About Jayne Cravens

I'm Jayne Cravens and I'm a consultant, researcher and trainer. My work is focused on communications, on volunteer involvement / community engagement, on #tech4good, and on management for nonprofits, NGOs, and government initiatives.

I work for large international agencies, small nonprofits, and just about everything in between. I'm best known as an expert regarding virtual volunteering, but I'm also experienced in all aspects of community-focused project management and nonprofit communications.

Organizations, companies & agencies hire me to:

• manage a project over a few or several months.
• research a topic and write a report, white paper or article on such.
  
• train staff, usually regarding some specific communications function, like using social media, or regarding some aspect of volunteer engagement.
• develop or advise on a communications strategy.
  
• speak at a conference or develop a webinar or teach a class.
• evaluate a project program.
• synthesize large amounts of text into something far shorter and easier to read.
  

I'm also available to provide basic video editing services: splicing different clips together, adding in title slides, fades between scenes, intro music, captions, etc. Great for speeches, presentations, client testimonials, volunteer testimonials and instructional videos. More about these services and samples of my video editing work.

I am available for:

• university-level teaching, or training for professional development, onsite or online, regarding various aspects of communications or community engagement.
   
• short-term consulting or project development or management onsite anywhere, or online, to advise on strategies, to develop programs or materials, to train or present, to research and write on any subject within my areas of expertise, or to undertake any project related to my areas of expertise.
   
• long-term consulting or teaching/training onsite or online, per certain geographic and travel requirements/limitations, to advise on strategies, to develop programs or materials, to train or present, or to research and write on any subject within my areas of expertise.
   
• long-term employment where I am based (currently in the Portland, Oregon area).

You can view my public calendar my to see availability.

Affirmation that this web site is created & managed by a human.

contact me.

More About Me

I am passionate about the importance of mission-based organizations - nonprofits, non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, humanitarian initiatives, corporate philanthropy / social responsibility programs and others - in ensuring a healthy, peaceful, happy planet with equal rights and opportunities for all people. These mission-based organizations do amazing work, but they don't always do a great job of making sure the local community, local, regional, national and international media, politicians and corporations know what the do and how essential they are to everyone's quality of life - that's what I like to help with.

I am also passionate about the importance of people getting involved in local institutions and influencing how those agencies address the issues they feel are most important, as well as understanding how their own government works and how the needs of marginalized groups are addressed.

I have deep experience regarding community engagement, particularly volunteer management. I am considered a pioneer and the world's leading expert regarding the research, promotion and practice of virtual volunteering, including virtual team work, online mentoring, microvolunteering and crowdsourcing.

I have two decades of international experience particularly regarding community and institutional development - helping staff improve their communications capacities and helping community members engage more with decision-makers.

I became active online in 1993 and I created one of the first web sites, in 1996, focused on helping to build the capacity of nonprofits to use the Internet. For this expertise, I have been interviewed for and quoted in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, as well as for reports by CNN, Deutsche Well, the BBC, and various local radio stations, TV stations and blogs. Resources from my web site, coyotecommunications.com or coyotebroad.com, are frequently cited in reports and articles by a variety of organizations, including academic/university researchers, online and in-print.

You can view all of my online activities (Facebook, Reddit, etc.).

I have worked extensively with multicultural audiences, corporate audiences, United Nations agencies, national and international agencies, international aid workers, low-income communities, and those who are traditionally socially-excluded, both in communications and facilitation capacities. I have both managed overall efforts and been engaged extensively in field work. In all of my community and institutional development work, I have striven to demonstrate a commitment to women's issues and mainstreaming gender considerations.

I also research and document practices to prevent folklore, rumors (or rumours), and myths from derailing humanitarian aid and development initiatives, and I blog frequently regarding how to build trust online and counter online criticisms, as well as the online communications fundamentals for nonprofits, government programs, schools and other mission-based programs. I have no funding to do this research and capacity-building; I do this on my own, as my time allows. With funding, I could do so much more in these areas!   

My CV, which fully details my professional experience and skills, and my references, are available upon request. You can also read about my core professional competencies and my capacity-building work specifically.

