Eric Larson, MBA

Senior Marketing & Communications Leader

View My Resume

Career Highlights

  • Senior Director of Program Content & Design; Director of Marketing & Communications, Creating IT Futures Foundation

  • Director of Communications, NC State University College of Design

  • Grant Writer, AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, Inc.

  • Health Volunteer, U.S. Peace Corps, Republic of Kiribati, Central Pacific

  • Reporter, Newsweek (Atlanta Bureau); Staff Writer, The Anniston Star

  • First Place, Alabama Press Association; Best in Multimedia, Public Relations Association of Western North Carolina

DEAR NONPROFIT LEADER:

For more than 30 years, I’ve helped mission-driven organizations show why their work matters, and I’ve done it from both sides of the grant table. I’m now looking for a full-time senior communications and marketing role with a charity, foundation, association, or university.

What I Bring:

  • Communications that bring in funding. I’ve written grants to government agencies, corporations, foundations, and United Way organizations; reported program outcomes to funders and boards; and communicated a foundation’s grants to programs preparing high school students and adults for tech careers.

  • Programs, not just publicity. I co-created IT-Ready, a tech-career training program for adults underrepresented in IT, and designed job-readiness curricula with technical experts.

  • Brand and change leadership. I led the full rebrand of the Creating IT Futures Foundation, and today I guide organizations through turnarounds and strategic change.

  • A journalist’s clarity. I’m a former Newsweek reporter and newspaper staff writer, and the author of two highly-rated novels.

  • Every channel. I handle web, social media, video, press, and publications, and manage agencies and designers to deliver on time and on budget. I use AI tools where they help, without losing an organization’s human voice.

Let’s Talk

Reach out to schedule a conversation through this website’s contact form or just email or call me directly:
elarson at theorgdetectives dot com
(828) 777-8459

Work I’ve Done

Duke University - The Chronicle

As a student at Duke, I served on the staff of the student-run daily all four years, including the positions of features editor and editor of Currents, a monthly news magazine section. I enjoyed a free pass to ask questions of most anyone and to pursue a myriad of topics that interested me. The work solidified my goal to find a newspaper job after graduation. Over my career I would parlay into my work a number of key journalism skills: 1) Find the right information and experts; 2) Ask good questions; 3) Show empathy and courage; 4) Strive for objectivity; and 5) Write with confidence.

Full-time Story-telling

Over the next five years, I would write for a daily newspaper (The Anniston Star in East Alabama) followed by a number of trade and consumer publications (including the ones pictured here) on a freelance basis. My regular coverage of businesses planted the seeds for me to go into business for myself someday. I’m convinced that having dived deep into hundreds of topics over the years has made me a much better brainstormer when it comes to inventing new solutions. I’ve also drawn on the interesting people I’ve met when drawing characters for my novels.

Supporting Good Health

My next chapter was a string of healthcare related projects. I returned to Duke to serve as the live-in health aide to Duke English Professor and Author Reynolds Price, a paraplegic who hired a new assistant annually to assist him in teaching, travel, and keeping house. I got married, and moved with my wife to my birth town of Milwaukee to spend a year obtaining municiple and United Way grant monies for a statewide HIV/AIDS service organization. At that point our number came up and we moved to the Central Pacific to serve together in the Peace Corps—Marian working with primary teachers, myself with nurses and government officials as a health and social services volunteer.