recommendations

Allie is the human equivalent to a Lisa Frank trapper keeper, filled with communications knowledge and a passion for team building and organization.

Communication & Effectiveness: Allie is a great communicator and sets clear expectations for me and for the client. She is always advocating for the use of plain language and information accessibility.

Forward & Creative Thinking: Allie is always looking for fun and engaging ways to make construction palatable to the public. She is also constantly challenging how our team thinks about public engagement and reshaping how we do the work in meaningful ways.

When I first met Allie, I immediately pegged her as the “mom” of the team. When I say that, I mean she is the heart and soul, the culture-creator, and the first person who will pop the vulnerability bubble and let the floodgates run with the tough conversations worth having in a team. Allie was our missing piece, and we are a stronger team because of her.

—Julie, Communications Associate and Colleague at PRR

Communications

• “She was skilled at crafting social media posts that grabbed a reader’s attention and she proved her versatility in writing when responding to emails. There are drastic differences between writing a 10-15 word post and writing an email, and Allie was proficient at both, always mindful that her writings represented VDH at all times.”

Collaborations and Relationships

• “Allie is an incredibly creative, intelligent, resilient, and thoughtful person and our team has benefited from her humor and talent every day. Vermont is a better place because of her dedication to public health, and I feel fortunate to have worked with her in the communication trenches.”

Attitude and Resiliency

• “Allie was an invaluable resource for communication during the vaccine roll-out and when VDH was under significant scrutiny for racial biases. She shouldered a horrific amount of negativity during that time and persevered through significant adversity with empathy and grace.”

• “Allie responded with clear and respectful language that was informative, deescalated tensions and reduced anxiety. When she was unsure of an answer to a question or comment, she was resourceful and sought input from the CERC team members.”

— Colleagues at the Vermont Department of Health during the COVID-19 Response

“We have worked together for two years on a communications team responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic we had not worked together but were randomly assigned to lead the social media strategic messaging for the State of Vermont’s (USA) pandemic response. Alexandra (Allie) had more experience working in social media, so she became the natural leader of our team. She is committed to producing strategic, impactful messages for a broad audience of followers, and was able to smoothly shift her approach as the scientific information about COVID-19 evolved.

She used her strong creative skills to design social media campaigns that featured images of real people from Vermont sharing simple messages about COVID-19 prevention. This helped our audiences to easily understand what we were asking them to do. She successfully collaborates with colleagues both individually and in groups, completes her work on deadline, and confidently shares valuable ideas with the team to improve the quality of the work. I most appreciate Allie as a co-worker because she is reliable, supportive, and joyful.”

— Shari, Information Director at Vermont Department of Health

“Allie is currently serving as the Vermont Department of Health’s Southern Regional Emergency Preparedness (EP) Coordinator and the Emergency Preparedness Specialist for the Rutland District Office. In her short time with the Office of Local Health, Allie has made an impression as a rising star and is already making an impact on the work and culture of our organization. Within her first year, she was identified as an ideal candidate for the Southern Regional EP coordinator position due to her leadership qualities and skillsets. Although many of her colleagues were senior to her in years at the department, she quickly earned the respect of her peers as someone who listens to their needs, provides a vision and cohesive team strategy, and delivers on action items.

Allie also demonstrates leadership qualities in her work at the District office and in communities we serve. She leads our local emergency preparedness efforts, proposes creative ideas on ways to enhance staff development and improve public health communications, and is willing to facilitate challenging discussion groups that are necessary to advance our work in reducing racial health inequities.”

—Renee, District Director at Vermont Department of Health

“Allie is a gifted communicator. In any medium - writing, social media, and in person - Allie excels at connecting authentically and realistically to convey key messages. As a professional association for local government leaders, ELGL strives to use plain language and make all content relatable and under Allie’s leadership, we receive consistent feedback that our organization meets and exceeds this goal. 

Allie has played a key role in advancing ELGL conversations around social justice, equity, and inclusion. Her perspective as a government employee, as well as her innate creativity and agility as a public sector leader, is something that our members can emulate and look up to. This has been incredibly valuable as Allie has taught our nationwide network how to break out of a “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mentality and try new things to help an agency excel. 

