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Portfolio
Salvaging a Rejected Proposal
A promising proposal to develop educational software for high
school students was rejected by the National Science Foundation.
Although the software was brilliant, its applications, pedagogy,
and science content were weak. I spent a month working closely
with the authors: we addressed reviewer comments and substantially
deepened and improved the project by developing a complete,
integrated scenario for using the software. Upon resubmission,
NSF awarded the project full funding - $5M for six years.
Improving Outreach through Clearer Self-Presentation
 A
high profile Center at Harvard University had no clear, concise
way of describing its many services to its local, national,
and international client populations. The Center identity
brochure was ten years out of date. My work with the Director
and staff enabled me to articulate, inventory, and organize
their complex work into clear text for an outside reader.
A design colleague and I developed appropriate visuals, format,
and layout consistent with the message and Áfeel' of the Center.
The resulting identity brochure presents this complex organization
and its many components in a lucid and visually compelling
way.
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Redesigning an Unwieldy Project
For the National Geographic Kids NetworkTM nutrition curriculum
(entitled What's in Our Food), we needed to present sophisticated
nutritional information in a simple, accurate form so kids
could assess the quality of their own lunches. But including
all likely lunch foods was impossible. My solution was to
ask the hundreds of middle school classes in the Kids Network
to send us their school lunch menus. From those menus, we
found a manageable subset of common lunch foods, and developed
the simple tools kids needed to analyze their own lunches.
 Boosting
your Proposal's Appeal
A professor seeking a Fulbright fellowship worried because
her target country was highly competitive. I helped her develop
a unique and tightly focused proposal, without substantially
altering her research design or work plan. She was awarded
a full, two-year fellowship to study in her proposed target
country. She subsequently published several research papers
and used her data to improve policy in a major US city.
Finding a Publisher for an Innovative
Book
 Here
I draw on my own experience. My textbook hit a block at the
øpublicationÓ stage. While educators nationwide hotly debated
the Óbest' teaching approach, publishers waited it out by
re-printing existing books. But I could not afford to wait.
After cold-calling 34 publishers, I found one willing to champion
the approach I used. Indeed, they then chose to specialize
in such works, and have since published more than a dozen
more. (Ecology: A Systems Approach. 1998, Kendall/ Hunt Publishing.
800.kh.books. www.kendallhunt.com)
Creating Identity for a Zebra
 A
zoo wanted new signs to identify its international species
collection. I formed a team of researchers, designers, and
animal care staff to create a standardized but unique and
accurate sign system that identified each species, and placed
it in ecological space (continent, habitat, foods, size, distribution,
endangered status, etc.). The signs combined a multi-level
mix of concept, fact, color, image, shape, and text to engage
and educate visitors. The signage received special commendation
from members of the American Zoological Association accreditation
committee.
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