.
The Way I see It: Perspectives on the Labor Movement from the People in it. Anthropology and Humanism. 22(2):159-169.
1999 Abstract, the Concrete, the Political, and the Academic: Anthropology and a Labor Union in the United States. Human Organization 58(3):305-312.
The Weak Suffer What They Must: A Natural Experiment in Thought and Structure. American Anthropologist 101 (4):783-793.
2000 When Anthropology Fails: Stories from the Ethnographic Front. Anthropology and Humanism 25 (1):50-63
2005 Checking for Relationships Across Domains. Field Methods Vol. 17(2):150-169.
Staff, Stewards, and Strikes: Labor’s Communication Gap. Journal of Anthropological Research. Vol 51(2):179-200

Media Relations

Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, 2013-2023, feature stories in the Des Moines Register, Business Record, Press-Citizen, Gazette, Associated Press, featured on broadcast TV news shows in multiple cities, national and international academic papers and journals, mentions in Civil Eats and other national magazines and multiple podcasts including The Secret Ingredient with Tom Philpott and Raj Patel.
Greg Palast, 2007 Helped New York Times best selling author promote his book Armed Madhouse through labor publications around the country.
AFSCME Council 13 Pennsylvania, 2005 – 2007 Worked with full time communicator to increase union’s visibility in local press by calling, emailing and faxing weekly and daily newspapers with news of elected union officials. Trained senior staff in media relations.
Teamsters Local 238, Spring Summer 2001 Developed media campaign to support first contract negotiations with resistant employer.
Iowa Policy Project, June 2001 Worked with a former state legislator and top academics promoting a major study of Iowa’s economy through media materials and editorial meetings.
American Federation of Teachers, February 2001 Developed a radio campaign to increase the visibility of unions as effective means of resolving problems and creating a better work environment.
Chicago Federation of Labor, Labor Day 2000 Provided media support for Labor Day Art Exhibit sponsored by Chicago’s largest labor organization. Received media coverage including both feature articles and hard news in all major Chicago outlets.

Related Experience

Contest Judge: The American Federation of Teachers Communications Awards (2000), and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881 Scholarship Contest (2000).
Instructor: Community Media Workshop, Chicago, 2004 – present. Power Pitching for Non Profits
Regan Communications, 2007. Power Pitching for Non Profits Webinar
Iowa Labor Center, 2000 – 2002. Media Relations, Designing an Effective Newsletter, Writing Politics Into Your Newsletter
American Postal Workers Union Postal Press Association, 2001. Annual Editors Conference “Writing Features and News Stories”
Service Employees International Union, 1993 – 1997 Steward Trainings,”Getting the Word Out” Stewards Conference, Local 73 SEIU. Developing Your Organizing Message for the Media, National Organizing Conference, SEIU Represented bargaining units (1,200 workers) at three hospitals and organized a new unit while serving as Communications Director.
Union Organizer Service Employees International Union, Local 32B-32J, Union, NJ. 1989-1990
Union Representative Iowa United Professionals, Cedar Rapids, IA. 1987 – 1989

Education and Affiliations

The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA – B.A. in English/Journalism.
National Writers Union, Chair, Chicago chapter, 1999-2000, National Delegate, 1999, 2001, 2003, Eastern Vice President for Organizing, At-Large Local, 2002 – 2005.
Who’s Who of American Women 2000, of America 2001, of World 2001.
Illinois State Labor Press Association, vice president, 1998-2000.
American Civil Liberties Union, Member 1997 – Present.
Labor and Employment Relations Association, Member 2007 – 2010.
Nature Conservancy, Member, 2011.
Practical Farmers of Iowa, Member, 2011.
Iowa Farmers Union, Board Member, 2022-present