Samples of my presentations and webinars (all these and more are on YouTube on my channel's training playlist):

• A plea regarding how you talk about virtual volunteering: (spoiler: it's not "new"). 4:28
• Safety in Virtual Volunteering. 5:10
• Virtual volunteering: it's personal! 6:02
• What about the digital divide regarding virtual volunteering? 6:39
• Virtual Volunteering: Advice for Corporations & Businesses. 7:00
• Advocating for Diversity in Volunteer Engagement is NOT Easy 11:46
• Human rights, the digital divide & web accessibility 4:40
• Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) - great opportunity for nonprofits, NGOs & charities 5:00 (not so much a training as a "pitch" to participate)
• Webinar - Tech 101: The Best Assignments for Online Volunteers 58:11, a webinar hosted by TechSoup
• Knowbility 2018 OpenAIR Kick Off Event (note: I edited this video from over two hours down to just over an hour, I closed captioned the video myself, and I appear starting at 14:50)

Read "What's Interesting To Me These Days", a list of my current professional priorities -- issues that I'm actively researching, reading and writing about.

I received my BA in Journalism from Western Kentucky University, with minors in both history and theater, and my MSc in Development Management from Open University (U.K.). I lived in the USA until February 2001, when I moved to Germany, where I stayed through April 2009, except for six months in 2007, when I lived in Afghanistan. I also spend two months working for the UN in Ukraine. I have traveled to more than 35 countries, many of them by motorcycle, most recently the length of Baja, California, Mexico and back.

I am currently based in the USA, near Portland, Oregon (West Coast of USA/Pacific time zone), living with my virtual volunteering but-not-at-all-virtual husband, Stefan, and our beloved Mexican street dog, Lucinda. It is very probable that I will move back to Germany eventually (or elsewhere in Europe) in a few years, depending on professional offers and family obligations.

If you need a bio for me, please see this page with various biographies you can feel free to use.

My web site, Coyote Communications, was launched January 4, 1996. It has always been designed to be quick to download and accessible on any browser, but I am working on making it much more accessible.

Professional experience and credentials in detail:

Independent Consultant & Researcher
I have supported numerous organizations as an independent consultant regarding communications (my first love), including strategy-development and writing and editing, and through community/volunteer involvement, staff capacity-building, organizational management and fund-raising.

Community Relations & Communications consulting for nonprofit organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations, charities, schools, public sector/government agencies & other mission-based agencies. I develop and update resources regarding marketing, public relations, social media, volunteer engagement and donor cultivation, all available on my web site. I also consult regarding program development and strategic planning, such as for government and nonprofit officials and members of the press from other countries who are in the USA through the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Most recently, I prepared and delivered several workshops and consultations for organizations rapidly transitioning into online service delivery, especially regarding volunteer engagement/virtual volunteering, per the COVID-19 pandemic - clients included University College Dublin Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO), Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service, and the Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling (USA federal agency), for its among many others (April – June 2020). I also regularly research and develop materials regarding how rumor and myth can derail development or relief efforts, and ways to address such and I authored and distribute for free Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs in the Developing World.




From August 2022 to to January 2026, I worked part-time with West Tuality Habitat for Humanity, managing the marketing and advocacy efforts for this Habitat for Humanity International affiliate in Oregon and its ReStore (thrift store). The affiliate serves a large, mostly rural area of less than 400 sq miles 940 km2, much of it unincorporated and outside the Portland Metro Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), which bisects Washington County. The overall population of the area is less than 50,000. The largest cities in the service area have populations of about 26,000 people, about 13,400 people and about 3500 people, respectively. More than 10 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. This affiliate works to help people access home ownership, to help vulnerable homeowners with critical home repairs and improvements that help them stay in their homes, and to promote policies that can improve equitable access to affordable housing. My activities supported the organizations fundraising, volunteer recruitment (not just numbers but also reaching a diversity of volunteers), and advocacy efforts. I also undertake activities to increase sales of the Forest Grove ReStore, which is a vital funding component for the local affiliate, as well as increasing awareness of the ReStore regarding its connection to Habitat for Humanity and as a recycle and reuse option. My work included producing videos regarding both Habitat and the ReStore, with very little budget for such. I manage the West Tuality Habitat web site and the Forest Grove ReStore web site, and you can see examples of my online outreach via the West Tuality Habitat for Humanity Facebook and Instagram pages, the Forest Grove ReStore Facebook and Instagram pages, and the affiliate's BlueSky, Mastodon and Reddit accounts. I continue to consult with the affiliate on special projects.  


