Ben's Experience
Storyteller. Content strategist.
Brand developer. Comms unicorn.
Experience & Accomplishments
Director of Strategic Communications
May 2022-Present
As Head of Strategic Communications, I spearhead the development and execution of communication strategies to meet organizational objectives. I cultivate public and political support, fostering understanding and driving change initiatives. I build and maintain trust among diverse stakeholders, leveraging various media platforms, public engagement tactics, and community partnerships. Additionally, I serve as a member of the organization’s Leadership Team.
- Department Infrastructure: Built and leads a diverse team consisting of a StratComs Manager, a full-time Fellow, and multiple contractors encompassing roles such as writer/editor, generalist, video editor/producer, social media content creator, and graphic designer.
- Strategy: Spearheads a strategic initiative to shift public perception on youth homelessness in Washington state. Leads the development of a comprehensive statewide narrative change strategy aimed at fostering belief in solvability and advocating for systemic change. Overseeing brand refresh and website relaunch in collaboration with two creative agencies.
- Crisis Communications: Effectively managed public relations fallout from a data breach, mitigating its impact on the organization’s reputation. Demonstrated expertise in crisis response by swiftly addressing initial news coverage and strategically crafting follow-up communications. Collaborated closely with communities to create a comprehensive suite of collateral, ensuring clear and reassuring messaging to address community concerns.
- Earned Media: Manages successful media outreach campaigns resulting in significant placements in reputable outlets such as the Seattle Times (inclusive of an extensive profile and an op-ed), GeekWire (leading to a Geeks Give Back award), Crosscut, TVW’s Inside Olympia, the Columbian (Vancouver, WA), and YakTriNews and KIMA (Yakima, WA).
- Optimizing Channels and Content: Drove a 64% increase in our mailing list since May 2022 through strategic content development and design enhancements for three newsletters. Initiated the launch of an Instagram profile and podcast, alongside the production of engaging virtual events titled “Nerds Ending Youth Homelessness” and “The Walla Walla Way.”
- Advocacy: Pioneered advocacy efforts culminating in A Way Home’s inaugural Advocacy Day event in Olympia, resulting in the successful allocation of $13 million by the state Legislature to fully fund our initiatives.
Interim Executive Director
October 2023–March 2024; Seattle, WA
A nonprofit with a mission to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness. Key responsibilities and accomplishments:
- Budgeting: Led the comprehensive multi-million-dollar budgeting process for 2024, ensuring fiscal responsibility and alignment with organizational goals.
- Leadership and Hiring: Oversaw the hiring process as the hiring manager for two critical Director positions, strategically selecting key talent to drive organizational progress.
- Organizational Culture: Established a new, positive, and approachable organizational culture by fostering collaboration, engagement, and partnerships with the Leadership Team, Staff, Fiscal Sponsor, and Advisory Board.
- Stakeholder Management: Managed diverse relationships with external partners, the Advisory Board, and Staff, ensuring effective communication and collaboration across all levels.
- Strategic Planning: Set clear organizational priorities for 2024.
Director of Communications
July 2021–March 2022
SVP is a global philanthropic network of donors seeking to reimagine giving through systems change and centering community in grant-making.
- Strategy: Developed brand voice, messaging, and storytelling campaigns to meet organizational goals.
- Digital infrastructure: Built revamped suite of digital properties, including network and programmatic websites highlighting our reimagine giving initiative. Built Impact Report and Reimagine Fund minisites.
Principal & Owner
Ben Henry Associates: Public Affairs Consulting
September 2019–Present
Organizational development, public policy, legislative affairs, and communications.
- Tenants Union of Washington: Rebuilt Board of Directors and facilitated shift in leadership structure for the nonprofit. Developed refreshed brand guide.
- Sierra Club, Seattle Group: Leading #EarthNeedsYouSeattle, a social media campaign to generate group awareness and grow membership.
- Together We Rise: Led campaign to counter opposition in highly contentious political environment. Convened community groups for strategy development. Organized press conference that garnered coverage by the Seattle Times.
