Hi, I'm Crysta!
I figure out who most needs to hear something, then get it to them through someone they'll actually believe.
For more than a decade, I've led nationally award-winning communications and campaigns across nonprofits, public health, and education.
If your mission needs a storyteller who moves people to act, let's chat!
Communications & Community Engagement Portfolio
Turning research, media, and public trust into action.
Connecting strategy, story, and community for impact that lasts.
In the field
Community organizations, classrooms, newsrooms & statehouses
Featured work
Selected campaignsSickle Cell Data Collection Program
National storytelling for a 16-state Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance program. The birth prevalence research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and the success stories I built with the states are published on CDC.gov.
Network for HopeGreatness Begins with Hope
Six schools, three states, and one question: what if the biggest night in town could also save a life? Football rivalries turned into registration drives, with donor registries rising in every county that hosted one.
Donate Life KentuckySave My Human
Organ donation argued from the perspective of the pets whose humans needed transplants. $426K in publicity value, 14.8M in audience exposure.
Donate Life KentuckyBe the One & Faces of Donation
A multicultural campaign built with pastors, nurses, and neighbors people know by name, closing with a traveling art exhibit seen by more than 10 million.
Public trust is earned, not given.
The rest of the job is remembering that every single day.
growth in newsletter contacts in six months, from 1,472 to 3,108, with open rates up from 33% to 55%
cut from duplicate printing by consolidating two legacy collateral systems after the merger
In their words
Testimonials"If I could clone another person to have on my team, it'd be Crysta. She is a joy to work with and always has an idea for a solution."
Stephanie Grooms, Communications Manager, Donate Life Kentucky
"Crysta is a wonderful Health Communications Specialist with a knack for being detail-oriented."
Andre Marcel Harris, volunteer, Texas Sickle Cell Data Collection Program
In the press
Coverage & recognitionLEX18 News, Lexington
Coverage of a Lexington barbershop grand opening that doubled as an educational event. Read the story
WLKY, Louisville
Coverage of the Faces of Donation exhibit and the disparity it was built to address, from a pitch I placed. Read the story
WKYT News, Lexington
On air in July 2026 for the Live Healthy, Move Health Fair that Network for Hope hosts in Lexington. Watch the segment
Spectrum News 1
Served as spokesperson for a story about a mother giving birth after a heart transplant that went viral. Read the story
The Messenger, Madisonville
Coverage of the statewide Free Outdoor Movie Night series launch at Madisonville City Park. Read the story
If your organization has a story worth telling, I'd love to help you tell it.
Open to director-level communications and community engagement roles, remote or Kentucky/Tennessee-based. The fastest way to reach me is by email or on LinkedIn.