It’s not just work. It’s transformative change.
*Click on the images below to access Skipton Creative writing samples.
When I wrote an article on listening and how it expands the vessel that is me, I was talking about people and stories like this one. Omari Amili knows of many people on similar journeys to safety and success. “I’m not some exceptional individual,” he says. “A lot of people in prison have the potential to do the same thing.” In everything he does, including how he tells his story, he’s working to make the pathway easier for others.
University of Washington Tacoma
Sometimes when I’m interviewing someone fireworks go off in my head because of all the connected themes and wisdom coming together. That was the case when I listened to Dr. Tabitha Espina talk about her complex identity in the context of U.S. colonialism, including linguistic imperialism, and her goal as the new writing director at UW Tacoma to be the opposite of a language gatekeeper.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
“People who have never studied philosophy have a hard time imagining what we do,” says Andrea Woody, UW Divisional Dean of Social Sciences. “Philosophy is something we’re always going to need — people pondering very general conceptual issues that surround almost any enterprise.” Take a moment to hear the perspectives of Michael Podlin, a former UW fundraiser and Woody, as they talk about an unrestricted estate gift that’s nothing short of enlightened.
University of Washington College of Education
For the third year in a row I’ve supported the UW College of Education in creating its annual publication, Advancing Educational Justice, writing many of the stories, collaborating in the design process and providing editing support. It’s a treat to collaborate with such a stellar team that includes the excellent designer Asha Hossain.
University of Washington College of Education
The UW School Psychology Program has long worked to be culturally responsive and has intentionally worked in partnership with Seattle Public Schools (SPS). So, when UW College of Education Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Janine Jones, Ph.D. and School Psychology Program Director Kristen Missall, Ph.D. heard about a new grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Education focused on increasing the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address a shortage of mental health service professionals in schools, they knew they had to apply. This story was written as part of the UW College of Education’s annual publication, Advancing Educational Justice.
University of Washington College of Education
As the U.S. is facing another literacy crisis, particularly with the Science of Reading, Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture in the UW College of Education’s Teaching, Learning & Curriculum program Lakeya Afolalu has a solution. It’s to challenge schools and society to redefine literacy. “If we solely define literacy as reading and writing, then we omit the diverse ways that people communicate through multiple modalities,” she says. “We need to think more broadly about literacy, which will help schools and spaces create anti-racist, equitable and socioemotional approaches to literacy education. This story was written as part of the UW College of Education’s annual publication, Advancing Educational Justice.
Kendeda Fund
As the Kendeda Fund ended their 30-year and more than $1-billion grant making journey at the end of 2023, Skipton Creative provided writing and editing support for their recently-launched legacy website and more. The philanthropy sector has much to gain by exploring their transformative work, and even more importantly how they worked, plus the why and how of spending all their assets within their founder’s lifetime.
redefined atlanta
There are many reasons why people get involved in improving public education. The draw is professional and personal for Kristen Silton, a member of the first group of redefinED atlanta Reimagining & Innovating for Schools Everywhere (A.R.I.S.E.) fellows. Read more on the redefinED atlanta blog.
Swedish Foundation
This article helps to tell the story of the joy of giving in community alongside some of the technical aspects and opportunities related to taxes and estate planning.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
UW College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (EJI) Maya Smith explains the crucial work that will be accomplished with funding from the new EJI Fund. Ensuring that faculty and staff are equipped to support students within a culture of equity, justice and inclusion is why Arts & Sciences Dean Dianne Harris created Smith’s position in 2022. Then, this year, the college launched the EJI Fund to provide additional resources for this effort. The College is now working to grow the fund, with the ultimate goal of an endowment to support this work in perpetuity.
Swedish Foundation
Swedish Labor and Delivery helps bring around 600 babies into the world each month and the Lytle Center for Pregnancy and Newborns provides those families with a welcoming place before and after birth for learning, health evaluations and ongoing support. Just over a decade ago, this lively hub was merely a proposal seeking its champions. The idea found its match in Chuck and Karen Lytle. The Lytles became the center’s founding donors and were soon joined by other critical supporters in the Swedish community.
