About Me
With nearly 15 years in communications, I help companies earn coverage, share their stories, and spotlight their leaders in the conversations that matter.
Last year, I created and led the implementation of a strategy that allowed a global consulting firm to elevate their press strategy, driving a 61% boost in coverage, while also guiding award submissions for a top publication, cementing their standing as leaders in the industry.
My work spans industries from marketing and nonprofits to tech and insurance, across markets in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America. I’ve been published in The New York Times, love languages (English, French, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and now Korean), and always enjoy connecting with new people.
Recent Articles
Trust, human connection, and infrastructure: A guide to building donor and investor relationships
Trust, relationships, and funding from investors or donors are based on (gasp) emotions. Humans have emotional attachments to their money and trust is woven into all strategies and decisions. Even people who base their decisions on the numbers, the facts, the balance sheets, and datasets have narratives.Yet, in this time of artificial intelligence (AI), social media, and so many virtual realities, human connection has been consistently de-prioritized. Given the growing potential for bias, polari...
McKinney recruits Rhonda Nelson and Matilda Ivey as group client directors
EXCLUSIVE: Nelson and Ivey will lead the Blue Diamond Growers and Stop & Shop accounts, respectively, and bolster equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging at the agency.Independent creative agency McKinney has hired Rhonda Nelson and Matilda Ivey as group client directors managing key accounts, the agency said on Thursday.Nelson serves as account lead for Blue Diamond Growers out of Los Angeles while Ivey focuses on Stop & Shop and Sherwin-Williams out of New York. Both will report to Gretche...
Busting Gender Stereotypes: The Pink Versus Blue Phenomenon
Did you know that blue was originally the color for girls? It’s true: Blue used to be for girls as it was seen as more “dainty,” while pink used to be associated with boys as it was seen as the stronger color. It didn’t change until the 1950s when some big advertising campaigns pushed pink as a feminine color exclusively for girls.
There is a double bind that exists with what we call the “blue versus pink stereotype” that is driving gender inequality.
If you ask people who is better suited to “l...
There is a double bind that exists with what we call the “blue versus pink stereotype” that is driving gender inequality.
If you ask people who is better suited to “l...
How McKinney gamified a campaign to raise awareness about homelessness
In 2011, the Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD), a non-profit organization that provides emergency shelter for adults and families facing homelessness asked digital agency McKinney to create a campaign reflecting what it's like for people to stay in its shelter. UMD asked McKinney to illustrate the journeys of people who participated in its transition programs and benefited from its services. The goal was to show that the program can help anyone in need, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender ident...
Covid-19 threatens girls’ gigantic global gains
FOR MUCH of human history and in many places, girls were considered property. Or, at best, subordinate people, required to obey their fathers until the day they had to start obeying their husbands. Few people thought it worthwhile to educate them. Even fewer imagined that a girl could grow up to govern Germany, run the IMF or invent a vaccine.In most of the world that vision of girlhood now seems not merely old-fashioned but unimaginably remote. In much of the rich world parents now treat their...
Violence Against Women and Girls Is Up Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean Due to COVID-19
Lockdowns around the world are helping to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, but women and girls are paying the consequences. Girls and women forced to stay home in Latin America and the Caribbean are at a heightened risk of gender-based violence, the organization Plan International USA warned.The organization released the report “Surge in violence against girls and women in Latin America and the Caribbean” in May, and issued a press release with an update Monday. The regions are exper...
COVID-19 Puts Girls at Risk of Unplanned Pregnancies, Violence, and Missing Out on School: Report
With schools shut down around the world to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, girls are missing out on learning opportunities and are more likely to experience violence and abuse at home, unplanned pregnancies, child marriage, and economic hardship, according to a recent report.Released by the organization Plan International on April 30, “Living Under Lockdown” takes a close look at how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact girls around the world, and examines past crises to understand the curre...
The Miseducation of the American Boy
Updated at 9:30 p.m. ET on December 20, 2019.
I knew nothing about Cole before meeting him; he was just a name on a list of boys at a private school outside Boston who had volunteered to talk with me (or perhaps had had their arm twisted a bit by a counselor). The afternoon of our first interview, I was running late. As I rushed down a hallway at the school, I noticed a boy sitting outside the library, waiting—it had to be him. He was staring impassively ahead, both feet planted on the floor, h...
