Founder, Treger Voice
Most organizations are kind at the top of a letter and then inadvertently go cold in the middle of it. The greeting is friendly and mission-driven. The paragraph that delivers the news gets buried in policy language.
I have found that same pattern in hospital discharge packets, nonprofit waitlist letters, lenders' decline emails, and universities' financial aid notices. Nobody writes it that way on purpose.
It happens because nobody empathically owns that paragraph. Legal reviews it for risk. Program supplies the policy. Communications is working on something else. So the sentence that tells a person what is happening to them gets written by whoever is left, and it comes out confusing.
Your reader pays for that first, when they put the letter down. You pay next, in the call that follows and the form that never comes back.
How I know
I started as a reporter. Early stops at The Village Voice, The Nation, and Vanity Fair gave me an instinct for how language moves through the world. Since then I have worked inside the institutions doing the sending: public agencies, health systems, nonprofits, universities, and financial institutions, writing and rewriting what they say and what they do.
My mother taught high school English in Baltimore, Maryland for thirty years, so I was raised by an editor with a loving yet sharp red pen who taught me the difference between a sentence that lands persuasively and one that does not.
I hold a BA in English Literature and Communications from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. I am currently based in Washington, DC.
The record
This framework is new. The record behind it is not.
At a glance · 20+ national affiliates aligned under one voice · 1,300+ nursing homes and K–12 systems reached during COVID-19 response · 600+ annual communications governed under one system · Statewide eligibility platform serving SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid applicants
Health, Nonprofit, and Advocacy
Volunteers of America. Narrative reset and voice alignment across 20+ national affiliates operating under one name without shared language.
Maryland Heart Gallery. Campaign content and event strategy for foster-to-adopt awareness.
Jewish Community Services. Marketing and communications leadership across a multi-program human services agency.
Finance, Education, and Culture
2008 Liquidity Crisis. Financial data strategy and message discipline for a national treasury association during a period of acute institutional distrust.
Graduate Curriculum Design. Content and architecture for public policy, leadership, and entrepreneurship programs.
Gordon Center Messaging System. Content strategy governing 600+ annual communications across arts, education, and wellness programming.
Government and Human Services
Single Benefits Platform. UX and plain-language content architecture for SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and adjacent programs on a statewide eligibility platform.
Child Support Banking Transition. Messaging for a statewide change in payments infrastructure, reaching families who could not afford to misunderstand it.
COVID-19 Public Health Response. Outreach strategy across 1,300+ nursing homes and K–12 systems during a period when the guidance changed daily.
Energy Assistance Programs. Communications for households applying for utility and weatherization support.