Laura O'Connor and Burness Communications

We spoke with Laura O’Connor, who has been a member of Cahoots for about three years. Read about the inspiring work Laura does for Burness Communications!

To begin, tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up here in Ann Arbor.

Hi, I’m Laura! I’m from Richmond, Virginia and my husband is from Los Angeles, California. We met in DC and lived there for a while (and loved it) but we both wanted a change of pace. We had decided on coming to Ann Arbor because we enjoyed visiting our friends who lived here and both of us wanted to live in a college town. Moving here was sort of an experiment. However, we are so happy that we did because we have fallen in love with our home and the Ann Arbor community.  

What is Burness Communications?

Burness Communications is a social change communications firm whose headquarters are located in Bethesda, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington D.C. It is made up of communication consultants, designers, and digital strategists who work with nonprofits to improve health and social justice.

 What is your role at Burness Communications?

I’m a senior associate at Burness. I work on messaging and digital and media strategy to help foundations and non-profits get their research and resources out to the public. I’m part of a team who works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is the largest philanthropic foundation that is dedicated solely to health, and also work with Voices for Healthy Kids and Afterschool Alliance. 

More recently, I have started to work with the American Disease Prevention Coalition, a new non-profit that helps vaccines become more accessible for families. Our team is helping them set up communications tools that every new organization needs, like newsletters, social media accounts, messaging, and media lists.

How has COVID-19 impacted your role as someone who works closely with public health nonprofits?

All of my clients are now working on issues related to COVID-19. For example, in April, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a $50 million investment for immediate short-term relief to several national and community organizations to help some of the families and communities feeling the greatest strain under the coronavirus. Our team helped them promote that announcement. 

Many of our clients’ programs, services, and people served are negatively impacted by the coronavirus, and likely for a long time, so we are helping to raise visibility for their issues through storytelling projects, media outreach, social media, and blogs. For example, the Afterschool Alliance is feeling the effects of COVID-19 because after school programs across the country have had to close just like schools did and some risk not opening again. I’m working with them on a storytelling project to help bring visibility to the ways in which they are pivoting their services to respond to COVID and support families, like offering online learning and keeping some doors open to care for kids of emergency personnel. 

Our teams also have been helping clients disseminate COVID-19 information to populations who may not have access to the information we see or hear about on the news, or perhaps English is not their primary language. 

In such an uncertain time, I feel lucky to be able to work on COVID-19 issues -- it’s been really inspiring to see and hear how communities are coming together and supporting one another. It’s also been comforting to witness how hard the public health community is working to get correct, credible information into the hands of all of us, especially underserved communities and those most affected by the virus. 

How did you find Cahoots and why did you decide it would be the right fit for your company?

I’m Burness’ only employee in Ann Arbor. Most staff work in Bethesda or Nairobi, Kenya, where our second office is located, and I’ve missed being around people during the work day! My friend, Joe Malcoun, introduced me to Cahoots and right away it was easy to envision myself working here. As a people person, I appreciated that Cahoots offered many community building opportunities for its members. Now as a member, I truly enjoy the perks that Cahoots offers. I love being able to attend conferences hosted by different companies in the event center or being able to work-out in the Health Center. To be honest, I enjoy how big Cahoots is because I always have access to phone and conference rooms. Ultimately, I chose Cahoots because it offered me structure which helped me create a balance between work and personal life. 

Thanks Laura!