Megan O'Brien-Josey
Coach
Megan’s background in public policy, leadership training, community outreach, and storytelling spans almost 20 years and comes with deep expertise in bridging the gaps that separate diverse populations. A bilingual consultant and organizer with years of connecting people from all sides of the community to work together, what makes Megan’s professional work so effective is its emphasis on trust and relationship-building.
While graduating at the top of her class with a Master of Public Administration from Florida International University, Megan focused her attention and skills to the intersections of public policy, climate, health, and grassroots organizing in order to assist, guide, and resource impacted communities. Some of the standouts among the many positive and lasting community-centered achievements she’s shepherded throughout her career include:
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As the Care for Creation Policy Director with the Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART), she identified a need among member organizations to utilize storytelling as a means of improving public impact. She created and facilitated a two-part media training process for staff and community leaders that has trained over 400 people in how to more effectively craft and disseminate their and their communities’ stories to media outlets.
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As the Organizing Director of Michigan United, she led a team to establish a Community Health Navigator program that identified and trained trusted community leaders as connectors between public health experts and over 15,000 community members at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is still ongoing.
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While Executive Director of PACT in Miami-Dade County, Florida, she grew the organization from 15 active congregations to 40, utilizing trilingual regional trainings to effectively reach diverse and siloed communities. These trainings and engagement strategy brought together over 1,400 community members to ensure community problems were solved.
In all her work, Megan designs and facilitates experiences, events, and trainings that empower organizations, public officials, executives, members of the press, and people to more effectively connect and communicate their stories. By doing so, she increases and broadens community trust, which creates opportunities to work across various backgrounds and secures support for initiatives that lead to better outcomes for everyone.