The Local
The Local is my brand and communications practice — and, now, my home for curated impact travel.
The Local builds brand and communications strategy for philanthropies and corporations: brand positioning, integrated marketing campaigns, and storytelling frameworks, all sharpened by measurement and insight. This year, I'm bringing travel back under the same roof — AWL Travel, the impact-travel business I've run since 2013, is now part of The Local, pairing the trips with the storytelling that makes them matter.
On the communications side…
I especially loved brand building for a $MM collaborative funding platform led by the Wayfarer Foundation and Fetzer Institute — our Spiritual Imagination framework held creative and channel strategy together, profiling a dozen grantees in video, photo, and design, and raising millions from new foundations.
On the travel side…
One highlight was a multi-year partnership with Novartis, Fred Hutch, and The Max Foundation — co-branded experiences to improve global access to cancer testing and treatment, connecting doctors, scientists, executives, and patients on mountain climbs in Borneo, conferences in Kampala, and temple visits in Cambodia. Since 2013, our trips have taken thousands of people to 60+ countries and helped raise $100M+ for partner organizations.
See a few more projects I loved working on below.
We built digital and creative assets, event strategy and implementation for Rotary and Malaria Partners International’s ‘Join the Community’ campaign. Bringing together NGO, private sector, government, and civil-society members from a dozen countries to Zambia to share data outcomes, educate on emerging best practices, and build funding resources.
My team organized an in-person activation and creative content with James Beard award-winning Chef Peter Merriman and his Handcrafted Restaurant Group. Chef Merriman pioneered the farm-to-table movement in his award winning Hawaii-based restaurants. Our activation connected his Hawaiian team with food producers in Italy, using sustainability practices to bring high quality food to market.
We took the COO, Chief of Staff, and operations team to Guatemala and Colombia to meet grantees. While there, the team built new operations strategies based on conversations with grantees. For example, they updated their grant software, streamlined fund disbursements, and adjusted grantee surveys. Grant managers routinely visit grantees on-site, but this trip provided a unique opportunity to connect broader teams to the mission of the organization.
Mona Foundation, Zinpro, Anderson Foundation
In a multi-year partnership, we connected girls education initiatives funded by Mona Foundation with corporations and other philanthropies like Zinpro and the Anderson Foundation. Through visits and creative assets created in Panama, Guatemala, India, and Sierra Leone, our initiatives helped raise millions for education in under-served communities.