I’m also impressed with Allie’s approaches to managing people and projects. ELGL members and staff want to be in the places where Allie is. She leads with empathy and compassion - adjusting her tone and style for the people she’s working with to help them reach their highest potential. She’s the type of person who’s an asset on any team because she brings people along and creates community along the way.”

— Kirsten, ELGL Executive Director

“I worked with Allie on a volunteer basis for the last two years as part of the City of Eugene Waste Prevention and Green Building Department. My experience has shown that she is organized, approachable, and effective at planning and facilitating events. A few projects that I’ve had the pleasure to work with Allie on include the Operation: Food Rescue annual event, Fix-It Fairs, and community outreach booths for the Love Food Not Waste program. Allie consistently demonstrates her ability to articulate the larger vision of the programs while expertly juggling all the minor planning details that go into running community events.

I directly credit her organization skills on the great success of the events she manages. Working with the public to facilitate community events requires a certain approachable professionalism that Allie embodies. I have witnessed her ability to calmly work through challenging confrontations from community members. What I think makes her such an effective community event planning leader is her ability to open heartedly listen to constructive criticism and implement changes.”

— Lindsay Neuner, Volunteer from Waste Prevention & Green Building Program

“Allie’s work on the residential food waste pilot, food waste prevention, and Fix-It Fairs are allowing the WPGB team to push boundaries around innovative ways to think about waste.

The Fix It Fair project in particular is measuring participant behavior modification around people’s willingness to get household items repaired, bringing the issue to the forefront of our community’s dialogue. She continues to partner with internal and external partners to leverage our resources and to create programing that is accessible and fun while still maintaining the serious undertones of our subject area.

It is clear that Allie’s path as an up and coming leader in the waste prevention field will only continue to be highlighted in her role with WPGB.”

—Staff Member, City of Eugene Waste Prevention & Green Building Program

“I was Allie's boss during an intense and important political campaign in Minnesota in 2012.  Our staff worked tirelessly to turn back a constitutional amendment that would have made it law that marriage is defined by one man and one woman.  On behalf of our loving and dedicated LGBTQ community, we stepped up with innovative ways to have conversations with voters to simply explain that love is love, no matter who it involves.  We learned to meet people where they were in order to strengthen the resolve of our supporters and change the minds of our opponents. 

Setting the stage for this work is key to explaining Allie's strengths, growth and abilities to accomplish great things.  When I met Allie, she was fairly reserved, needing confidence and very contemplative, and I saw some a great deal of compassion, intelligence and desire to come out of her shell.  And come out of her shell she did.  It was exciting to watch as Allie took on one of the Twin Cities Metro area's most conservative counties with these defined tasks - to build a team of volunteer leaders, to plan and execute a launch party to publicize our campaign efforts and rally support, and with her volunteer team, have thousands of direct voter contact touch points in order to meet the numbers needed to fight this amendment.

She did just that.  Allie helped uncover many straight allies and diverse stakeholders that surprised even our campaign leadership.  Her launch event was top notch as she quickly identified and connected with community leaders throughout the county who helped her elevate the cause.  I was not only proud to watch her become an excellent communicator with her teammates, with me, and her stakeholders, she became a professional force that could handle myriad of situations stretching her problem solving skills.   

Her hard work paid off as she was able to win Scott County Minnesota by one percentage point on election night - meaning her team was able to convince enough voters to vote against the amendment and our state-wide campaign was the first in the country to successfully defeat one of these hurtful amendments.  The next year, Minnesota legislators voted to pass same-sex marriage- several legislators in Scott County felt affirmed to vote yes due to Allie’s organizing.  

Since 2012, I've stayed in touch with Allie as I'm invested in her career and in her life. She continues to amaze me with her abilities to shape her existence into a world that is connective, earnest and authentic within many diverse populations. If I had the chance, I would hire her again, right now, today. The fact she is taking these risks to move across the country and reinvent herself; I can't wait to hear about these next phases in Allie's personal and professional growth. I like that she is still contemplative, mixing that with an outgoing spirit people enjoy being around.”

— Kim Hansen, Former Supervisor, Minnesotans United for All Families