Greenfire Creative, L.L.C.  
 Resume


Judy Fort Brenneman

2160 Ryeland Ln.
Fort Collins, CO 80526
970/416-6353
email

Work Experience Honors and Awards for Literary Work Honors and Awards for Marketing & Technical Work
Professional Society Memberships Volunteer Work Education


Work Experience
Owner, Greenfire Creative, LLC: Writer, presenter, trainer and consultant
2000 through current. Co-founder and owner of Greenfire Creative, LLC, a small, woman-owned business that helps individuals, agencies, organizations, and institutions tell their stories. Services include training (including certification workshops for interpretive guides and hosts (CIG, CIH); writing workshops for interpretive and creative nonfiction writers, including the only Interpretive Writing Intensive workshops; and custom workshops), writing and editing (especially interpretive writing), and consultation (interpretive planning, creative consultation). My responsibilities include day to day operations as well as business development, program development and presentation, writing, editing, and consulting.

Essayist, memoirist
1990 through current. Publication credits include Weber Studies (four essays), Puerto del Sol, and High-IQ Kids: A Manual for Adults Who Care (forthcoming).
List of published works.

Freelance author
1984 through current. Regional and national stories for specialty and general interest magazines.

Advocate for students with disabilities
1996-2000. Regional program director and volunteer advocate for Attention Deficit Disorder Advocacy Group.

Owner, The Write Shop: Writer, editor, marketing consultant, project manager.
January, 1988 through July, 1996. 1988 through 1996. One of the original founders and, beginning in 1991, sole owner, president, and senior writer/editor of The Write Shop, a nonfiction writing agency and marketing consulting firm. Clients ranged from entrepreneurial ventures to international conglomerates and came from virtually every industry. In addition to supervising daily operations, financial management, sales, marketing, and customer service, responsibilities included editing all materials, overseeing technical writing, marketing, and advertising projects (and being head writer on many of these projects), developing information and usability strategies, developing creative concepts and marketing strategies, and working closely with R&D, engineering, management, end users, and others on the client side. Due to family needs and a growing desire to pursue other interests in addition to marketing and technical communication, I closed the company at the end of July 1996.

Partner, Technical Problem Solvers: Writer, editor, entrepreneur.
January through November, 1987. General partner in Technical Problem Solvers, an entrepreneurial venture offering engineering consulting services and technical writing. Company evolved into The Write Shop.

Technical and customer support services
1980 through 1984. Isolab, Inc., Akron, Ohio. Responsibilities included writing and editing instruction booklets, brochures, and advertising material for a variety of medical diagnostic and biochemical research products; new product development; FDA internal auditing; editing and writing a regularly published product-applications newsletter; trouble-shooting customer problems; developing trade show booth materials and displays; supervising exhibit booth at conferences; writing and presenting seminars; familiarity with products involved in liquid chromatography, electrophoresis, immunoassays, and radioassays. Left after four years to move to Colorado.

Research assistant
1976 through 1980. Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, Ohio. Developed and carried out experiments exploring the role of Herpes Simplex viruses in cervical cancer and in the conformational changes of RNA polymerase exposed to DNA.

Teaching assistant
1976. Teaching Assistant for Introductory Microbiology Laboratory, CWRU Department of Biology.

Work-study student
1974 through 1976. Work Study Student, CWRU Department of Biology. General research lab work.


Honors and Awards for Literary Work
* Second Place, 2000 Writers @ Work Fellowship Competition, creative nonfiction
* Finalist, 2001 and 2002 Writers @ Work Fellowship Competitions, creative nonfiction
* Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings Competition, Winter 2000, creative nonfiction
* Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings Competition, Fall 2001, creative nonfiction
* First Place, Stories from the Great Unknowns, MileHiCon 28, 1996, fiction
* Scholarship recipient, 1997 Desert Writers Workshop, Canyonlands Field Institute


Honors and Awards for Marketing & Technical Work
At its closing, The Write Shop had received 28 awards from various regional and international organizations, including Best of Division, Pro-Comm Competition, Business Marketing Association (international) and Distinguished Award, Technical Publications, Society of Technical Communication (international). I was editor, lead (and often sole) writer for all of these projects, and was either project manager or significantly involved in project management for all of them.

Technical and marketing communications that I have written and/or developed have resulted in documented increases in sales (in one case, over $15 million in sales during a six-month period), excellent response rates from direct marketing (17% for one award-winning campaign), and increased conference attendance (20% for the 1989 Working Woman's Conference).

Workshop and conference attendees consistently rate my programs highly ("fun, enthusiastic, excellent information, inspirational," etc.)

Distinguished Service Award, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce.

Undergraduate degree conferred cum laude.

Mather Scholar Grant recipient, September, 1973 through June 1976.


Professional Society Memberships
National Association for Interpretation (NAI)
Council for the Interpretation of Native Peoples (CINP), a section of NAI
Business Marketing Association
Society for Technical Communication (past Senior Member)


Volunteer Work
  • 2002 through current
    •  
    • Various volunteer work for NAI, CINP, and Region 7.
  • 2001-2002
    •  
    • Member, North Central Regional Council of CSPD and Title I Consultants, an advisory council assisting in the development and strategic planning for special education and children-at-risk programs throughout north central Colorado.
    • Speaker, moderator, and other volunteer assistance at various conferences, including NAI conferences.
    • Presenter for CBC (Certificate in Business Communications) program, Business Marketing Association, Denver, Colorado.
  • 1996 through 2000
    •  
    • Program and PR director, peer support counselor, and advocate, Attention Deficit Disorder Advocacy Group, northern Colorado.
  • 1992 through 1996
    •  
    • Writer, strategist, and marketing consultant to United Way of Loveland, Berthoud, Estes Park.
  • 1995 through 1999
    •  
    • Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Business Marketing Association; volunteer writer for various projects and presentations, including Communicator of the Year scriptwriting.
  • 1987 through 1998
    •  
    • Volunteer for various projects and committees of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce.
  • 1991 through 1998
    •  
    • Editing and project coordination for the Desert Writers Workshop annual anthology.
  • 1995 through 1999
    •  
    • Board member and Chair of the Marketing and PR Committee, MileHiCon (largest literary speculative fiction convention in the Rocky Mountain region).
  • 1991
    •  
    • Marketing Chair for the Incest Survivors' Art Council, Greeley, Colorado, and book editor for Incest: From Horror to Hope.
    • President of the Board, Marketing, Advertising, and Communication Association.
  • 1990 through 1992
    •  
    • Board member for the Marketing, Advertising, and Communication Association.
  • 1989
    •  
    • Marketing Chair for Working Woman's Conference. Increased conference attendance by 20%.


    Education
  • 1976, B.A., Biology and Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. GPA = 3.3 (A = 4.0).
  • 1977 through 2005, continuing education course work includes:
    •  
    • Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT), sanctioned by NAI to train and certify interpretive guides (CIG) and hosts (CIH);
    • Graduate of Colorado Leading Edge program;
    • National Speakers Association Speakers College Workshop;
    • Inc. Magazine Growing Your Company conference;
    • Active participant (and presenter) in national professional conferences, including NAI and STC;
    • Completed a variety of seminars, classes, workshops, and conferences on TQM, excellence in the workplace, customer service, accounting and financial planning for business, technical communications (including electronic documentation, usability, project management, and other topics), marketing, and management;
    • Desert Writers Workshop, annually, 1988-1999;
    • Writers @ Work, Taos, and Santa Fe Writers Workshops;
    • Various local and regional workshops;
    • Graduate work in virology and biological problems of man in space.

    		 
       
       
       
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