Deer Valley Unified School District
 

Deer Valley Today was a community newsletter developed for the district and mailed to the residents of Maricopa County's largest school system. Something like 125,000 residences received this quarterly newsletter, which focused on what taxpayers wanted to know, and some of what the district needed them to know. Here's just one example: an award-winning Year in Review.
(Community Publication: Deer Valley Schools, 2004)

On 9/11, fear was the greatest impact across the nation. Beyond the casualties of the day, there was fear that schools would be the nest target. Distant as Phoenix was from NYC, concern and apprehension required some level of reassurance from school leaders. This ghost-written letter was sent home with all kids on 9/11/01. This was perhaps my most difficult ghost-writing assignment.
(Parent Letter: Deer Valley Schools, 2001)

Dysart Unified School District
 

Despite a history of election failures, in 2004 the Dysart Unified School District again pitched a pair of proposals to voters in the community. With a quick-set strategy and experience winning elections, the result was a sucessful outcome - the first of what should be a chain of voter approvals, assuming the district continues respecting voters.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2004) 

the Dysart Unified School District administrative team launched an aggressive, year-long process to gather input from parents, students, staff and community members on the current state of Dysart schools. This program was honored by the National School PR Association.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2005)

Helping parents navigate their kids through a crisis can be a tough undertaking. But as a school communicator, I had tips to share based on national best practices. This tip sheet was distributed to families following the Asian tsunami.
(Tip Sheet for Parents: Dysart Schools, 2005)

For all its good, there is some level of evil on the Internet. This was another opportunity to provide some tips for parents, especially as students began to take bullying from the playground into cyberspace.
(Published Column: Dysart Schools, 2006)

"Fast Growing" wasn't sufficient to illustrate the extent that growth was impacting the Dysart school system. Thus, "hyper-growth" was born as the preferred descriptor. in fact, Dysart - at this time - was the fastest-growing school system in Arizona. And in the nation's fastest-growing metroplex, that's saying something.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2006)

A focus for my time in Dysart was modernizing communication with all members of the community. A new, direct-mail newsletter, technology based options and other tools were developed and implemented to better connect with all taxpayers - a key feature based on the high-percentage of residents without kids in school.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2006)

Underfunded as Arizona schools may be, there are some revenue opportunities for student programs. The Arizona Tax Credit program is one of these opportunities - and through collective efforts, the district earned an additional $411,000 from residents in a year. Those funds directly supported students activities.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2005)

The Arizona Council for Exceptional Children recognized two students from the Dysart Unified School District with the annual “I Can Do It” Award. Stories like this were strong motivators for working in public education.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2005) 

As the first of its kind in the Valley, the Sun Health “Apple a Day” program is designed to enhance young bodies and minds by motivating and helping students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease and reduce  health-related risk behaviors.
(News Advsory: Dysart Schools, 2006) 

The Dysart Unified School District’s new administrative offices have been named in honor of Nathaniel Dysart, one of the district’s original Governing Board members and a prominent local rancher. Mr. Dysart served for 35 years as a member of the board and donated several parcels of land developed into school sites still used today.
(News Advisory: Dysart Schools, 2006)

 

The Go Daddy Group & Life Online with Bob Parsons
 

A slack-jawed, ground-pounding Marine? That's Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of GoDaddy.com. Here's an introduction I wrote - and voiced - for his weekly radio show, Life Online.
(Show Introduction: Life Online, 2006) 

Moving beyond strippers with Websites and guys who paint with their "buddies," the Entrepreneur Desk Report was an effort to bring sharper focus to Bob Parsons' radio show.
(Special Report: Life Online, 2006 

What the heck is a "6-in-1 SSL Certificate?" Well, find out from this Go Daddy Group news release.
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006) 

Secure Certificates are a source of serious income for Website hosting providers like Go Daddy. In fact, they are usually leading the industry with growth in the sale of SSL Certificates. It's all part of Go Daddy's march towards total dominance ... or the next scandalous ad.  
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006) 

Go Daddy's domain portfolio doubled the nearest competitors -- it was a big day at Go Daddy HQ when this benchmark was reached. Bob had us ready this news release until the ticker made it official.  
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006) 

Forget the SEC-required "quiet period." Outspoken Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons announced his return to Life Online, his weekly radio show, after an extended absence while the company pondered an IPO. 
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006) 

As I hit senior-writer status in Go Daddy's PR shop, I was able to move away from product news releases <yuck> and focus more on the policy and political issues which were actual news. Here's a release on Go Daddy testifying before Congress about child porn online.
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006)

Beyond kiddie-porn, Go Daddy also went to The Hill to fight against governance changes to ICANN - the body which oversees the operation of the Internet domain name system.
(News Release: Go Daddy, 2006) 

 

Community Groups 

As part of an annual workshop for students and educators who are part of Arizona Thespians, I present information on publicity, PR and media relations. Here's one example of the learning-by-example materials I developed for this course. There is an example news release included which was intended only as a joke....
(Workshop Materials: Arizona Thespians, 1999)