University of washington Department of Bioengineering
From recognizing brilliance to celebrating student excellence, providing writing, editing and headline support on this report with a very quick turn-around was a joy.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
“Almost 80 million people speak Telugu,” says Hanuma Kodavalla. “Not many people know its richness as a language and culture.” He and his wife recently established the Hanuma and Anuradha Kodavalla Endowed Chair in Telugu at the UW. The generous gift provides an invaluable addition to the College of Arts & Sciences and Department of Asian Languages & Literature. By enhancing the University’s ability to recruit and retain faculty with expertise in Telugu language, culture, and literature, the endowment ensures that more people will experience the language’s treasures for many years to come.
Swedish Foundation
“The need for more programs from a national standpoint is profound, especially as the country is grappling with reproductive rights,” says OB/GYN Residency Program Director Suzanne Peterson, M.D. “Nationally, only 50 percent of counties have an OB/GYN, and there’s only been one residency program across Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.” Swedish’s newest residency program doubles that capacity to train physicians.
Swedish Foundation
By making progress in clinical services, population health (involving data collection), culture change and care navigation, the LGBTQI+ Program seeks to improve LGBTQI+ patient experiences and outcomes. As with most equity work focusing on a particular group of underrepresented people, the resulting changes benefit everyone.
Swedish Foundation
This proposal seeks support for LGBTQIA+ care.
Swedish Foundation
This funding proposal seeks support for the Swedish Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center.
redefined atlanta
On Aug. 7, 2023, PEACE Academy welcomed students into the building for the first time. The only state charter-approved public school in Georgia with a culturally inclusive curriculum, this milestone marks the culmination of an enormous, inspired and coordinated effort on behalf of students. Founder Ebony Payne Brown shares the inspiring journey of opening PEACE Academy on the redefinED atlanta blog.
Swedish Foundation
Now celebrating its tenth year, the Swedish MS Center has created a model that combines the best that healthcare and humanity can offer. A world leader in treatment and research, the center also provides vocational support, social services, neurocognitive support, wellness programs and an adventure program like none other.
redefined atlanta
Founder and Head of Schools Kolt Bloxson shares some of the why and how of starting Miles Ahead Charter School on the redefinED atlanta blog.
UW Medicine
This story about UW Medicine’s Living Donor Liver Transplant program and the amazing ability of the liver to regenerate also features the inspiring story of Joe Wilson. He explains why he decided to be a living non-directed donor, someone who selflessly gives a portion of their liver not to someone they know, but to whoever might need it.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
A fascinating story about a UW School of Law student headed to the UW School of Medicine who seems to have found her one true calling at the morgue.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
Graduates of UW Law’s LL.M. and M.J. degree programs share their varied backgrounds and what inspired them to become Huskies.
leader initiative
This story focuses on the complicated and urgent task of building a coalition to diversify the educator workforce. “You can feel like you are on an island in this building with 75% native, diverse students,” says Chelsea Craig, assistant principal at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary. “I am desperate for teachers of color, educators of color in all capacities. Our kids are sitting here waiting for this.”
leader initiative
Mount Vernon School District teacher Adan Rodriguez’s ultimate vision of the legacy of this work is for it to come naturally to people. “My vision is to get to that point where we create a call-in culture versus a call-out culture,” he says. “I would like to see everyone being comfortable with difficult conversations, staff representative of the student body, and community involvement because we’ve created a welcoming environment for everyone to come in and share their thoughts.”
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
“We get to say, ‘Yes, what you are doing is amazing, please do more of that,’” says Jean Dennison, UW associate professor of American Indian Studies and co-director of the Center for American Indian & Indigenous Studies (CAIIS). “We’re fundamentally intervening and creating spaces of possibility.”
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
First-year student Lucy Arnold talks about the experience of being the only person on the trip without lived experience of being an immigrant or a relative of one. “There’s extreme power in people from immigrant communities providing advocacy and being at the forefront,” says Arnold. “It’s also crucial for people like me without lived immigration experience to step up and substantively support and contribute to compassionate immigration policy, and to do this in a way that centers the efforts, priorities, and voices of immigrant communities. We all have deep stakes in condemning the current criminalizing, racist immigration system as fundamentally cruel and against our values, so that we can make our society more accepting, equitable, and safe.”
redefinED atlanta
Tanya Holmes shares her wisdom about the importance of attendance in a redefinED atlanta blog post.
