Brown Bag Lunch: SMPA Terker Distinguished Fellow, Kristen Grimm
Join SMPA Terker Distinguished Fellow, Kristen Grimm for a brown bag lunch on November 15 at 12pm in MPA #429. She will discuss her success with Spitfire Strategies, a woman-owned, strategic communication firm that partners with nonprofits and foundations working to make the world a better place.
Over her 30 years doing public interest communication and campaigns, she has worked for clients across issues and across the world. This includes work for clients like the Ford Foundation on Census 2020 and human rights in the global south, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on education reform, Walton Family Foundation on Gulf Coast and Mississippi River regional work on sustainable farming and development, Food Trust on food deserts, Patagonia on civic engagement, Georgia Organics on local, organic school meals, Environmental Defense Fund on climate policies, Carnegie Corporation on ending nuclear proliferation, Living Cities on racial inclusion in the C-Suite, Innocence Project on criminal justice reform, Farm to Fork on a safe, healthy food system, Media and Democracy Fund on online privacy, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on Voting Rights Act Reauthorization, Barr Foundation on transportation, Mott Foundation on clean Great Lakes and safe drinking water, Aspen Institute on family prosperity, NRDC on safe food and Meyer Memorial Trust on anti-hate, among others.
She is the mastermind behind Spitfire’s Smart Chart, Planning to Win,Mindful Messaging and Discovering the Activation Point, among other big think pieces. Always interested in learning more about how to get traction, she explores innovative efforts like using culture to shape meaning as she did with AndACTION. She thinks fast in a crisis, is deft at drawing phenomenal visionary speeches out of leaders and is someone you want in your corner when you’re ready to go big.
She is a go-to counselor for organizations and leaders embarking on organizational change. Whether supporting the first woman president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation as she took the helm, working with the UN environment and development agencies to craft a climate change platform for the Secretary General, writing speeches, op-eds and testimony for “Orange is the New Black” author Piper Kerman, or working with Greenville, South Carolina, leaders to create the political climate for more ambitious public transit, Kristen provides counsel that leads to measurable impact.