Spitfire Sparks

Faridat Animashaun, a junior at Howard University, drafted the following blog post during her internship with Spitfire this Spring. Seen. Heard. Prioritized. A successful communicator is all three of these things. But as a young, Black woman at the start of my career, I know this...

2002. It was a big year. George W. Bush came up with the term “Axis of Evil.” Serena Williams won her first single’s title at Wimbledon. American Idol premiered and MTV unleashed “The Osbournes” reality show. I also started my own reality series – Spitfire Strategies. It is in...

Last week, I was thrilled to hear from Caty Borum Chattoo , an award-winning communication strategist, producer, author, professor and director of the Center for Media & Social Impact. Caty stopped by Spitfire’s D.C. office to share her fascinating work to bring comedy into the...

Kamara Jones loves to tell a good story. The new Spitfire Director started reporting professionally when she was 16 years old. While attending journalism camp in high school, one of her instructors saw promise in Kamara and convinced the editor of the local newspaper to give her...

In the first installment of this two-part series, I shared some insights from my years working in TV news and media relations, focusing on the best methods to get your pitches seen by reporters. In this part, I review some strategies for increasing the odds those reporters will...

April is National Poetry Month , which means there is no better time to dust off a volume or two from your bookshelf or tune into U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s five-minute podcast The Slowdown (there are new episodes every weekday and it’s incredible). Through my work at...

Anyone who’s ever made a pitch to the media — in any medium — knows it’s a big, competitive world out there. Every day, reporters field hundreds of requests for their attention. Like any other human being, they only have so much capacity. Before I joined Spitfire, I spent 15...

It’s Women’s History Month, and I am excited to celebrate the women whose shoulders we stand on. But more importantly, I want to address every leader, across all genders, who is in a position to set policies, practices, and precedents. Because every day offers a chance to make...

What exactly is space? Does it constitute a physical area or is it a state of mind? How is space used, who is it used by and for what purpose? We all interpret the different shapes and meanings of shape in our own ways. That made it an apt theme for this year’s frank – which has...

In Spitfire’s San Francisco office, there are two new team members bringing bold, creative ideas to the intersection of public health and environmental justice, with the shared goal of creating a more equitable future. Claire de Leon is a Director who recently joined Spitfire...

I’ve been working with a number of new executive directors this past year. After years of hard work, or in some instances, after waking up from a dream about a new organization that MUST exist, these people found themselves with all eyes on them. From the moment they updated...

Edith Asibey is an expert in global advocacy and digital communications. From working with UNICEF during the Zika crisis in Brazil to the teaching at New York University, she has gathered important lessons for motivating people to take action. Edith generously shared some of...