 



I have been associated with TechSoup.org since the 1990s, when it was called CompuMentor. As a paid contractor over the years, I have provided online community (forum) management and strategy development, management of online volunteers, management of its microvolunteering initiative Donate Your Brain, and advised on volunteer engagement  (March 2011 to April 2014 and again in 2020). I've contributed to various TechSoup materials to support nonprofits in using computer and Internet technology, and when I'm not working as a contractor of TechSoup, I continued as an online volunteer to the TechSoup forum, contributing information regarding ICT4D, Tech4Good and Apps4Good initiatives, as well as to discussions about tech ethics, until mid 2025. You can see a list of my contributions to the TechSoup forum, in date reverse order.


 




In July and August, I taught MGT 553 Using Technology to Build Community and Grow Your Organization for Gratz College. The course was a part of the college's MS in Nonprofit Management. The course, which I spent five months designing, examined online networking tools that can be used to foster connectivity, communication, and collaboration in order to strengthen nonprofit and religious-based organizations. I used two books, online readings, podcasts and my own audiovisual materials to explore how mission-based initiatives can use online tools to create a sense of community among donors, volunteers, clients, neighbors and partners, and how to attract new people to be a part of those communities. It’s a class about facilitation, trust-building, outreach, and working with humans - online. Here is the curriculum. You can see all university-level teaching and courses I can teach are listed here, as well as all of my previous teaching experience.
 
 
Manager, (consultant contract) Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR), a program Knowbility. September 2019 to February 2020. I have consulted with Knowbility over the years since its founding in 1998, most in relation to its Accessibility Internet Rally,  a pioneering virtual volunteering and corporate social responsibility initiative. I designed the original support materials and training for participating nonprofits when the event was onsite, and completely redesigned the support and training, and provided such, entirely online in 2018. In my last role, I managed both client participation (nonprofits and artists) and team (online volunteers - more than 150) support and participation for AIR, as well as managing onsite events in association with AIR in Austin, Texas. This involved using a variety of tools - YouTube videos (which I edited and captioned myself), Basecamp, Slack and, of course, email. I also helped upgrade Knowbility's processes to involve and support volunteers. This now-entirely online digital inclusion experience evolved from one of the first hackathon events anywhere, starting back in 1998, and I was also involved with its launch and the first three onsite rallies.

 
 
Fall 2015 Duvall Leader in Residence at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Leadership Development (CFLD), part of UK’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (October 2015).

My lectures, consultations and online activities at UK, onsite in Lexington, were focused on leadership development and community development and engagement as both relate to the use of online media. I guest lectured in five under graduate and graduate level classes, conducted five workshops for nonprofit and community representatives, and consultations for the CFLD for its future social media activities.
All university-level teaching and courses I can teach are listed here, and include all of my previous teaching experience.

 
 
The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
by Jayne Cravens and Susan J. Ellis
available for purchase as a paperback & an ebook , published by Energize, Inc.
documenting best practices for working with online volunteers, based on the more than three decades that virtual volunteering has been happening. It covers every aspect of involving remote volunteers, including recruitment, on-boarding, orienting, training, supporting and recognizing volunteers. It also covers different ways to involve volunteers, including online mentoring, online counseling, microvolunteering, and high-responsibility roles, as well as ensuring safety of both online volunteers and those they work with. Whether your program is introducing online tasks for current volunteers or you are expanding your virtual volunteering engagement, this book can help - and is far cheaper than hiring me as a consultant! Associated with the book is the Virtual Volunteering Wiki, which has two sections that are frequently updated: the virtual volunteering news section and the research section. Buy now.  Read the reviews.

 
 
SURGE Communications Specialist, United Nations and UNDP Ukraine, onsite in Kyiv, (Aug. 3 - Oct. 3, 2014). Activities included drafting and re-drafting the revised strategy for the UN’s work in Ukraine (all UN agencies there), per the drastic changes in the country earlier in 2014; rapidly editing and rewriting document proposals, press releases, web pages, meeting and field reports, etc.; drafting a marketing plan for a UNDP project focused on getting Ukrainians to care about and take action regarding climate change (per the agreements from the UNCED Rio de Janeiro conference/Earth Summit); drafting a strategy to leverage most UN days in some way via social media and, in some cases, traditional means (onsite events, press tours, etc.); live-tweeting the UNDP Ukraine Social Good #inno4dev #2030now summit and blogging about how future events might be more interactive and produce something by the end of the day (more than knowledge-sharing); invented the #uatech4good tag; mapped all of the various UN agencies and programs in Ukraine regarding their online activities and created a page on the UN web site where anyone could find such; researching and drafting recommendations for how various UN agencies, particularly UNDP, could use social media to promote respect, tolerance and perhaps even reconciliation in Ukraine; and helping to develop simple ways to leverage the Humans of New York focus on Ukraine. Here is a list of all I did in Ukraine.