I knew nothing about Cole before meeting him; he was just a name on a list of boys at a private school outside Boston who had volunteered to talk with me (or perhaps had had their arm twisted a bit by a counselor). The afternoon of our first interview, I was running late. As I rushed down a hallway at the school, I noticed a boy sitting outside the library, waiting—it had to be him. He was staring impassively ahead, both feet planted on the floor, h...
Opinion | The Raging Fires in the Amazon Rainforest (Published 2019)
Store and/or access information on a deviceIAB TCFOffCookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.Most purposes explained in this notice r...
Just 7% of Girls Complete Secondary School in the Solomon Islands: Report
Just 7 in 100 girls complete secondary school in the Solomon Islands, one of the lowest rates in the world, a new report by aid agency Plan International (PI) has revealed.The Our Education, Our Future report, released Tuesday, cites poverty, gender discrimination, costly school fees, and early pregnancy as leading barriers to education in the Pacific nation. The Island’s Fee Free Basic Education policy was highlighted for failing to cover senior secondary levels, while emphasis was placed on th...
Schoolgirls in Wales Are Going to Get Free Period Products
Girls and young women in Wales are going to get access to free period products at school, thanks to a new initiative announced by the Welsh government this weekend. As many as 141,000 girls at primary and secondary schools across the country will benefit from the “period dignity grant for schools” — in a big step against period poverty. Period poverty essentially means that girls aren't able to afford adequate sanitary products when on their periods, and many are having to miss days of their edu...
Opinion | It’s Dangerous to Be a Boy (Published 2019)
Early in my first go at being a father, I was hijacked by ancient impulses. Our family lived in a rowhouse neighborhood in Philadelphia, and right down the street was a small playground where gangs of boys gathered for games of stickball and basketball. My son loved playing sports. But he was unprepared for what developed as his friends grew older.After years together laughing and riding their tricycles and then bikes up and down the block, several of the boys grew angry and mean. Ultimately, th...
Opinion | It’s Dangerous to Be a Boy (Published 2019)
Early in my first go at being a father, I was hijacked by ancient impulses. Our family lived in a rowhouse neighborhood in Philadelphia, and right down the street was a small playground where gangs of boys gathered for games of stickball and basketball. My son loved playing sports. But he was unprepared for what developed as his friends grew older.After years together laughing and riding their tricycles and then bikes up and down the block, several of the boys grew angry and mean. Ultimately, th...
How This Brave Ethiopian Teen Stopped Her Own Child Marriage
Unlike many girls in Ethiopia, Yekaba got the chance to stop her own child marriage at the age of 12. She didn’t let fear stop her from speaking up against the cultural norms and barriers in place that were working against her opportunities to succeed. With support from her family and school, Yekaba was able to take control of her future and envision an independent life for herself. Now, she’s educating her community to help end the practice.Take Action: End Child Marriage in Pennsylvania This Y...
Boys need better access to mental health care. Why aren’t they getting it?
Throughout high school, Alexander Sanchez was severely depressed. He thought about suicide, and he didn’t know how to explain what was wrong or ask for help. Instead, Sanchez said that whenever he wasn’t in school, he would lie in bed all day, “not eating, not being happy, being almost not there.”It wasn’t until Sanchez, who grew up in College Station, Texas, got to college that a friend convinced him to see a psychologist, who diagnosed him with depression. In hindsight, Sanchez said he did not...
Boy Talk: Breaking Masculine Stereotypes (Published 2018)
“In here, we get to say stuff we wouldn’t normally say in front of other people. And we don’t judge each other,” said a seventh grader with dark curls. “Boys should have a safe space to talk about things that matter to us,” said another seventh grader with a hint of a Canadian accent.The two were veterans of a weekly lunch time boys’ group at the Sheridan School, a K-8 private school in Northwest Washington, D.C., explaining the group’s purpose to new members.Hands went up, thumbs and pinkies wa...
Opinion | Support for Child Migrants (Published 2014)
To the Editor:“Most in Poll Say Children at Border Merit Relief” (news article, July 30) reported that most Americans agree that the recent child migrants should be treated as refugees, and I concur. Take me, for example!I’m a 26-year-old Georgetown University master’s student in public relations and corporate communications. I immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 2006. I know firsthand the hardship that youths from developing countries can face. I was given an opportunity to have a bet...