Swedish Foundation
“Women’s shelters and intermediate homes aren’t supposed to be a permanent stop,” says Swedish Cancer Institute (SCI) Executive Director Sara Jo Grethlein, M.D. “They are supposed to offer safe ground while you plan your next step, but sometimes the next step is a leap too far.” At the same time, health care settings are experiencing severe staffing shortages with openings at every level, and especially in entry-level positions where a medical background isn’t needed. This story is about a program seeking to address these two challenges.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
“Seeing lawyers making sure families were reunited alongside organizers and community members was the antidote to how powerless I felt,” says Ayla Kadah, a UW School of Law third-year student. “It also made me realize the critical role lawyers can play within movements and alongside organizers.”
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
“The challenge here is whether a person should be released to treatment or confined to jail,” says Brenda Williams (no relation to the case), UW School of Law teaching professor and director of the Tribal Court Clinic. “This is a case about the two sides of the criminal justice system. The Tribal courts are in a realm where community protection and Tribal member wellness, even for the accused, are both central to the process. Generally, state courts tend to be wholly punitive and expensive. Defendants incarcerated in a jail cell costs governments just over $70,000 per misdemeanor defendant, per year. And with that cost, how has the system addressed the issues that put them there in the first place?”
leader initiative
“This isn’t just feel-good work, this is serious systems change work,” says Ken Bergevin, chair and associate professor of the graduate program in education administration at Heritage University in Toppenish, Wash. “This is being brave enough to change things we think are cast in stone when they are not.”
UW Medicine
“The most important work I am doing now is supporting a group of medical students, Seeds of BAMM,” says retired doctor and medical executive Rayburn Lewis, MD ’78, Res. ’80, Chief Res. ’83. “Their work is not universally admired in the UW School of Medicine. They remind me of my peer group half-a-century ago — it’s not the role of the young to plod moderately towards progress.”
“It’s the job of the ‘Elders,’ as we are called, to provide a buffer, act as advocates for and advise the students on their pathway.”
UW Medicine
“When you are doing equity work, you are tackling the hardest problems in an area,” says Kemi Doll, MD, MSCR, Fred Hutch physician and associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“You are not assuming the best circumstances, but rather what happens when everything goes wrong. That’s why what we find out is helpful to everyone.”
leader initiative
It’s exciting to see what’s already in place to remove barriers and increase and retain educators that reflect student identities in Washington’s Educational Service District 112. It’s even more exciting to see how they are building on existing efforts as part of the LEADER Initiative with representatives from Clark College, Lower Columbia College, Washington State University, Vancouver (WSU-V), Evergreen School District, the Cowlitz Tribe, Camas School District, Clark County Latino Youth, and the Ethnic Support Council.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
I love interviewing eloquent people doing smart and unexpected things to make significant change. Christine Minhee fits that description. It was a joy to help amplify her excellent work in standing up for humanity.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
This story concerns legal actions threatening the Indian Child Welfare Act. At a time when more cases like Haaland v. Brackeen are coming before a conservative Supreme court, helping students make connections and deepening the court’s understanding of culturally responsive, multi-dimensional solutions becomes ever-more urgent.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
Imposed on some 10 million people throughout the United States, Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) are often likened to a modern-day debtors' prison criminalizing poverty. In Washington state, LFOs have historically been added to every criminal sentence, accruing interest at 12% per annum. Because of the advocacy of many, E2SHB 1783 eliminated the 12% interest rate for convictions on or after June 7, 2018 – excluding victim restitution. For people convicted before that date, the law grants a right to removal of the accrued 12% — but only if the person files a motion with the court. This story written for the UW School of Law shares a legal empowerment solution, the Justice in Motion Web App from Living with Conviction (LwC) designed to help people file those motions. Essential to the app's success is LwC’s approach of its formerly incarcerated team offering hands-on help on how to use the app if someone needs assistance.
redefined atlanta
This redefinED atlanta blog post talks about voting for education as a way to celebrate Black History Month by advancing future opportunities.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
Listening and processing how we each experience the world changes me every time I work on a story. I want readers to experience that sense of being "moved" in every story I work on. This story, written for the UW School of Law, highlights how sharing lived experiences can influence decision-makers. To counteract racial bias in the courtroom, law students used their personal experiences with racial bias to inform the Washington State Supreme Court. The subsequent ruling puts judges and attorneys on notice. While the outcome is cause for celebration, students also see it as a small step among many needed changes.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
In practice, what does protecting democracy look like? This story offers a great example of inspiring people using their skills and experience to hold powerful companies like Meta accountable.
