Kyle Austin Email & Phone Number

Grand Rapids, Mi, Us

Grand Rapids, Mi, Us

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

Grand Rapids, Michigan, Usa

As a member of the KCAD Communications team, I communicate the voice, brand, and culture of KCAD across multiple platforms to a variety of external audiences, while also facilitating productive and positive internal communication. My colleagues and I work to coalesce KCAD's diverse ecosystem of specialized academic programs and staff departments under a shared mission and vision while also helping drive recruitment/retention efforts and raising the profile of the institution locally, nationally, and globally.

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

Wege Prize is an annual competition that ignites games-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries through the lens of the circular economy.Over the past five years, I and the other members of a small internal team at Kendall College of Art and Design have developed the competition from a napkin idea into a powerful global platform for creative problem solving that's drawn incredible participants from institutions around the world, from tiny community colleges to the some of the world's largest and most prestigious universities and everything in between.

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

After a four-month internship period, during which I wrote feature articles on local and national recording artists, area restaurants, and local arts and entertainment events, I was offered and accepted the opportunity to cover the magazine's Literary Life section. I was responsible for covering the literary happenings of the West Michigan region on a monthly basis, interviewing local, national, and international authors coming to West Michigan and writing feature articles in support of their events. I also periodically covered other assignments, including a feature piece on Michigan roots music festivals, a profile on Oakland MC Boots Riley and his band The Coup, and a review of Michigan musician Max Lockwood's debut solo alum, "Outrider."

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

Through the 3rd Eye is a now-defunct nonprofit website that promoted local poetry and provided inspiration and resources to young, developing writers throughout the state of Michigan. The site was founded in 2008 by former Grand Rapids poet laureate Rodney Torreson, and I was given the opportunity to join the site's editorial board in 2009. As the site's Editor and Co-Director, I was responsible for generating new site content, overseeing the activities of the writing staff and editing, proofing, and posting all content. I also undertook the additional task of increasing the site's presence across the social media spectrum while simultaneously heading a group initiative to increase both readership and the volume of unsolicited submissions. In April 2012, I helped represent Through the 3rd Eye at the first annual Grand Rapids Poetry Conference, where members of our editorial board sat in on a discussion panel exploring the role of the internet in a developing poet's career. I also headed a collaboration with the Kent District Library to organize a series of youth poetry workshops.