What you need: Someone who can craft a compelling true story from beginning to end.
What I do: I write well-researched narrative stories and audio scripts that capture reader (and listener) attention, engage the senses, and bring people and events to life.
This can mean …
- Providing structural edits for your organization’s narrative podcast script to make sure you’re following a strong narrative thread that keeps listeners engaged the whole time.
- Writing in-depth profiles of interesting, accomplished people for your association magazine.
- Crafting full story packages — written articles, podcast scripts, ad copy — that show how groups or individuals have been positively impacted by the work of your nonprofit.
Work Samples
Narrative Podcast Scripts
I wrote the scripts for episodes 4 through 8 of Clearing the Air, a narrative podcast from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Institute for Science & Policy. The podcast (which relates to my other journalistic work on environment and climate) provides a textured look at the problem of air quality in Colorado, particularly along the Front Range.
Testimonial: Kristan Uhlenbrock, Director of the Institute for Science & Policy
“Meredith is the utmost professional, an amazing collaborator, and an adept writer. She stepped in at the 11th hour on a major podcast project and helped us create a stronger, richer, more compelling story. Her adaptability and ability to think critically about issues will make her successful with any project. Meredith knows how to weave together multiple perspectives and think about what an audience will find most interesting. The work we often do is emotional, complicated, and nuanced, and Meredith seamlessly rose to the challenge of working with diverse stories with an open mind and integrity.“
Stories for Organization Publications
I contribute stories to a variety of university and nonprofit organization publications, including the Regis University Magazine and The Denver Foundation’s blog and donor newsletter. Here are a few samples of that work:
- Banking on Genetics (profile of Michael Hultström, founder of Sweden’s first COVID-19 biobank, for The Physiologist Magazine)
- Story of a Life (profile of Zander Masser, whose photo book project reintroduced him to his late father, for Dateline Federation from the Hemophilia Federation of America)
- Some Like It Hot (profile of Penn State researcher Larry Kenney and his work on human thermoregulation, for The Physiologist Magazine)
- Regis’ Tree Whisperer Helps Diverse Species Take Root (story for the Regis University Magazine)
- Combatting Maternal Mortality with Data (student profile for the Regis University Magazine)
- Colleagues to Spouses (story for “Family Ties“, a package in The Physiologist Magazine, a publication of the American Physiological Society)
- Big Ideas for a Better Future (a look at work supported by The Denver Foundation’s Recovery and Resilience Fund in the wake of COVID-19)
- Pass the Mic: How Community Voices Influenced The Denver Foundation’s New Strategic Framework
- Moving Along with Tim Musch (profile of the new president of the American Physiological Society, The Physiologist Magazine)
- Climbing Another Ladder (profile of Xenia Tigno, associate director for careers at the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health, The Physiologist Magazine)
- Better Together (The Denver Foundation welcomed two new giving circles in the first half of 2021)
- Environmental stories for New Directions (a twice-yearly print newsletter from the development office of National Jewish Health)
Press Release Announcing Company Launch
I wrote this press release for Bright Feeds, a food waste recycling startup based in New England, to announce the opening of its first food processing plant in Berlin, Connecticut.
Meredith Sell 