pic1-290x300Cheryl Arvidson arrived in Washington  at the height of the Watergate scandal and has been part of the big story ever since.  She is an expert on politics, economics, Capitol Hill and investigative reporting. Cheryl was one of the first women to head a Washington bureau for a major newspaper and has built an impressive record in corporate and government communications and free-lance writing.

Communications and Media Relations

  • Well-regarded professional with extensive knowledge of broadcast/print/electronic media/social media operations.
  • Experience in daily journalism, non-profit foundations, Washington trade associations and government.
  • Spokesperson for new federal agency overseeing the historic 2009 economic stimulus initiative, dealing with technical aspects of website development and data display; reporting of federal contracts, grants and loans; law enforcement and investigative processes dealing with Recovery fund oversight.
  • Spokesperson for two Washington trade associations and major non-profit foundation.
  • Experienced in maximizing media exposure, developing core messages, crafting crisis communications plans, mapping promotion/publicity strategies, writing/researching internal and external communications, congressional testimony, speeches and correspondence.

WRITING/EDITING

  • Provided communications guidance, writing and editing assistance to GAO audit teams on natural resources and environment issues including nuclear energy, pipeline licensing, fracking, food safety, pesticides, water and land management.
  • Extensive work on financial, economic and insurance issues including property/casualty, life insurance, health care and regulatory issues from both broker and carrier perspective.
  • Contributing writer for Leader’s Edge magazine.
  • Prizewinning investigative reporter with background in finance, economics, international trade, politics and Congress.
  • Planned, produced and distributed internal and external communications products including speeches, op-eds and media talking points for senior management, news releases, electronic newsletters, annual reports, and web page content.
  • Free-lance writer/editor for magazines, newsletters, web pages.

Clear, concise writer able to produce clean, readable copy under deadline pressure - Skilled at finding lapses in logic, weaknesses in arguments - Able to turn complex theories into understandable English - Excellent copy-editing/rewrite skills - Superb news judgment, instincts

Professional/Program Development

Directed annual fellowship program for Washington regional reporters, coordinating selection process and planning/moderating monthly programs designed to heighten knowledge and improve coverage of the federal government. Planned and implemented media-oriented live programs for the Newseum, developed content/researched exhibits relating to news history, media ethics, First Amendment issues, civil rights.

 

Management Skills

Member of senior management teams, hiring, supervising/evaluating staff, developing budgets, coordinating media relations operations with marketing, advertising, publications. Bureau chief of two major news operations, responsible for all staff/office operations.

MORE AWARDS

The John Hancock Award
for economics and financial writing for a series of articles on money laundering and off-shore banking in Panama and the Caribbean which included an interview with then Panamian strongman Manuel Noriega.
The Raymond Clapper Award
for investigative reporting for a series of articles on snub-nosed handguns that led to a major change in congressional approaches to gun control, removing the focus from country of origin and low-cost weapons by showing that more expensive, more concealable handguns were the criminals’ weapons of choice. These articles also won anInvestigative Reporters and Editors Award and an investigative reporting award from the National Press Club.
The Matrix Award
from Women in Communications, Inc., for an investigative series on former Texas Gov. John Connally’s financial comeback from bankruptcy and how he gamed the system following the federal bailout of the savings and loan industry.

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE

As a senior communications analyst for GAO’s Natural Resources and Environment team from 2012 to 2015, Cheryl worked on audit reports dealing with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Her work included crop insurance, food and drug safety, oil and gas leasing, fracking, pesticides, laboratory safety, water and land management, nuclear security, wildland fire fighting, the federal helium reserve, contracting, and climate change.

FREEDOM FORUM/NEWSEUM

newseum_02Cheryl was media relations director of the Freedom Forum, a non-profit foundation dedicated to First Amendment issues, and ran the foundation's Paul Miller Regional Reporting Fellowships.  She also was program director for the Newseum, an interactive museum of news.

RECOVERY ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY BOARD

smallgold06092009Cheryl spent three years as assistant communications director for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, an independent government agency established to oversee the $840 billion economic recovery program passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in February 2009.