ACET, Inc., is proud to introduce our new Communications Editor, Jolene Roehlkepartain! Jolene is passionate about ACET’s focus on culturally tailored evaluation for community-based programs. She has seen how this approach helps give voice to people who are often overlooked, noting that “everyone’s voice is important.”
Jolene has more than 30 years of experience in editing, writing, and communications. She has worked with a wide variety of clients in diverse fields including nonprofit research and evaluation, academic publishing, website publishing, and magazine publishing. A prolific author, Jolene has published 33 books, mostly adult nonfiction.
When it comes to editing, Jolene knows the process is about much more than fixing spelling and grammatical errors. She says, “communication is not only about communicating clearly, but also in interesting ways that keep people reading.” Jolene feels that for organizations to communicate effectively, they must be strategic about how they relate to their audience and express their goals so they align with the broader purpose of the message. When editing, she emphasizes the importance of “embracing your confusion.” If a sentence or paragraph is confusing, it means something is unclear and could be edited to be more understandable.
At ACET, Jolene brings invaluable experience writing academic peer-reviewed journal articles, developing technical reports, and creating communications for general audiences who have no experience with research and evaluation. She is in charge of ACET’s social-media marketing plan, which includes writing posts for our blog and social-media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. In addition, Jolene plays a critical role in researching and editing proposals for potential clients, as well as editing reports and creating dissemination plans for current clients. Because she is not an evaluator herself, Jolene is sensitive to the messaging and nuances needed to effectively reach a variety of audiences such as ACET’s clients, their funders, and readers of ACET’s blog.