About

Hello! I am a strategic communication researcher and professional. For more than fifteen years, I have worked as (in reverse chron order) an academic, nonprofit communications director, writer, journalist, author, editor, consultant, and intelligence analyst. My previous work includes corporate research, non-profit communications management, journalism, a senior think tank fellow, a military intelligence analyst, and social media personality (which was… anyway). Suffice to say, I’m approaching my current research with a pretty deep grounding in both military and private sector work, and I think that’s a neat way to offer a grounded perspective on a field that is pretty prone to idealism. If you’re interested in that, click on the Research tab above.

I also remain a writer at heart – you can click on the links above to see what I’m up to or hop over to my Google Scholar page for an idea of what I’ve published.

You can also find me on Mastodon and BlueSky, since I have made an effort to extract myself from the invasive data surveillance on the big social media platforms.

Background

I got my start working in national security, where I used to analyze intelligence for the U.S. military. I particularly enjoyed studying videogames, how insurgencies mobilized social media platforms, and how media influenced politics. I also have spent time working as a management consultant for the intelligence community as well as for Fortune 500 companies. In addition to several years spent as a journalist in Washington, DC, I also refined my focus on helping non-profits build their mission and expand their audiences in a strategic and deliberate way.

I wrote a book in 2010, Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. You can purchase it here.

In case you were wondering: some years ago I dramatically scaled back my social media presence. There were a number of reasons for this (every platform is terrible at responding to violent and homophobic harassment), but the primary one was it had become a distraction from my work and I decided to focus on that.

Anyhoo, if you’re interested in my past as a public intellectual you can find hours upon hours of my media appearances and public speeches on Youtube. In addition, I’m up on About.me, as well as LinkedIn and Academia.edu.