University of Washington College of Engineering
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in four people in the United States lives with a disability. “The presence of disability is everywhere,” says Heather Feldner, UW Medicine assistant professor in Rehabilitation Medicine and associate director with the UW Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE). “But how disability has been constructed, as an individual problem that needs to be fixed, leads to exclusion and discrimination.” It was a pleasure to work on this story about a better way forward for everyone.
leader initiative
I loved the chance to amplify this wisdom as part of my storytelling work for the LEADER Initiative: Instead of talking people out of quitting because environments aren’t ready for students, teachers and families, Trish Millines Dziko would rather build a shared vision. She points out that building a shared vision involves something other than schools comparing themselves to one another and competing to be the best in the state. It requires culture change, long-term collaboration and thinking through what it means to be well-educated in Washington state. Millines Dziko is the co-founder and executive director of Technology Access Foundation (TAF), a Seattle-based nonprofit redefining K-12 public education in Washington state.
leader initiative
“Many well-intentioned people think ethnic studies is just multi-cultural education — heroes and holidays,” says Tracy Castro-Gill, Executive Director of Washington Ethnic Studies Now (WAESN). “Ethnic studies is anti-racist, abolitionist and student-centered, young people taking ownership and demanding the education they deserve.” This story highlights the role of curriculum in changing oppressive systems and increasing teacher retention.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON School of Law
Sometimes news on the world stage seems so big, it’s easy to forget that individual journeys weave into that big picture in clarifying and inspiring ways. This piece, sharing the story and views of UW law school alumnus Keith Hand reminds how we’re all connected.
University of Washington College of Education
Whenever I write a story, in addition to understanding the strategy and audiences of my client, I also ask how the person I’m interviewing might use the story to further their work. In the case of this piece, there was a need to increase understanding and trust with child care providers so more can benefit from this program. Keeping this in mind helped me to center this audience in a way that aligns with the work that the story describes.
University of Washington College of Education
"In this moment of pandemic and climate catastrophe and emboldened white supremacy, we are among the communities and voices needed to enact a possible future for all people,” says University of Washington’s Banks Center for Educational Justice Director Dr. Django Paris. He acknowledges that while it may sound like a grand statement, it's happening. "It's time for society, including institutions of higher ed and pre-k-12 schools to follow this leadership as we research, teach and learn together. The answers are in our communities." It was an honor to help amplify these leaders and this essential work.
University of Washington College of Education
"There's just not many teachers like us," says Will Powell, a resource teacher at Chief Sealth International High School. "By unapologetically coming into spaces, being ourselves and still using slang, showing a different perception of what it means to be a teacher, it switches the trajectory of what students can do with their own lives." The voices of these four men convey exactly what we need more of to create a whole education system and society. Interviewing and attempting to do their words justice was one of the highlights of my year.
University of Washington College of Education
This story took more doing than is typical for me. When I conducted the interviews, my mandate was to center the people and the story in a way that truly showed their brilliance and power. Initially, I missed the mark, falling into the trap of centering oppression in a way that overshadowed the brilliance. So, I went back to the drawing board and got it right, working to keep the burden on me and not take any more time than necessary from the essential work of the educators featured. Growing is painful, but it’s this ongoing transformation that I live and work for. Please read on to share in the light and leadership that these women bring to the world.
