Patrick Stephenson Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Mn, Us

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

As the Manager of the Enterprise Proposal Center's Writing & Editing Team, my responsibilities and accomplishments include:• Direct oversight of three full-time writers and two full-time copyeditors, including two team leads• Indirect oversight of three on-call writers and six on-call copyeditors, who are directly overseen by the aforementioned team leads • Mentoring writers and editors based on my own years of experience as a writer and editor• Brainstorming team strategy and overseeing goals for growth• Ensuring my direct reports stay on track with their goals for growth• Overseeing recruitment and onboarding of new writers and copyeditors• Defining the team's best practices and creating or delegating content creation to document best practices• Growing team capabilities, including new technical approach services such as keyword analysis and implementation, interviewing and outline facilitation, and content reviews• Enforcing team guardrails to ensure projects stay within the scope of our services• Balancing managerial responsibilities with writing responsibilities

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

As a Senior Writer with ICF's Enterprise Proposal Center, I interpret customer requirements and work with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to write clear, concise, compliant RFP responses. I've contributed to multi-million-dollar bids for projects on climate change, cybersecurity, disaster management, cancer research, energy efficiency, and more.My responsibilities include:• Writing persuasive proposal sections, translating technical information into easily understandable copy.• Developing new content and refreshing already-existing content.• Ensuring win themes, key messages, discriminators, benefits, and proof points are clearly and effectively communicated.• Interviewing SMEs (including program directors, deputy program directors, and other key staff) to develop proposal material.• Collaborating with graphic designers to ensure images included in responses support or correctly reflect our narrative.My assignments include management plans, executive summaries, technical content, past performance, staffing plans, resumes, and oral presentations. I also contribute to ICF Next projects, including clients such as the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Baltimore Gas and Electric, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

As a Copywriter & Marketing Consultant with Salt Solutions, my responsibilities include:• Building an entirely new brand from the ground up, based on audience research, competitive research, and client needs.• Brainstorming marketing campaign concepts and executions.• Working directly with the Brand Director to create compelling marketing that stands out in the Chartered Financial Analyst® category.• Writing all Salt Solutions web copy, including the marketing website and user-focused copy on the platform side.• Interviewing SMEs (including the platform lead designer, instructor, and content creators) to define brand tone and voice.• Managing Salt Solutions social media pages, including weekly Instagram posts and daily Twitter posts.• Presenting creative work to the internal team for review and feedback.• Writing and editing long-form thought leadership articles to provide our audience with deeper thinking about the Salt Solutions platform.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I created 30 Days of Biking in 2010. This pledge to ride your bike every day in April and share your adventures online has united thousands of joyful riders worldwide, helped reshape Twin Cities biking culture, and led to thriving chapters throughout Minnesota, the U.S. and the world — from Spain to Belarus and Ukraine. Our 2017 kickoff ride had 600 attendees. In 2014 and 2015, we used sponsorship funds to donate 500+ bikes to Free Bikes 4 Kidz. In 2016, we raised $5,000 through a partnership with Surly Brewing and donated all of it to World Bicycle Relief. In 2017, we raised $15,000 for World Bicycle Relief, enough to provide bikes to an entire schoolhouse of riders in rural Africa.In February 2017, City Pages named me “The Bike Messiah” for my community-building work on 30 Days of Biking. In April 2017, the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota named me Bicycle Community Champion of 2017. In 2018, I received ICF International’s Platinum Award – Sustainability Focus for Outstanding Volunteer Service.30 Days of Biking has also grown into the Joyful Riders Club, a once-monthly bike ride that meets year-round, every second Thursday at Surly Brewing Company and draws upwards of 40–80 riders, in all weather, rain or shine. The ride welcomes bikers of all experience levels and is a powerful community builder.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I managed Freewheel Bike's Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, creating friendly, informative, community-focused content that puts a human face on the often intimidating world of bike shops. I also consulted on other marketing, including the Freewheel Fanatics email and the Freewheel Bike website. My achievements included: establishing the Freewheel Bike brand tone and voice; spearheading the creation of Tour De Freewheel, a nine-shop bike tour of the city; and helping steer the shop's communications through the 2019 acquisition of Penn Cycle and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was the first full-time copywriter hired for ICF Next’s Content Studio, which grew to include six full-time copywriters working alongside a team of dozens of people across North America. My responsibilities included:• Writing web copy, advertising copy, social media, headlines, banner ads, video scripts, blog entries, long-form content, micro copy, and more• Advocating for audience needs through copy that synthesizes SEO, UX, strategy, account and client input• Speaking to our audience in a clear, conversational, inspiring way and including just the right amount of information to entice conversion• Building UX content maps and determining hierarchies for website renovations• Mentoring fellow copywriters and reviewing, copyediting and providing feedback on work• Collaborating with editorial managers, content editors, designers, and project managers, among others• Presenting creative work to internal and external audiencesMy clients with ICF Next included Wiley Education Services, Delta Dental Minnesota, Glad Trash Bags, Pentair, BAUER Hockey, Circle K, 3M, and Nu Skin, as well as a variety of new business and corporate growth projects. I also led ICF's companywide Bike to Work Day initiative three years in a row.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I spent Summer 2017 at Nice Ride Minnesota, one of the nation's first bike-sharing organizations. My responsibilities included: leading their social media channels, guiding marketing campaigns, organizing a public hearing, steering communications through the organization's adoption of dock-less bikes, writing the 2017 annual report, leading an end-of-season social ride, and collaborating with Surly Brewing Company and Surly Gives a Damn on a bike-cleaning event that was a tremendous success.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

