About me
I’m Denise Graveline, and I call my company don't get caught because it's a framework for communicating effectively. If you're prepared, knowledgeable, trained and ready, you won't get caught by surprise, a clever interviewer or an irate audience member. People get caught when they're communicating every day--mainly because they haven't taken the time to come up with a plan and prepare for what they're going to say and how they're going to interact with an audience, whether that audience is live and in front of them or scattered and on social networks
You're in the right place if you need help with a plan for your communications or social media efforts; training for public speaking, media interviews or social media; or a content strategy, whether you're using traditional communications tools or social media. I also facilitate staff and board retreats, primarily on communications issues. My clients include communications or marketing directors, as well as fundraisers, corporate managers, and others.
My approach is all about preparing to communicate clearly and well--and one that I honed while directing communications and media relations for some of the largest nonprofits in the world, and for a U.S. federal agency.Specifically, my experience includes:
You're in the right place if you need help with a plan for your communications or social media efforts; training for public speaking, media interviews or social media; or a content strategy, whether you're using traditional communications tools or social media. I also facilitate staff and board retreats, primarily on communications issues. My clients include communications or marketing directors, as well as fundraisers, corporate managers, and others.
My approach is all about preparing to communicate clearly and well--and one that I honed while directing communications and media relations for some of the largest nonprofits in the world, and for a U.S. federal agency.Specifically, my experience includes:
• Directing media relations and authoring key publications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted to health and health care. While at the Foundation, I also worked extensively on developing the first philanthropic grant programs to fund AIDS health services and prevention. I'm still active in philanthropic circles through the Communications Network in Philanthropy, and I was a founding member of Funders Concerned About AIDS.
• Directing communications for two of the largest scientific professional societies: The American Association for the Advancement of Science and its journal, Science, and for the American Chemical Society. As a result, I’ve worked with every discipline of science to translate technical research findings for the public and the news media and trained thousands of scientists to do so. Today, I continue that work with AAAS by creating and facilitating workshops for its national program, Communicating Science: Tools for Scientists and Engineers.
• Serving as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications, Education and Public Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, overseeing five divisions including the press office, communications planning, constituent relations, broadcasting and publications; serving as a primary public and media spokesperson for the Agency; serving on the White House Council on Women; and coordinating the creation of the agency's first web site. As a result, I’ve worked on every major environmental and public health issue, and served as a liaison with Congress and the White House, while overseeing day-to-day management of a public affairs operation with a $15 million budget.
• Working as a magazine journalist, editor and developer, on a freelance basis and for Whittle Communications, which published Esquire and more than 30 other national magazines. I covered parenting, medicine, business, film and more.
Today, my consulting focuses on communications strategies, training and message or content development for universities, nonprofits, corporations, federal agencies and more. I’m adept and active in social media, and author two blogs: the don’t get caught blog on communications and social media strategies, and The Eloquent Woman, a blog on women and public speaking. I also manage The Eloquent Woman on Facebook, a thriving community for discussing public speaking issues, and the don't get caught page on Facebook. You can find and follow me on Twitter, on Facebook and on LinkedIn, and I’m always trying new social media options so I can help my clients do the same.
I’m a native of New Britain, Connecticut; a graduate of Boston University’s School of Public Communication (now its College of Communications) with a degree in journalism; and winner of Washington Women in Public Relations’ 2002 Washington PR Woman of the Year award. In addition to WWPR, I’m a member of the National Press Club; the National Association of Science Writers; the International Association of Business Communicators; the D.C. Science Writers Association; Science Writers in New York; the Federal Communicators Network; and the Communications Network in Philanthropy. I live in Washington, D.C., am a beginning guitarist who plays an amazing Martin D18-GE, make art—mostly collage and assemblage—and travel extensively.
Disclosures
No one pays me to write this blog, either in general or for a specific post. My intent is to share with my clients and prospective clients the ideas and products I think they’ll find useful in pursuit of communications and social media. Links to books and products in my posts, or in the store for this site, often are Amazon affiliate links, which means I receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product through that link directly, but not otherwise. When I review products, I buy them myself; on occasion, I receive review copies of books, although I actually prefer electronic access to them. None of that changes what I write, or whether I write about a particular product or book. I do blog about my clients and the work I do with many of them, where that’s permissible. However, none of my clients compensate me for their mentions here, and I like it that way.
Disclosures
No one pays me to write this blog, either in general or for a specific post. My intent is to share with my clients and prospective clients the ideas and products I think they’ll find useful in pursuit of communications and social media. Links to books and products in my posts, or in the store for this site, often are Amazon affiliate links, which means I receive a small amount of compensation if you purchase a product through that link directly, but not otherwise. When I review products, I buy them myself; on occasion, I receive review copies of books, although I actually prefer electronic access to them. None of that changes what I write, or whether I write about a particular product or book. I do blog about my clients and the work I do with many of them, where that’s permissible. However, none of my clients compensate me for their mentions here, and I like it that way.