University of Washington College of Education
"So much of society is tied to the gold rush, the 'eureka, I found it! It's mine," says Jondou Chen, a UW College of Education associate teaching professor in the Education, Communities and Organizations (ECO) undergraduate program. "What if instead of maximizing claims and capital as the goal, we imagined other possibilities? Having enough is important, and my enough is tied to the community around me." This story demonstrates how systems of education can responsively evolve, leading with representation and wisdom.
leader initiative
“When I started student teaching, my school consisted of an all-white mono-lingual staff teaching predominantly Latino Spanish speaking students. I was going home with migraines and thinking, this cannot be how we treat or educate children. I was the only Spanish speaking adult to communicate with students and parents,” says Dr. Karen Pérez, a multi-lingual and bi-cultural long-time educator and an equity and systems improvements leader at Education Northwest. As this Promising Practices story details, there are many other ways forward, especially within a collective learning framework.
leader initiative
“We don’t have solutions,” says Lindsey Stevens, executive director of the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP), “but we like to get the right people in the room and get out of the way.” This Promising Practices story highlights the need for more grants like the LEADER Initiative that factor in time for planning and relationship building.
leader initiative
"What retains human beings is relationships, and that takes time and action. Otherwise, it’s unsustainable. You’re putting it on people to recruit and retain themselves and hoping they won’t get burned out,” says Tamasha Emedi-Frye, one of the many inspiring people working in Washington state to increase the diversity of the educator workforce as part of College Spark’s Leader Initiative. Skipton Creative is supporting the effort by writing about their work for the Promising Practices section of their website.
leader initiative
Francisco Rios cautions against thinking of teachers of color as a panacea to racial inequities in school systems. “That’s a burden to put on any individual, let alone a new teacher to be transformative agents,” he says. He wants to move beyond this limited view, including thinking beyond the role model or an individual she-ro or he-ro. It’s also why he isn’t too keen to be the subject of an article. “This isn’t about individual scholarship; it’s about partnerships,”‘ he says, and he’s one contributor among many. Skipton Creative wrote his Promising Practices story.
leader initiative
In collaboration with expert designer Ross Hogin, Skipton Creative supported the LEADER Initiative team in creating an inspiring brand voice as the visual identity of the effort unfolded.
University of Washington College of Education
This story is one of many stories Skipton Creative wrote for the UW College of Education’s annual publication Advancing Educational Justice under the theme imagining our collective futures.
University of Washington School of Public Health
Health care leaders of today spell out how to prepare the health care leaders of tomorrow in this piece designed to help raise funds for the UW’s Doctor of Global Health in Leadership and Practice.
UW Medicine
Athena Clemens found the loving family she needed to heal and grow. Scholarships are helping the soon-to-be doctor heal others.
UW Medicine
How do scholarships help future doctors like Devin Gaskin give back? They allow him to choose a specialty that calls him, rather than one to pay back expensive student loans.
UW Medicine
Supporting the future of integrated care, UW’s new Li Lu Library offers up-and-coming healthcare providers a new space for interdisciplinary collaboration.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
Sometimes you only get the chance to know somebody after they’re gone. Listening to those who treasured that person, and writing a story to honor their legacy makes for a special assignment. Dan Harmon’s was a life well-lived and his impact continues.
University of Washington College of Education
Men of color are underrepresented at competitive universities, according to a 2017 New York Times article about affirmative action. It follows that after surmounting countless systemic barriers to get to a top school, once there, these men often find their path to be a lonely and difficult one. The Brotherhood Initiative connects research and practice to create a different reality for these students, one full of community and the vital connections everyone needs to reach their full potential.
University of Washington College of Education
Thank goodness we have people advocating for more time at play, especially for kids who have the least access to facilities and programming. Why? Because if our youth increased their activity to recommended levels, King County would have 65,000 fewer overweight and obese citizens. Community members would experience 70,000 more years of life. Not only that, but these numbers don't include the many additional benefits such as better cognitive functioning, improved mental health and an increased sense of well-being because of time spent out of doors.
University of Washington College of Education
This story about a partnership between UW and the Washington Education Association offers both a history lesson — about Washington State’s commitment to equity in education from when it first became a state — and a path forward to make good on that early promise.
University of Washington School of Public Health
The need to connect the dots between climate challenges and global and public health has never been more urgent. From heat waves to forest fires, UW’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) has the experts to help us prepare and respond to these intersecting issues. Most important: these experts understand and act on the necessity to let the people most impacted lead in guiding research and prioritizing solutions. Skipton Creative helped them to develop this case for support based in storytelling.
