Civic Engagement

I am a researcher and practitioner of various types of engagement. For instance, I study the factors that affect whether people comment online, while the blog I ran for CNYSpeaks won the New York State Associated Press Association’s Best Online Content Award in 2009 and got kudos from organizations such as the Nieman Lab.

I am also an experienced process designer, facilitator, and process evaluator with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Conflict Resolution from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. See my article with Dr. Tina Nabatchi in the Journal of Public Deliberation on evaluating a unique citizen jury process during the 2012 election. I also see engagement as key to enhancing the effects of various public health initiatives. I developed the social media policy and initial social media content for the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion‘s Healthy Monday Syracuse project, and served as the initial engagement manager for the Allyn Foundation‘s ABC Cayuga Early Childhood Development project.

My interest in engagement started with a project for the Syracuse Post-Standard called CNYSpeaks, which directly engaged citizens on import community issues. Using blogs, journalistic articles, facilitated live forums, surveys, and social media, we engaged thousands of participants, and won a $100,000 Chancellor’s Leadership Award.

Below are some examples of how CNYSpeaks took shape in print. The blog and other media channels are no longer available. All the pieces were authored by me. They are the property of The Post-Standard.

LaunchCover(pdf); LaunchInside(pdf); Text Only