Interim Executive Director
Asian Pacific Americans for Civic Empowerment — APACE (501c4) and APACEvotes (501c3)
April 2019–May 2019; Seattle, WA
Led APACE on an interim basis to shepherd the organization through legislative session. APACE works to empower the diverse Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities through civic engagement and political action.
- Passage of fair opportunity legislation: Developed messaging and campaign strategy neutralizing vocal opposition to I-1000, which creates education and employment opportunities for diverse groups. Played lead role in multiple coalitions, including labor, NGOs, and the AAPI community for the citizens initiative’s successful passage through the state Legislature.
- Passage of Census legislation: Oversaw advocacy for passage of legislation funding a multimillion-dollar outreach effort to generate awareness of the Census in historically undercounted communities.
Communications Program Lead, New Initiatives
SEIU 775 Benefits Group
February 2016–January 2019; Seattle, WA
Developed and executed strategic plans for two dozen communications campaigns, while building a culture of data-driven, measurable outcomes driving strategy. The Benefits Group is a nonprofit organization that delivers training, health, and retirement benefits to a 40,000+ workforce of in-home caregivers.
- Organizational branding: Oversaw two phases of a rebranding and the budget as organizational brand manager. Managed creative agency and 8 vendors in normalization of a new organization name and logo, a shift in identity from training- and health-specific branding.
- Advanced training: Developed market-tested messaging, collateral, and automated live-tracking system in leading a multi-channel, cross-departmental campaign to enroll 1,000 caregivers in the enterprise-critical Advanced Home Care Aide Specialist program. Recruited 1,200 sign-ups in two months, out of a universe of 6,000, with Facebook, email, and other marketing channels.
- Caregiver Kicks: Rebranded the “safety shoe study” to the Caregiver Kicks campaign, with a goal of 175 caregivers completing the study. Led development of strategy and set recruitment targets for three phases of the study, well exceeding each target.
- Find Your Happy: Rebranded the “Depression Risk Check-Up” to the Find Your Happy campaign, to procure data on the prevalence of depression in target population. Conducted A/B test to determine depression-focused messages were far less successful than positive messages, which resulted in the rebrand. Developed and led recruitment strategy, experimenting with new channels that would result in 12,140 check-ups over six months.
Senior Policy Associate
Alliance for a Just Society
July 2011–January 2016; Seattle, WA
Lead policy analyst for the Alliance, a national network of grassroots organizing groups. Pushed message of equity on issues like economic justice, racial equity, living wages, health care reform, student debt, and immigration.
- Job Gap Economic Prosperity Series: Oversaw expansion of the Alliance’s 15-year living wage program to the multi-study Job Gap Economic Prosperity Series, presenting living wage analyses nationally and growing from 5 states to 18. Received more than 100 local media pick-ups across the country, from Florida to Maine to Montana to New York to Idaho.
- Living Wage Ordinance: Produced research and messaging for the successful passage of the King County Council’s 2014 Living Wage Ordinance. Research findings were cited in the legislation. Widely quoted in news media coverage, and publicly commended by Council Chair Larry Phillips and Councilmember Rod Dembowski, prime sponsor of the legislation.
- Washington United for Fair Revenue: Served as panelist at Leadership Summit, “Illustrating the Problem,” April 2015. Represented coalition in editorial board meetings with the Seattle Times and Everett Herald. Published commentary in the Seattle Globalist.
- Legislative presentations: Presented to the Washington state House Labor & Workforce Development Committee (December 2014 and March 2013) and the Economic Policy Institute’s Economic Analysis and Research Network Conference (October 2013).
Vice President
University of Washington Graduate & Professional Student Senate
June 2010–June 2011; Seattle, WA
Directed external relations with state Legislature and appointed graduate student representatives to campus committees. GPSS is the student government for graduate/professional students at the University of Washington.
- Childcare Matching Grants: Successfully lobbied for state Legislature to restore funding to this student aid program. Despite a $5.1 billion state budget shortfall, the funding was reinstated in the omnibus budget bill.
- Childcare campaign: Drove campus-wide campaign for students with children that resulted in $3 million on-campus childcare center.
