Work

Role

Directed the response in the third month on the job, while traveling for Thanksgiving, as the organization's one-person communications team. Drafted and revised the statement with leadership, built the message hierarchy and channel protocols, ran the media inbox and coordinated the executive director's interviews.

Objective

Protect the organization's credibility after the Nov. 26, 2025 shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House, six days before Giving Tuesday, as coverage tied the attack to the Afghan allies the organization serves. Within two days, the State Department had paused visas for all Afghan passport holders.

Strategy

Lead with the victims. Keep the shooter's immigration history to background briefings with reporters.

Exhibit

Tactics

• Statement published on Thanksgiving, the day after the shooting: the two Guard members first, the allies last.
• Message hierarchy and channel protocols set before the first interview.
• Media inbox running about five hours after the shooting; two early Thanksgiving-morning requests acknowledged within about 20 minutes.
• Reporters vetted, and the executive director briefed, before interviews.
• Six of the 19 media requests became interviews with the executive director.
• Year-end messaging reworked, with social fundraising scaled back and the mail appeal delayed.
• Crisis Communications Media Guide written for spokespeople and staff, updated February 2026: approved answers, risk ratings by channel and rules for fundraising during a crisis.

Timeline

1. Nov. 26Media inbox live, about five hours after the shooting.
2. Nov. 27Early broadcast requests answered within about 20 minutes. The Washington Post interview by phone. Statement published that evening.
3. Nov. 28Reuters interview.
4. Nov. 29Live on CNN International.
5. Dec. 1CBS News in person, then The Wall Street Journal.
6. Dec. 2Giving Tuesday, with year-end messaging reworked.

Outcome

Sources

Role

Conceived and ran the campaign from concept to the final story, building the story process with program teams. Beforehand, verified the donor email migration, validated the list and ran the domain warm-up. Briefed the board on the campaign on Aug. 12, 2026.

Objective

Mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of Kabul in August 2026 and grow August online giving over 2025, a year when evacuation flights had driven giving, with a sustainment story donors found harder to see.

Strategy

Let allies carry the campaign. Each story followed one ally to the step where the case stopped, and a longform piece carried the advocacy asks.

Setup

• Donor email moved from CharityEngine, where about 101,000 contacts sat across about 100 overlapping lists, to Mailchimp, May to July 2026.
• The consultants' consent filter carried about 66,700 contacts. Validation then suppressed about 4,300 invalid addresses, leaving about 62,400.
• The new domain warmed in stages. The final warm-up send reached 7,633 donors who had not given in two years: 99.1 percent delivered, one spam complaint.
• Peter Bird, senior associate of development operations, found and fixed the domain's underlying issues.

Tactics

• 17 ally stories published from Aug. 8 to 30, 2026, each approved by the ally before it ran.
• Each story ran under a name the ally approved, and every draft cleared caseworker, program and advocacy review.
• Story collection built into client intake, with threats reported to program staff the same day whether or not a story ran, and a caseworker check-in at any sign of distress.
• The executive director's anniversary op-ed placed in the Washington Examiner, July 28, 2026.

Exhibit

One of the 17 Day 1,827 story cards, as published Aug. 14, 2026.

Outcome

Sources

Role

Wrote the brand refresh proposal, then directed NickelBronx through the brand system and the rebuild of nooneleft.org. Hired the firm, ran the website brief, consolidated staff feedback into one set of comments per page and presented the brand and site to the board on Aug. 12, 2026.

Objective

Replace a pre-2021 look and evacuation-era language with a brand and website built for resettlement and advocacy.

Strategy

Change the language first, then the look, then the site. Give allies seeking help and supporters separate paths from the first screen.

Tactics

• Set the Q1 2026 messaging framework, which moved every channel from evacuation-era terms to sustainment and resettlement: allies, not SIVs; clients, not beneficiaries.
• Built early palette and lockup drafts in May 2026. NickelBronx's lead designer produced the final system: three logo lockups that keep the organization's two silhouettes, and a six-color palette.
• nooneleft.org rebuilt from Wix to Webflow with a help link for allies above the logo on every page. Applications reach the program team the moment an ally submits.

Exhibit

nooneleft.org after the Oct. 19, 2026 relaunch.

Outcome

Sources

Role

Set message strategy, framing and press posture. Wrote the advance release, the pitch and the post-hearing statement, and coordinated on the executive director's statement for the record.

Objective

Get the case for Afghan allies into coverage of a joint hearing of two Senate Judiciary subcommittees on Jan. 14, 2026, on the vetting of Afghans paroled into the U.S. The organization submitted statements for the record and had no witness.

Strategy

Put combat veterans in front, two days before members spoke.

Exhibit

Tactics

• Pitched 50 reporters individually on Jan. 12, from wire services and networks to defense trade outlets.
• Advance release, "Combat Veterans Defend SIV Program Ahead of Senate Hearing," published Jan. 13 and built around statements for the record from veterans and allies, which the Director of Advocacy recruited.
• The executive director's interview with Task & Purpose set up the day after the pitch.
• Post-hearing statement sent the evening of the hearing.

Timeline

1. Jan. 1250 reporters pitched individually.
2. Jan. 13Advance release published. Task & Purpose interviews the executive director.
3. Jan. 14Hearing day. Task & Purpose runs; post-hearing statement out that evening.
4. Jan. 15Stars and Stripes runs.
5. Jan. 16KPBS runs.

Pull-through

Outcome

Task & Purpose ran the day of the hearing, and Stars and Stripes and KPBS followed in the next two days. All three were on the Jan. 12 pitch list, and all three quoted the executive director. Stars and Stripes carried the advance release's national-security framing and quote nearly word for word.

Sources