Resume

Dorrit Walsh
917-208-5616 (cell)
tirrod@nyc.rr.com

Communications Director

Manage all communications and marketing activities for this 27-year-old organization fighting for better treatment, prevention, a vaccine, and a cure for HIV, HCV, and TB. Set up a variety of SOPs for all communications and marketing activities. Have begun an overhaul of our communications strategy.

Manage production of all public-facing publications/projects, includes everything from drawing up initial MOUs and selecting contractors, to ensuring every phase of projects stay on schedule. Instituted publications scheduling calendar to be able to see the big picture as well as to prevent conflicts. Manage relationships with all of our external vendors, which hadn’t been done very successfully in years prior; brought in a new designer and copy editor to add to our stable of vendors.

At year-end 2017, recommended sending out an additional email (TAG still did most of its fundraising via mail); wrote and sent to donors on Dec. 30, and this email generated the largest amount that TAG had ever brought in at year end. Essentially functioned as development manager until they hired one in August, 2018.

Serve as brand steward and hope to create/set secondary color palette and official font this year, and in process of creating interim TAG branding guide. Created and rolled out a new correctly branded, standardized PowerPoint template for staff. Instituted SOP requiring that all original social media graphics be watermarked with appropriate TAG logo.

Plan and create content (including graphics, which the organization hadn’t taken full advantage of before) for the organization’s social media presence; created first social media scheduling calendar/procedure.

Took all the training for DonorPro and Engage, and wrote a 100+ page manual so this knowledge was finally recorded (no current staff at TAG really knew how to use CRM). During training discovered many problems and limitations in both these products (and with our data), which I then outlined as well as made recommendations for two-part plan of cleaning data and then selecting/switching to a new CRM, advocacy, and marketing platform. (Development manager is now spearheading this project.) Currently compiling list of must-haves for a new advocacy/marketing platform. Track all email statistics on master spreadsheet; have started to send only to appropriate segments as much as possible.

Manage the organization’s two websites, treatmentactiongroup.org and pipelinereport.org. Both are running an old version of Drupal, can’t be updated, and are now barely functional. Have started the process (contractor selected, some up front planning done) for creating new sites (WordPress) for both. Basic site structure completed, other work in progress. Regularly run a variety of statistics on both sites, including what’s necessary for grant reporting.

Create and manage all web pages, online forms, and graphics for annual Research in Action Awards gala. Includes supervising/scheduling production of and writing all print pieces: save-the-date postcard, invitation, art postcard, and 18-page event journal.

Proofread all short-form content with a tight turnaround time and instituted partner proofing process for all information being pushed out; set up procedure to have program staff check and sign off on all content they request, whether on one of the sites or in an email.

Worked with organizations on a variety of communications, and marketing issues, including strategy, performance analysis/reporting, and donor communications. Projects ran the gamut from big-picture analysis, recommendations and plans, to writing, copy editing, design, photo editing, email production, and web production.

Web & Creative Assets Director

Even though I started as Web Manager, all my titles/positions (three) involved increasing responsibilities and tasks that crossed over into other job functions and departments, including advocacy, program work, and work on the annual Creating Change Conference. The organization, its structure, and the issues we dealt with evolved significantly over 10 years, as did my job responsibilities. How, why, and where we communicate online has changed enormously as well.

Email

Created email strategy for Creating Change Conference, copy edited and sent those emails. Created custom staff training for the Luminate email function, and created email request process for staff. Created and maintained master email calendar, which included deciding which emails should go out when, ensuring that the same segments weren’t hit too often. Wrote all types of emails, approved look/feel of every email that went out. Ran and analyzed all stats. Worked with membership manager to create email strategy for 2015 and 2016. Redesigned and recreated weekly email newsletter as a monthly piece (2009-2013); wrote content and led the content-gathering team; opens, clicks, and donations were above average.

Development/Fundraising

Conducted semi-annual audits of donation forms; checked all forms to ensure they conformed to our style; ran and analyzed stats on all forms. Created year-end online campaign look and art (2009–2014).

Branding

Created first real visual style & branding guide. Maintained all Task Force logos, including event logos and other entities and distributed as necessary, approved all uses of TF logos. Kept, tracked, and distributed all corporate sponsor logos, ensured their logo-use brand guidelines were always followed. Created procedure for staff logo requests. Selected designer and managed production of holiday cards (2010–2013). Created all branded graphics for online use (2009–2014).