In 2013, I leapt from proofreading to copywriting and joined one of the nation’s premier public radio services as sole copywriter on its internal creative services team. My responsibilities included:• Teaming up with designers, production artists, marketing managers, data analysts and other creatives on a huge variety of local, regional and national projects• Writing copy for print campaigns, on-air promos, social media, OOH, web advertising, and more• Working with the Events division to create quarterly brochures showcasing events at MPR’s Fitzgerald Theater• Collaborating with the Membership division to conceptualize and execute quarterly campaigns, comprising headlines, banner ads, on-air promos, print collateral, direct mail, and more• Building an interactive, cohesive experience at the organization’s annual Minnesota State Fair presence• Leading social media for MPR Generation Listen, Minnesota Public Radio’s Millennial outreach projectNotable internal clients included Minnesota Public Radio News, Classical MPR, BBC World Service, The Current, A Prairie Home Companion (now called Live From Here), the Marketplace portfolio, and many more programs. I also co-hosted a podcast, about which more below.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I co-hosted and helped direct Pedal Hub, MPR News’ podcast about the bike life. Every week, with MNDOT’s Amber Dallman and One on One Bicycle Studio’s Gene Oberpriller, I tackled events, issues and stories in the bicycling community with friendly and accessible conversation. Our first live event had more than 100 attendees. Our social platforms, which I created and ran, had 1,000+ followers/Likes.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Olson (now called ICF Next) is a next-generation, omnichannel advertising agency committed to community building. When I arrived at the agency in 2009, I built its proofreading department inside the Olson Studio, defining the department's structure, processes, and standards. I collaborated with staff from across the agency and managed one full-time proofreader and various contractors.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I began my career at one of advertising’s most respected, awarded and professionally demanding agencies. As one of Fallon’s two proofreaders, I contributed to major new business projects and maintained the three copy Cs (correctness, concision, clarity) for its extensive portfolio of clients, including the New York Stock Exchange, Travelers Insurance, NBC Universal, Holiday Inn and more.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

As a summer intern at this Nobel Prize–winning non-profit publisher, I evaluated manuscripts, created a marketing campaign for a Percival Everett novel, and (in 2007) became Graywolf’s social media expert. The Twitter account I created for Graywolf now has almost 300,000 followers.