For another UNDP colleague based in the New York City office, I edited reports, primarily regarding clarity, for the Rule of Law, Justice & Security Unit, part of the Conflict Prevention & Recovery Team in UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (Jan. 2011).
 
 
Virtual volunteering potential in the EU
Researching Internet-mediated volunteering (virtual volunteering, online volunteering, digital volunteering, microvolunteering, crowd-sourcing, etc.) in the countries of the European Union for the ICT4EMPL Future Work project, undertaken by the European Commission / Joint Research Centre / Institute for Prospective Technological Studies / Information Society Unit.
Included the compiling of case studies, highlighting efforts at NGOs through the EU.
An additional goal of the research was to explore how virtual volunteering might provide opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment, skills and social inclusion, and transition from education to employment for young people. The research culminated into a wiki, a presentation by me in Brussels, Belgium in June 2013, and a final paper.

On separate project, I provided expert advice, research and strategy development regarding the online volunteering component of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, through People In Aid and France Volontaire (Nov. 2013–April 2014).

           

Short-term consultation clients have also included Greenpeace, e-wolontariat (Poland), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, VolunteerMatch, Mennonite Central Committee Thrift Shops, Friends of Family Farmers and Pro Bono Net, among many, many other local, regional, national and international organizations. You can see a complete list of these speaking engagements and short-term consultants here.


 
I have written press materials, promoted expert volunteering opportunities (for volunteers with specific professional skills) to recruit volunteers and developed a workshop on how to use Facebook for sales and customer service for Bpeace (Business Council for Peace), a UNIFEM (now UN Women) partner and non-profit organization that mobilizes business professionals as volunteers to help entrepreneurs in countries emerging from conflict and war to expand local businesses and create employment, especially for women (and thereby build a peaceful, prosperous future). Bpeace has worked in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Guatemala and El Salvador, and most recently Bpeace mobilized expert volunteers to mentor 17 young female Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Read more about this experience working with BPEACE. The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, includes recommendations by Bpeace regarding working with online volunteers.


 
 
Researching and building a wiki that identified suggestions, resources and standard practices for communities of practice/knowledge networks for a joint project by the Corporation of National and Community Service and for TechSoup.org (March - September 2012). This included creating and delivering a webinar for CNCS staff that manage online communities (September 2012). The wiki is not longer available at its original host, but you can access an archived version by cutting and pasting knowledgenetworks.wikispaces.com into archirve.org. This was the latest in a long association I have had with CNCS and the Points of Light Foundation, including being an invited presenter at their National Service Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. (2005), Minneapolis, Minnesota (2001), Orlando, Florida (2000), and New York City (1997).

 
 
Various online consultations for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in Kabul, Afghanistan, including creating guidance on using social media and reviewing social media strategies, editing articles, reports for donors, program reports, scripts and other materials for the communications office at the Rural Water and Sanitation Programme (RuWatSan) (2009-2019) and revising and advising on the communications strategy for CARD-F, a joint initiative of three federal ministries in Afghanistan, including MRRD, to promote sustainable growth in legal rural incomes and employment and reduce poppy cultivation (November 2011).

 
 
I developed a strategy to cultivate greater activity on the forums and blogs of Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), to better cultivate its online community of practice / knowledge network for humanitarian agencies, and I  trained ALNAP staff online to carry out this strategy (Oct. 2010 - Jan. 2011). ALNAP is based in London and works to improve humanitarian response worldwide.

 
 
EducationUSA is a global network supported by the U.S. Department of State, that works to help people in other countries explore studying at the university level in the USA. EducationUSA affiliates are often independent nonprofits, and provide a range of services, including an in-house library of university print material, English tests and workshops. I designed and lead an all-day intensive onsite workshop regarding business planning, monetizing services, and donor/client relations for education advising centers throughout Eastern and Western Europe, gathered in Budapest, Hungary (Jan. 2011). I also created a similar all-day workshop for and consulted with centers based throughout the Balkans regarding strategic planning and demonstrating program credibility and transparency, in Belgrade, Serbia (Dec. 2009).