- Legislative duties: Initiated and oversaw the process of enacting a GPSS Legislative Agenda; testified before various state legislative committees; supervised the Legislative Assistant and Policy Analyst.
Production Editor
Kitsap Sun
April 2007–August 2009; Bremerton, WA
Produce daily newspaper through writing, editing, messaging and visual design.
- Directed design vision for the publication’s front page, managing all elements of production, from photography to reporting to copy editing to headline writing, consistently producing a clean, appealing cover on a nightly deadline.
Production Editor
Honolulu Star-Bulletin (currently Star-Advertiser)
June 2000–April 2007; Honolulu, HI
Produce daily newspaper through writing, editing, messaging and visual design.
- Worked across multiple sections and departments, leading the production of major sections of the publication, including A1 Page Producer/Copy Editor, Sunday A1 Centerpieces, weekly Travel Section and Sport Department.
- Served as member of Ethics Committee, helping draft Code of Ethics and authoring section on plagiarism.
Education
Master’s of Public Administration
Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington
September 2009–May 2012; Seattle, WA
- Concentration in Leadership, Management, & Decision-Making
- Nonprofit Management Certificate
B.A. in Journalism
Hawaii Pacific University
September 1996–May 2000; Honolulu, HI
Internships & Fellowships
Fellow
Washington state Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA)
January 2010–May 2010, Olympia, WA
CAPAA is a state agency that works to improve the well-being of Asian Pacific Americans by ensuring their access to participation in the fields of government, business, education, and other areas.
- Researched policy, tracked legislation, reported on committee hearings and produced bill summaries.
- Co-authored “The State of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington” and “Legislative Session Review 2010.”
Social Media Intern
Office of King County Councilmember Julia Patterson
January 2010–March 2010, Seattle, WA
- Researched, developed and implemented social media strategies and recommendations for the Councilmember. Monitored and analyzed news media coverage and drafted constituent responses.
- Produced memo outlining Councilmember’s social media strategy.
Skills & Competencies
Communications
- Visual design: Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom
- Multimedia: Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Anchor podcasting, Streamyard live-streaming, OBS, Jamkazam, Spotify publishing, Snapchat lenses
- Social media: Facebook Business Manager, Google Ads, Google Analytics Snapchat Ads Manager
- Websites: WordPress CMS and CSS/HTML coding, Elementor, Divi, Brizy, Website.com, Dreamweaver
- Writing, editing: Fluent in AP style
Media Relations
- Appeared on NPR, the Huffington Post, Bloomberg News, the Seattle Times, Fox Q13, KUOW, and dozens others across the country.
Public Policy
- Policy analysis: Translate political and policy developments for public consumption; memo writing for internal analysis; authored dozens of policy reports/white papers.
- Legislative: Strategist; understanding of legislative process; successfully advocated for passage of six bills at state and municipal levels.
Technical & Quantitative
- Techniques: Descriptive analysis of datasets; econometric linear regressions; real vs. nominal; nonprofit fiscal management.
- Office tools: Microsoft Word, Office, Powerpoint; Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms; Google Drive File Stream; Dropbox
- Datasets: Analyzed data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, State plans for Child Care and Development Fund, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Internal Revenue Service.
Public Service / Volunteer
- Performer, Artists of Color Expo & Symposium, April 2021 & February 2020; Seattle, WA
- Youth soccer head coach, Jaguars, Chinqually Booters Soccer Club, summer & fall 2019; Lacey, WA
- Performer, ACRS Walk for Rice and Rock for Rice, June 2017, June 2016, July 2015, June 2015, June 2014; Seattle, WA
- President, Asian Pacific Islander Americans for Civic Empowerment (APACE) 501(c)(4) Board of Directors , September 2012–September 2014; Board member, 2012–2014; Seattle, WA
- Graduate, Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation, October 2010; Seattle, WA
- Board of Directors, Washington Student Association, June 2010–July 2011; Olympia, WA
- Executive Council, Evans School Student Organization, October 2009–May 2010; Seattle, WA
- Co-Founder & Steering Committee Chair, Evans School Symposium of Public Affairs Research, November 2009–October 2010; Seattle, WA
