About Gail Terry Grimes (Me)
First person or third? Which to use? Strictly Professional or Refreshingly Informal? Which is better? This is the hardest web page to write—and so much harder for yourself (that is, for me) than for a client's web site. Which style to adopt? I can't decide, so, here's a little of both:
About GTG
Gail Terry Grimes (GTG) has served more than 150 organizations as an external consultant for:
- Development and Marketing Communications
- Information Analysis
- Instructional and Presentation Design
- Project Management
Her clients are mostly not-for-profit institutions in healthcare, education and human services. Her portfolio of writing and media fills 25 linear feet of filing space. She has orchestrated projects small and large, including surveys, special events, group processes and printed documents. And, she has interviewed countless community leaders, philanthropists, healthcare professionals and their patients, medical researchers, educators, non-profit administrators, small business owners and industry leaders.
GTG is known as the independent writer of choice for building and articulating the case for support of a worthy cause. Fund raisers have used her development writing to inspire charitable gifts of every size, but mostly in the range of six to nine figures; in all, her work has been used to raise about a billion dollars.
She has helped her clients identify and articulate their brand, mission, goals, plans, and corporate culture; assess the effectiveness of their communications programs; document their internal processes; motivate existing stakeholders and recruit new ones. She often works one on one with executives to help them polish their thoughts.
She has also spent many hours "in front of the room," teaching and speaking to audiences of professionals and high-level community volunteers, sometimes working with a subject-matter expert on the details. Working with an expert on distance education, for example, she developed and delivered 100 hours of classroom instruction to groups of university professors about how to teach on the Internet. She has also written several e-books on this subject.
GTG is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Art and English Literature. She completed graduate work there and at the University of Nevada/Reno in journalism, the administration and interpretation of assessments, and instructional theory and practice. Her continuing studies have been in group facilitation, the visual presentation of information, instructional design, web design and virtual communications.
About Me
I produced my first publication (The Rabbit Journal) when I was eight. My co-editor and I are still close friends, which probably means I'm loyal and I work well with others.
My father was a judge, my mother was a poet; both sides of the brain converged in me to produce a writer who specializes in motivating readers; an analyst who helps people get to the heart of the data; and a project manager who gets things done, and gets others to get things done, with a minimum of fuss.
I started my career as a copy and wire editor at my New Hampshire hometown newspaper before relocating to Northern California. There I took a job as the only reporter for North Lake Tahoe's regional Sierra Sun. I covered all the news in three counties and six small towns. My byline appeared twice a week on articles about politics, the environment, crime, human interest and small business. I wrote restaurant reviews, a man-on-the-street column and investigative journalism.
That was years ago. After I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I went out on my own and shifted my focus to helping the executives and development professionals of large non-profit organizations tell their stories, think through what they're doing, get things done, and put the word out. My clients have given me exciting opportunities and we have done good work together; I'd like to think we've made the world a little better place.
My husband, author Claude Whitmyer, and I divide our time between California's Sonoma Valley and the Grimes family beach house in southern Maine.
Whatever your communications need, I offer the creative services to get you there. Contact me today to see how I can help.