CREATING COMPELLING COMMUNICATIONS

I’m an expert storyteller who can write college application essays, cover letters, speeches, press releases, features, and marketing and web copy. I’ve written about environmental science, education, public affairs, and computer and health sciences for thirty years. I’ve built communications programs for Yale, Johns Hopkins, American and Yeshiva universities, and I’ll provide you or your company high-quality content that will give you a competitive edge.

Areas of Expertise

Strategic communications

Cover letters

Press releases/features

Publications

Speechwriting

Communications Philosophy

Successful communications requires faith in the creative instinct that can’t be run through a model or be quantified. It entails an ability to anticipate an organization’s needs, to put the organization’s efforts in the context of the big issues of the day, to show that your people are getting their fingernails dirty for the sake of humanity. Sound hokey? Most people want to change the world for the better. If you can make the moral case for what you do, you’ll cut through the noise and get people’s attention. Storytelling, combined with the power of social media, is your salvation.

Publications

Dear Dave,

I just want to drop a note to thank you for your help in revising my speech. If I hadn’t been prompted by you to share my personal journey, I never would have told the story that I shared. Thank you for challenging me to be brave. The words I spoke have been met with an overflow of kindness and gratitude. You really helped me to discover my story and craft it in a beautiful way.

~ Seheri Swint on her 2017 Johns Hopkins graduation speech, which is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImqmZnpuq7o.)

Dave,

Thank you so much! This is lovely. I appreciate all of your hard work.

~ Lynn Friedman, clinical psychologist, adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins School of Education, in response to my profile, “In Mental Health Counseling, Freud Lives.”

Dave,

This fabulous. I read about Lynne with great interest. Although I knew she was a judge, I didn’t know she was this accomplished. Thank you for highlighting our students and promoting Counseling.”

~ Norma Day-Vines, professor, Johns Hopkins School of Education, in response to my article on Judge Lynne Battaglia “For This Judge, Epathy is Good Medicine.”

David,

Latest issue [of Environment Yale] is humbling, inspiring and most welcome. Many thanks for your good work.

~ Steve at Evergreen Rowing

David,

Beautifully written, well-organized & clear release. Wish our local universities could do that."

Lisa Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, in response to a press release on Yale research on road runoff spurring spotted salamander evolution

David,

Your press release is fantastic. Are you a scientist as well as a communications person?

~ Sara Rimer, former reporter for The New York Times

Testimonials

Press releases and feature stories