University of Washington College of Education
How do you foster trust and communication between communities and schools that lead to better outcomes for children? Listening, acknowledging and supporting the expertise that families and community leaders bring is a good place to start.
University of Washington College of Education
If you want to feel inspired about the future of education in Washington state, read this story about the alumni of the University of Washington’s Teacher Education Programs. Our children are in good hands, and also their success requires every one of us to fight for an education that supports the success and wellbeing of all students, especially those furthest from justice.
University of Washington College of Education
By applying an effective approach from another discipline, UW College of Education experts offered parents of children with a disability diagnosis a lifeline of support during the pandemic. The fact that the approach happened to be pandemic-proof was an added bonus.
University of Washington College of Education
Remaking systems so they do the work we need them to do is hard. This inspiring story of systems-change progress helps to show what’s possible when people understand their role in making change.
UW Medicine
When given the opportunity to innovate, people do incredible things. Skipton Creative wrote this story for UW Medicine about forward-looking funding that allowed healthcare practitioners to advance life-saving efforts. One project focused on increasing equity in health cancer screening. Another increased awareness about the opportunity to be a living liver donor.
University of Washington College of Education
What if stories offered living and adaptable roadmaps—especially in response to centuries of colonialism and mounting social and environmental pressures facing Indigenous communities and the modern world? In collaboration with the people of the Cowichan territory, Dr. Emma Elliott-Groves, Alayna Eagle Shield, and Sabrina Elliott are part of a community-based Indigenous research team carefully gathering ancestral wisdom with the power to hold and to heal and to support new ways forward.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
What do astrophysicists have to teach us about our potential here on planet earth? Quite a lot, actually, in addition to a relentless curiosity about our place in the cosmos. Skipton Creative sat down with three incredibly bright lights in the astronomy field and learned about their far-out research and their hopes for the future closer to home. Read about it here.
University of Washington College of Education
In two years, the UW College of Education Haring Center's ongoing leadership on the publicly-funded Inclusionary Practices Project in Washington State's public schools has increased the level of inclusion for 5,000 students with disabilities. Their secret? Authentic, culturally responsive partnerships. Read more about this effective effort in this story written by Skipton Creative.
University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences
What happens when committed scholars and activists continually recenter the conversation to more accurately reflect people’s many intersecting identities and perspectives? We begin to gain a more nuanced and rich understanding of humanity, and it opens the way to a more inclusive and just world. This article written by Skipton Creative shows the fascinating and forward-looking trajectory of the UW Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, starting with a class in the 1970s called Women 101.
UW Medicine
UW Medicine scholarships help ensure that people like Christina Gibbs, Sam Regalado, Spencer Pecha, and Cecelia Villa become tomorrow’s doctors. Skipton Creative helped to tell their inspiring stories, showing how their hard work and vision, coupled with donors and the UW’s unique WWAMI program, can help change the future of medicine.
Community Centric Fundraising Blog Post
A deep desire to continue to move the equity conversation forward in philanthropy spurred me to write this article about Portland-based Growing Gardens. It’s an inspiring story of one organization’s path to becoming a more culturally rich and just place. It’s a story we can all bear witness to and learn from. Community Centric Fundraising, the organization that published this article on its blog, offers much more wisdom on how we can change the racist systems that oppress so many and make our society much less than it could be.
Goodfellow Bros.
After one hundred years of living their values, Goodfellow Bros. had a story for the ages and a good reason why they were still in business. Since their founding, they led with their values, always putting people in the center. In 2021, they wanted to share their story and ensure that their current and future clients, business associates, and employees understood who they were and what they stood for. Partnering with Marketing Director Marcy Latta and skilled designer and collaborator Asha Hossain, Skipton Creative worked closely with the company’s third-and-fourth generation leaders and their employees to honestly and effectively tell their story. The resulting book Grit, Grace and Goodwill, is helping them celebrate this rare milestone with a vision to see them through the next century.
Goodfellow Bros.
