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nDash Writer Profile for Susan Balding

Headline

Driving traffic, press coverage, and understanding through compelling writing

About Me

I am a writer, media relations specialist, and content strategist with extensive experience translating complex research into easy-to-understand articles. 

My articles have a track record of increasing web traffic, generating media coverage, and increasing public understanding of issues. I pride myself on helping brands, organizations, and individuals clearly, succinctly, and compellingly express themselves.

Industries I Write About

Science & Medicine

Law & Politics

My Writing Samples

The United States can and should eliminate childhood lead exposure

This feature-length article condenses the key findings of a 144-page research document into a compelling and easy-to-understand article.

https://www.childtrends.org/publications/united-states-can-eliminate-childhood-lead-exposure

DC is debating a plan that would pay you to walk or bike to work

This article explains how a new tax policy could incentivize DC residents to bike or walk to work by paying them for their commute.

https://ggwash.org/view/64825/dc-might-pass-a-plan-that-pays-you-to-walk-or-bike-to-work

Housing Systems Must Better Support Families with Young Children Experiencing Homelessness

This newsletter-length blog post explains how the U.S. housing system can improve support for families with small children who are experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness.

https://www.childtrends.org/blog/housing-systems-must-better-support-families-with-young-children-experiencing-homelessness

The Trade Deficit is Responsible for Manufacturing Job Loss

This blog post uses a single chart to explain the relationship between the U.S. manufacturing trade deficit and manufacturing employment. This article drove over 100,000 interactions on Facebook.

https://www.epi.org/publication/the-trade-deficit-is-responsible-for-manufacturing-job-loss/

New Agenda to Support and Improve Children’s Mental Health

This press release announced a new report that provides recommendations for improving mental health care for children in the United States during and after COVID-19.

https://www.childtrends.org/news-release/new-agenda-to-support-improve-childrens-mental-health

Experience

Media Relations Director

• Contributed to a 900% increase in the number of products with more than 5,000 pageviews by developing and executing content, social media, and traditional media strategies • Increased media hits by 250% by developing and executing short content and traditional media strategies focused on improving product timeliness, frequency, and SEO • Contributed to a 4 percentage-point increase in e-newsletter open rate by developing and executing guidelines for e-news copy

Company: Child Trends

I worked there from 9/2017 until 10/2021

Communications Manager

• Created and executed an op-ed strategy to establish organization executives as leading voices on women’s rights, resulting in placement of 6 op-eds in major media outlets • Developed, drafted, and released a cross-departmental style guide to ensure consistent messaging and brand identities across external and internal communications • Development and oversaw regular updates of an organizational talking points database

Company: Political Organizing Nonprofit

I worked there from 5/2016 until 8/2017

Media Relations Specialist

• Oversaw the creation and distribution of a weekly piece of content that regularly drove national news and organically reached up to 120,000 Facebook users at a time • Increase readability and accessibility of online reports by recommending and implementing key design changes in collaboration with internal team members

Company: Economic Policy Institute

I worked there from 4/2015 until 5/2016

Content I Write