 
 
For three weeks, I toured Australia, leading an advanced onsite retreat on volunteer management and designing and leading eight additional intensive, all-day trainings at volunteer centers throughout Southern Australia (Brisbane, Tasmania, Melbourne and Perth) on various subjects regarding the support and engagement of volunteers, at the invitation of fellow volunteer management consultants (March 2010).

Materials from these presentations and consultation, as well as interactions with people working with volunteers across Australia, lead to several blogs and materials on my web site, including No Complaints Means Success? and The volunteer as bully = the toxic volunteer (one of the most popular blogs on my web site).


Developed a customized strategy for the Virginia State Office of Rural Health on the effective use of free and low-cost online networking tools to improve business processes of the office staff, many of whom were new to the Internet except for email, and delivered an onsite training for staff (2009). 


Several projects for Energize, Inc's Everyone Ready, an intensive staff development plan for national organizations, including writing and recording portions of a curriculum regarding "Social Networking and Volunteer Involvement", authoring "Communication Is the Key: Keep Connected to Volunteers" conducted evaluations for national and international organizations (the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Planned Parenthood, the Humane Society US, American Lung Association, American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), National Kidney Foundation, and the US Army) regarding the effectiveness of their web sites per volunteer recruitment, involvement, advocacy, and support (2005 - 2009). I also continue to write guest blogs for Energize. 

 
For a full year, I served as the coordinator of volunteers (all online), editor and contributor for advice pages, and the online forum moderator for the Aid Workers Network (2008), an organization that was chartered in London, England as a charitable organization and launched entirely by online volunteers who were experienced humanitarian and aid workers. I also authored and implemented volunteer policies and a volunteer recruitment and support system for the network (2007 - 2008). This nonprofit organization is now defunct, but the Aid Workers Network web site, www.aidworkers.net, is archived at archirve.org. Prior to this role, I authored volunteer policies and procedures and recommendations for volunteer management for LINGOS / Learning for International NGOS (2007).

 
Advised the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regarding business models for its Open Training Platform (2007) and created a module regarding effectively involving volunteers for UNESCO's Multimedia Training Kit, for trainers working in telecenters, community radio, and other ICT4D initiatives (2005). These materials covered fundraising, charging fees, creating activities for volunteers, recruiting volunteers and supporting those volunteers and were developed for use by small NGOs and initiatives in developing countries, including Africa, Asia, Arab states, South America and Eastern European countries.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP)
From March 1 through most of August 2007, I was in Kabul, Afghanistan to serve as Communication and Reporting Advisor for the National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP), a program administered by UNDP that supports the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). Around 60% of my time was spent rapidly writing, editing and rewriting all project proposals, donor program reports, meeting reports, field reports and presentations for all the divisions of NABDP, which included community development (development of local governance structures & guidance in local people identifying local development priorities), rural economic development, implementation of rural infrastructure projects (water supply and sanitation projects, construction of schools, irrigation and flood control, construction and maintenance of public facilities, energy projects, construction of health clinics, and rehabilitation of roads and construction of culverts and bridges), institutional development and gender mainstreaming. Also co-authored a Guide for Facilitating the Preparation of Women-Focused Development Plans in Afghanistan with the NABDP gender specialist, developed a series of online photo-sharing albums, via Flickr, for NABDP, developed How to take photos in a culturally-sensitive manner, developed a presentation for Afghan women on public speaking, per the request of Afghan female staff working at NABDP, developed a comprehensive list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting to donors, the media & general public, and rapidly wrote, edited and rewrote press releases, web pages and video scripts for Afghan MRRD staff in the ministry's communications department. Also visited Panshir and Kandahar to see NABDP projects in-person, observed a District Development Assembly (DDP) in process, talked with Canadian military representatives regarding provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), took photos and interviewed local staff for program updates for donors. Here's a complete list of all I've done in and for Afghanistan. 

Sanchez Elementary School Online Mentoring Program
I designed this program, designed the web site, and recruited, screened and trained the online volunteers who participated in this program to mentor two classes at Sanchez Elementary School in Austin, Texas, as part of the Virtual Volunteering Project. This web site, sans mentor and student information and interactive functionality, is provided to help others, particularly schools, to develop their own online mentoring programs.

