I annually presented to staff the previous year's electronic communication data, often emphasizing the importance of storytelling to our work at Carroll University. Then I took that one step further in initiating the Storytelling & Social Media Strategies Committee, inviting Advancement team members to converse about experiences with constituents and how we might collaborate to share their stories. First steps involved providing lessons in storytelling until eventually the staff- students became the teachers. I structured the committee to advocate co-facilitation among members. The peer-to-peer approach empowered committee members to continue learning while teaching techniques as we established a storytelling culture to strengthen our work in Advancement.

To continue my own development, I applied for and received a Carroll University staff grant to attend the 2019 Non-profit Storytelling Conference in San Diego, Calif., bringing back new ideas for staff as we continue to embed storytelling into the Advancement communication strategies.

In the community, I share my love of storytelling with the team at Literacy Services of Wisconsin to tell the stories of students, tutors, and alumni by producing videos for the agency's annual Inspiration Awards. I also helped to conduct interviews and write profiles that the agency published in the book, Unlocking Potential, in honor its 50th anniversary in 2015. Additionally, I partnered with LSW as I pursued my M.Ed. in Adult, Community and Professional Education. In that, I developed a capstone project titled "Employing Digital Storytelling to Communicate 
Impact of Non-Profit Work to Donor Audiences."

In 2023, I partnered with two additional non-profits - Waukesha County Community Foundation and America Works - on video storytelling projects for their respective agencies.
 

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