Rebrands: Key player on team that handled the complete renaming and rebranding of the organization. Included initial focus groups of supporters, staff, and other stakeholders. In 2015, got approval to change the official name of the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change conference back to Creating Change Conference; selected vendor and managed process for creating new logo; chose and presented three final logo versions to key staff to choose the winner.

Publications

Chose designer and project managed PDF–format Annual Reports (2011–2013); wrote for and managed production of our Creating Change quarterly print newsletter (2007–2009).

Creative Assets

Organized and distributed archive photo files from the 1970s-1990s; selected all images for 40th anniversary video; maintained, organized, and distributed all Creating Change Conference photos. Planned searchable organization-wide image library.

www.thetaskforce.org (c3)

Managed 2014 rebuild and redesign of site in WordPress with very short timeline; also wrote the RFP for vendor search. Created quick one-page Bootstrap site for “Queer Our Taxes” (2015). Managed two Drupal site builds in 2006 and in 2011.

www.thetaskforceactionfund.org (c4)

Managed rebuild of the c4 site based on our revised c3 WordPress site (2015). Created original HTML National Task Force Action Fund site on five-day timeline (2007); maintained and added content as necessary. 

www.creatingchange.org (Creating Change Conference)

Worked with developer and turned .php site I had created in 2011 into a better looking, more UX-focused WordPress site with added flexibility (2015). Included: selecting theme, approving look/feel, writing and editing content, photo selection and formatting, defining overall look of all sections.

Senior Corporate Web Producer

Oversaw day-to-day maintenance and long-term planning for the intranet, i.connect, which was accessed by 1000+ employees and affiliates worldwide. Wrote and posted weekly and daily content; responsible for photo selection, which I ensured reflected the diversity of all Weber Shandwick employees worldwide; ran and analyzed site stats. In addition, worked with the HR department to develop WE-connect, a multi-company intranet containing information shared by all the Constituency Management Group (CMG) companies, a subgroup within IPG. Duties included: writing and editing content, monitoring status of employee profiles, interfacing with all departments involved, and long-term strategic planning for the site.

Intranet Director (10/99–9/02)

Completely reorganized, redesigned, and renamed the company intranet, and focused on user experience, a new look and feel, new content, and additional features. Was creative director for the reorganization and restructuring team. Established and defined creative, editorial, and content standards. Wrote much of the content and also edited content from other sources. Worked with other departments (research, tech, etc.) to ensure that the intranet’s needs were defined and met, and was responsible for continual communication with internal clients and upper management.

Online Editor/Web Producer (4/97–9/99)

Web Producer: In August 1997 took over HR Plaza, the long-neglected public site BHA did as a value-added for their clients. First did a detailed analysis of the existing site (hrplaza.com, no longer online) and the competition. Based on that analysis, I was asked to reorganize and redesign the site, and lead that team. Created and wrote much of the site content, which included monthly articles about prominent HR issues of the day. As the site expanded, hired and supervised a full-time designer and assistant producer/writer.

Online Editor: Wrote and laid out Monitor, monthly client newsletter (19,000+ copies); wrote and laid out annual 200-page Recruitment Directory, which included at least one article I wrote under the byline of Bernard Hodes, company president. Also created, wrote, and edited daily content for the fledgling company intranet. Position gradually morphed into the new Web Producer job.

Wrote Web site reviews for The Net, print monthly focusing on the Internet (3/96–3/97). Did 100-word descriptions and rated sites’ content, aesthetics, and tech savvy. Also wrote half-page Site of the Month reviews. Wrote over 500 Web reviews for iGuide, News Corp.’s online Internet directory (1996). Regularly proofread at NYC ad agency TMP Worldwide. Researched and wrote liner notes for CDs: The Greatest Hits of Hickory Records Volumes 1 and 2 (included interviewing artists), Hooray for Santa Claus, A Collection of Gregorian Chant, and The Leif Garrett Collection.

Recruitment Division, J. Walter Thompson

Manager, Office & Administrative Services (7/92–9/94)

When creative services were moved to Atlanta, this position was created for me by the company president. Supervised all administrative and financial functions of the branch; included doing monthly analysis and designation of top ten clients.

Creative Services Manager (2/90–6/92)

Responsible for all day-to-day operations of Eastern Region creative department (five art directors and five copywriters). Duties included assigning teams to jobs, scheduling, estimating costs on projects, and hiring freelancers.

Marymount Manhattan College, NY, NY – BA, Communication Arts
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA – Studied writing for film and television

Available on request