U.S. Supreme Court
Ensuring voting rights. Stopping voter suppression. Protecting affirmative action.
Art was proud to be part of the communications team supporting the litigation of three landmark civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (and the court of public opinion).
Scope of Work: Strategy; writing and editing; pitching earned media; and managing on-site coverage at the Court on argument and decision days.
As part of this work, Art helped draft op-ed columns for Roll Call on voter suppression and USA Today on affirmative action.
Clients: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (Art's work via VVH Consulting)
Advanced Neuroscience
For the first time, a completely paralyzed paraplegic man rises from his wheelchair unassisted.
Art was retained as part of a team managing the worldwide media release of ground-breaking neurological research being announced in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.
Scope of Work: Interviewing the lead scientific researchers; developing messaging; writing extensive materials for both mainstream and scientific media; coordinating with media teams from partner institutions.
Challenge: Presenting a breakthrough scientific accomplishment in a dramatic, compelling manner, while maintaining absolute scientific rigor (and without raising excessive expectations among people living with paralysis)
Results: Saturation coverage across print, broadcast, cable and online media, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, World News Tonight, the Today Show, PBS News Hour, AP, NPR, BBC, Yahoo, Google, etc.
Client: Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (Art's work via turner4D)
Teaching Activism Online
Organizing and Activism for Public Health is a graduate-level online curriculum at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Challenge: Help develop a meaningful masters-level class for public-health students who are highly skilled in their own specialties, but largely unfamiliar with principles of community organizing and issue campaigning.
Scope of Work: Working with course creator and instructor Ayelet Hines, Art helped distill voluminous research materials into 24 hours of course content, shape its editorial flow, draft and edit lectures, and marry script to imagery.
He also served as a guest lecturer for the media relations portion of the curriculum.
Result: Highly ranked by participants, a companion 12-week course is now being offered to undergraduates as well.
Client: Bloomberg School Of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University