Community Engagement and Volunteerism Resources for Texas K-12 Schools
Part of the Texas Education Network (TENET), this web portal is for school administrators, teachers, parent/family volunteers, and others who coordinate volunteer and community partnership activities between schools and other organizations, including businesses. It has become a nationally-recognized web site. To view the site, cut and paste
http://www.serviceleader.org/old/schools/ into archive.org.

AmeriCorps for Community Engagement and Education Program (ACEE)
VISTA School Volunteer Management Handbook
A resource guide for VISTAs in charge of managing school-based volunteers for Sanchez Elementary School in Austin, Texas through the ACEE program in 1998, and a good model for managing school-based volunteers anywhere. AmeriCorps/VISTA is part of the Corporation of National and Community Service

Music in Schools
This web portal was for educators and others to learn about and use music-in-schools resources, and to learn how music-in-schools programs have a positive effect on academics, including math and science. Includes curriculum resources from that time, and a list of groups and associations that supported music-in-schools programs (no idea if they still exist), particularly those that support music being used in the classroom to teach other academic subjects. Originally developed for the Texas Education Network (TENET dropped these resources in 2001 because of a change in its education resource priorities).

Contextual Learning to Teach the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
Included a section mapping "Science and Math School-to-Careers Resources for Texas K-12 Educators." Contact the Charles A. Dana Center for more information.

I have contributed frequently to graduate-level university classes regarding volunteer engagement and nonprofit management, particularly in using the Internet to support volunteers and for greater community involvement and outreach. My university work includes serving as Fall 2015 Duvall Leader in Residence at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Leadership Development (CFLD), part of UK’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (October 2015 - detailed earlier on this page); serving as a guest lecturer for SOCW 6355: Advanced Use of Information Technology in Human Services and SOCW 6371: Community and Administrative Practice at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work, Feb. 2007, and Feb. & Nov. 2008; a graduate class at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004; and a graduate class studying Volunteer Program Planning and Evaluation at the University of North Texas, 2001, 2002 and 2004. I can develop university-level curriculum relating to my areas of expertise and deliver such online or onsite. All university-level teaching and courses I can teach are listed here.

 
        

This page lists all publications by me or featuring my work. Highlights of citations: my work has been cited in several books and other publications, including Beyond Police Checks: The Definitive Volunteer & Employee Screening Guidebook by Linda L. Graff, What We Learned (the hard way) About Supervising Volunteers by Jarene Frances Lee and Julia M. Catagnus, published by Energize, Inc, The Career Break Book, published by Lonely Planet; and The Rough Guide To A Better World, published by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Rough Guides; final report of the Subcommittee on Public Outreach for USAID's Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) (my input was re: how to use various Internet tools for ACVFA outreach), Oct. 2008; the 2004 document/proposal E-government Implementation in Lithuania, published by the Kaunas University of Technology Institute of Europe and the UN Online Network in Public Administration and Finance (UNPAN); USAID's Bureau for Global Health newsletter (January 2002); and World Disasters Report 2001: Focus on Recovery by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Before joining UNV/UNDP (see below), my work was cited in the UNDP Gender in Development Programme's Learning & Information Pack: Information, Communication & Knowledge-Sharing, published in 2000 (one of the first UNDP documents addressing this topic).

In March 2003, I was still officially a resident of Austin, Texas, and was a co-winner of the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award, presented at a special ceremony in Austin, Texas, at the conclusion of the Texas Interactive Media (TIM) Awards Ceremony. Dewey Winburne served as one of the original co-founders of what became known as the SXSW Interactive Festival (once upon a time, one of my favorite events), and the teaching of multimedia skills to teenagers, particularly teens of low-income and minority descent, was also a great passion in Dewey's life. The Award named in his honor "celebrates the vision that technology is society's most effective tool to level the playing field between the haves and the have nots." I was beside myself at this recognition -- it is something all the more special because it came from a city I love dearly, that was my home for four years, at a very critical time in my life.

You can see my academic / research work at my profile on academia.edu. Most of the academic articles that have cited my work regarding virtual volunteering are listed at my Google Scholar account.