The good stories for this company abound. This recent one, written for their employee newsletter, showcases a nearly-completed project with the Oregon Zoo and shows how they continue to put people (and, in this case, animals) first.
University of Washington School of Nursing
Nurses across the state continue to set an aggressive and transformative agenda as they advance their profession and support Washington as a national health care leader. As they look ahead to the future of nursing, Skipton Creative helped them tell important stories past, present and future to convey the depth and breadth of that journey in a booklet and digitally. From equity to research, population health to technology, their efforts reflect their daily actions toward better health for everyone.
SEVEN NOVEMBER, INC
Talking about issues in ways that we know will resonate with large numbers of people can be challenging. That’s why Skipton Creative particularly enjoys supporting the work of Seven November for a collective of organizations in the environmental sector. The initial work involved message testing and building a shared narrative called Rethink Outside that would spur the most people to action. Once the testing and narrative were complete, Skipton Creative was hired to write stories about the work of such organizations as Outdoor Afro, GirlVentures and Ocean Discovery Institute to show the power of storytelling within a strong, tested narrative. By now we’ve shared the inspiring work of over 20 organizations and counting!
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF NURSING
It would take a lifetime to tell all the empowering stories happening at the University of Washington School of Nursing among its many partners, staff, faculty and students. But even if we only tell a fraction of those stories, it moves the needle of the profession. Skipton Creative works with the School of Nursing to tell the stories of Nursing Impact on a regular basis.
MINERVA STRATEGIES
There’s nothing better than to join up with other powerful women communicators to further important work. Supporting Minerva Strategies with capacity while one of its employees went on sabbatical allowed Skipton Creative to jump into their stream and support such organizations as Evergreen Treatment Services, Tableau Foundation and many more. And what a treat to contribute to a blog called The Goddess Speaks.
University of washington college of arts & Sciences
Jacob Lawrence helped broaden our view of humanity. With a stunning body of work, he helped inform the world about important moments, people and stories. A professor at UW from 1970-1985, he supported and mentored young artists as he had been supported and mentored. Today, his legacy continues on the UW campus. Skipton Creative collaborated with the College of Arts & Sciences’ communications team, the Jacob Lawrence Gallery and the School of Art + Art History + Design to create a one-pager to support a fundraising campaign so the gallery can continue its important work connecting students and the community at the center of education, social justice and experimentation.
yes! magazine
Sometimes issues break your heart and then you hear about efforts that offer a way forward. That's what spurred me to pitch an article to YES! Magazine about an effort spearheaded by public radio affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C., and the Kendeda Fund. Guns & America, a two-year national reporting collaborative focused on building bench strength for good digital storytelling that goes beyond politics and moves listeners to a new place. Read the story here.
i(x) investments
It's heartening to know that younger generations are increasingly drawn to impact investing, with its focus on social and environmental responsibility; innovation; entrepreneurship; and partnerships between philanthropy, government and business. It's a pleasure to create content for i(x) investments focused on increasing the interest and momentum in this sector:
High-net-worth millennials want to change the world.
Will the traditional risk and return model of investing solely for profit one day be outdated?
City of seattle
In the City of Seattle retirement office, they had a dream of empowering employees to share knowledge in a way that better served their members using a database on SharePoint that everyone contributed to. I helped the department with content development and editing, as well as training and adoption.
heyday farm
When a local couple bought property and wanted to start a family farm that embodied the values of the local food movement, they hired my husband and I to manage it. In addition to overseeing the kitchen, bed and breakfast and events; the farm store; and the dairy and cheesemaking portion of the endeavor; I put my storytelling passion into action with content creation for the website and weekly newsletter. We grew a loyal following that joined us as we reveled in farm nostalgia, passed on celebratory traditions and rituals related to cooking and eating, and conveyed how important good and ethically produced food is to a community.
Here's a sample newsletter that I wrote early on in our endeavor, with many more to follow.
After five years, we passed the baton to others so that several businesses could carry forward and better the various operations under a shared mission and vision. Stay-tuned. Perhaps one day we will share the story of our epic journey of quitting our day jobs and following a dream during those early years on the farm. In the meantime, here’s one lightning-bolt-of-a-lesson-learned.
Photos by Paul Dunn