       

Facilitation

I have extensive experience facilitating participatory meetings to help attendees identify community needs and community-lead solutions, and to provide feedback on their interactions with and services from particular programs. Originally trained in community facilitation and planning by Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation (PIRE), I facilitated project planning meetings of native Americans, of police and youth, of pro-Choice activists and of corporate leaders in Santa Clara County, California (Silicon Valley), of Afghan government officials regarding women's empowerment in Afghanistan of Afghan community members in a rural province north of Kabul, and of United Nations staff on various subjects in Bonn, Germany and Kyiv, Ukraine. I participate in community planning meetings, local government meetings and community engagement opportunities in the area where I live whenever possible, to continuously learn best practices in community engagement and facilitation.

Published work.

I have published paper in various academic journals:

• "Virtual Volunteering: Online Volunteers Providing Assistance to Human Service Agencies", in Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery , which was co-published simultaneously as the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Volume 17, Numbers 1 and 2/3 2000, by The Haworth Press
• "Online Mentoring: Programs and Suggested Practices as of February 2001", in Technology-Assisted Delivery of School Based Mental Health Services: Defining School Social Work for the 21st Century, which was co-published simultaneously as the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Volume 21, Numbers 1/2 2003, by The Haworth Press

  "Challenges of International Online Volunteering: Re-Learning Words, Transcending Boundaries", September 2004, in The Journal of Volunteer Administration, Volume 22, Number 3, published by the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA).

• "Factors for Success in Involving Online Volunteers," presented at "Volunteering Research: Frontiers and Horizons," November 2005, a conference by the Institute for Volunteering Research, in Birmingham, England, and published in The International Journal of Volunteer Administration (IJOVA).

  unpublished: "More Than Performers: Factors for Success in Theater-for-Development Initiatives," an investigation completed in October 2005 of the elements needed for an organization to successfully use live, in-person performance as a tool for development, excluding performer training and theater techniques (also known as theater-for-development). Relevant theories of development management informed the investigation, with a specific focus on institutional development, inter-organizational collaboration, and trust-building.

I have published articles in:

Energize, Inc (and commented frequently on the Energize Hot Topic of the Month), and its sister site, E-Volunteerism

Merrill Associates Topic of the Month for December, 2004: "Learning From The 'Not-So-Nice' Volunteers"

Most of the academic articles that have cited my work are listed at my Google Scholar Account.

In November 2010, I received a VERA (Volunteer Excellence Recognition Award) from Business Council for Peace (BPEACE), a USA-based nonprofit organization that mobilizes business professionals as volunteers to help entrepreneurs in countries emerging from conflict, war and insecurity to expand local businesses and create employment, especially for women (and thereby build a peaceful, prosperous future for all residents, not just women). Bpeace has worked in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Guatemala and El Salvador. At one time, Bpeace mobilized expert volunteers to mentor 17 young female Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and it was a thrill to be a part of that.

BPeace, in 2001, said, "We annually search amongst our hard working member/volunteers to identify those, among so many, who deserve a particular call-out and recognition..." I won the "Purple Heart VERA", for helping to support a gentleman in Afghanistan who wants to start a cleaning business. I "bravely delivered detailed technical advice... and urged him to stretch to meet his goals of starting a commercial cleaning business." Unfortunately, he ultimately dropped out of the program. "And that has to hurt." Yeah, it did a little, but I then turned my energies to helping the other BPEACE advocates with their entrepreneurs and doing some other volunteering with BPEACE -- all of it online. Bpeace is, by the way, still going strong, still mobilizes volunteers for the countries where it works, and is still in touch with the entrepreneurs in countries where it is no longer active, like Afghanistan. 

Read more about this experience working with BPEACE and in the Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which includes recommendations by Bpeace regarding working with online volunteers.

 

I was named one of the Top 25 Women of the Web in 2001 by the San Francisco Women of the Web, an association that, I'm sorry to say, no longer exists. San Francisco Women of the Web chose 25 women in 1998, in 1999, in 2000 and in 2001, recognizing them with their Women of the Web award. The Top25 Women on the Web awards were unique at the time, recognizing the achievements of women who San Francisco WOW felt had most inspired people worldwide with their efforts to advance technology, contribute to the community, and set an example as successful business women in the Internet and new media industries, and were not getting their due via traditional media and being regularly left out of other lists of Internet influencers, which were dominated by men.. The awards recognize the achievements of women who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of technology and to the advancement of women in technology-related fields. The 2001 awards also honored those who have helped increase the number of women on the Internet/online to more than half the Internet population, and emphasized the community-based network of women who have helped each other in technology-related fields.

        

• Supporting the communications activities of various Girl Scouts troop leaders in South Clackamas County, Oregon. 2009-2010.

• Online mentor for new women bloggers in Kenya, through Fahamu and the Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), to help them learn to use blogs as a method of democratic expression and empowerment. 2008.

• Online mentor for the inaugural Blogs for African Women (BAWo) Mentoring Project, focused on women living in Nigeria, to help them learn to use blogs as a method of democratic expression and empowerment. 2008.

• Peer-to-peer career counseling volunteer (online) for students interested in careers in international development work, through Open University (where I recently completed my Master's Degree). 2004-2007.

• developed a strategy for the development of an online forum for the ATSTAR program, and to encourage hundreds of educators dispersed throughout the USA who have received the ATSTAR training to use such

You can read a more complete list of my own experiences as a volunteer and my thoughts and resources on volunteer motivations, volunteer management and volunteerism in general.

        

From February 1995 to April 1996, I was the internal communications manager at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (I built the original JV Web site and those of most of its 13 affiliated organizations in 1995, and edited Joint Venture's landmark publication The Joint Venture Way: Lessons for Regional Rejuvenation). I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for six years before moving to Austin, Texas in Fall 1996. I have also worked at Maxtor Corporation, managing this Fortune 500 company's community giving program and employee volunteer program; the star-studded and internationally-acclaimed Williamstown Theatre Festival (NYC & Massachusetts), where I was Publicity Director (1990); and the Tony-Award winning Hartford Stage Company, where I also worked in public and press relations (1988-1990). I worked in publicity for the Capital Arts Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and was publicity director for WKU's children's theater series in the Fall of 1987. I began my professional career as a journalist writing for the Henderson Gleaner, in my hometown in Kentucky, followed by the College Heights Herald at Western Kentucky University. 

        

Travel & Tourism For Development

I love visiting or living in other countries and has visited, worked in or lived in more than 30 countries and more than 30 states in the USA. I am a believer in transire benefaciendo: to travel along while doing good, and in tourism as a sustainable tool for the development of communities all over the world. My article "Doing Good On Vacation in a Developing Country," was the highest rated and most-popular volunteer-related article by far on the now-defunct Bluelist by Lonely Planet. The most popular page on my entire web site for many years provides advice for those moving to Germany, and I also have a page of Advice for Women Aid Workers in Afghanistan, based on my own experience there. The travel section of my web site also provides Advice for Hotels, Hostels & Campgrounds in Transitional & Developing Countries: The Qualities of Great, Cheap Accommodations. The most-popular web page on my site for many years was Camping With Your Dog(s), which is still visited by thousands of people each month.

        

Education

In October 2005, I completed the requirements for a MSc in Development Management (how to start, manage and sustain human, community and institutional development initiatives) at Open University, with the submission of my final research project (which, shockingly enough was not on volunteerism but, rather, on theater as a tool for development). I received my diploma in December 2005. You can read about development topics of particular interest to me.

I received a B.A. in Journalism (with minors in both theater and history) from Western Kentucky University.

In 2005, I passed the initial level exam in the Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera (DELE) (certification for basic abilities in Spanish), and am currently studying to renew that certification (now two levels, A1 and A2).

I was part of the inaugural class for the Professional Certificate for Nonprofit Management from San José State University (California), completing classes in Fund Raising, Board Governance & Leadership, Financial Management, Human Resources, and Strategic Planning & Needs Assessments.

I have also been trained in planning and evaluation by Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation (PIRE), gone through various United Nations safety and security trainings (in 2003, 2007 and 2014), and completed the course Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) from UNHCR (March 2022).

• Open University Development & Environment Society (OUDES)
  
• Development Studies Association
  
• European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI)

        

Career Women's Up Close & Virtual profiled me in 1998.

In May 2001, I blabbled endlessly to the folks at Tech Ranch / Bazzirk, a nationally-syndicated radio program, which featured me for an entire week.
part one
part two
part three
part four
part four

Here's an interview I did for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that I have no memory of whatsoever, from 2002: regarding what the early days in theater public relations and marketing taught me that I still utilize in my current work.

How did you get to work for the United Nations?!? - my answer to a frequently asked question.

How to Support This Web Site & My Work

        
 
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