Overview

I joined the Seed Oil Free Alliance in May 2024 as its first contracted staff member and Media Relations Strategist. The organization was still defining its standards, public voice and internal operating systems.

My role expanded almost immediately.

What began as media relations became a broader communications leadership position encompassing executive communications, brand strategy, media relations, content development, sales enablement, HubSpot administration, project management and cross-functional operations.

By 2025, I returned to the organization with the title and responsibilities of Director of Communications. In practice, the role has become much broader: building the systems, messaging and workflows that allow a founder-led startup to operate consistently as it grows.

The challenge

The Seed Oil Free Alliance entered a difficult communications environment.

Seed oils sit at the intersection of nutrition science, consumer activism, food manufacturing, social media and increasingly polarized health debates. The organization needed to establish credibility without adopting the exaggerated claims common in the category.

At the same time, it was launching a new certification standard, recruiting nationally recognized advisers, developing relationships with food brands and retailers, and building a sales pipeline from the ground up.

The communications function therefore could not be limited to publicity. It needed to connect scientific standards, organizational strategy, sales, media relations, digital publishing and executive decision-making.

Establishing the organization publicly

Two of my earliest assignments were also two of the most consequential.

I led communications around the announcement of the Seed Oil Free Certified standards and the appointment of Dr. Andrew Weil as medical adviser.

These announcements helped establish both sides of the organization’s credibility: a defined certification system and respected independent expertise.

From the beginning, my work extended beyond drafting press releases. I became responsible for translating technical and scientific information into clear public language, maintaining editorial standards, shaping organizational positioning and ensuring that external communications accurately reflected what the certification could and could not claim.

That discipline became especially important in a category where marketing language can easily outrun the evidence.

From communications to organizational infrastructure

My background is not unusual for a communications director. In addition to writing and media relations, I am well-rounded in creative direction, project management, marketing technology, and web development, and I am HubSpot certified.

As the organization grew, those skills became increasingly central to my role.

I took responsibility for building and managing much of the operational infrastructure behind sales and communications, including the HubSpot Sales deal pipeline, email sequences, reporting systems, lead prospecting process, and staff training.

Uniting story and strategy has become one of the defining characteristics of my work. Rather than treating communications and sales as separate functions, I built systems to connect them.

Executive communications and strategic counsel

My responsibilities also evolved into close strategic support for founder and CEO Jonathan Rubin.

In a founder-led organization, communications often extends well beyond writing speeches or approving press releases. It requires helping leadership turn ideas into decisions, projects, and completed work.

I developed systems for prioritization, reporting, follow-up and cross-functional coordination. I frequently served as the connective layer between leadership, technology, sales, advisers, and contractors.

A colleague once described my role as a “shadow CEO.” I would describe it more precisely as executive communications combined with project management.

My job has often been providing counsel to help executives make mission-aligned decisions.

Media relations and issues management

I developed a media relations strategy focused on targeted, beat-specific outreach rather than relying primarily on broad press-release distribution.

That work includes:

• Identifying reporters and outlets covering food, nutrition, consumer products, retail and ingredient integrity
• Developing pitches, background materials and expert talking points
• Preparing executives and advisers for interviews
• Identifying opportunities for rapid-response commentary
• Coordinating communications with outside researchers, brand partners and advisers
• Developing messaging around controversial or fast-moving industry developments

The goal has consistently been credibility over attention for its own sake.

Turning research into an integrated campaign

One example came in 2026, when UC Davis researchers published a peer-reviewed study examining avocado oil authenticity in packaged foods.

The study created a significant communications opportunity because it addressed one of the central problems the Alliance was designed to solve: product claims that cannot be verified from an ingredient label alone.

I helped turn the research into a coordinated campaign spanning media relations, retailer outreach, brand communications, website content, adviser messaging, social media and sales.

The communications strategy deliberately avoided attacking brands that failed testing. Instead, we focused on a broader question: How can retailers, brands and consumers verify premium oil claims?

The research itself referenced third-party certification and specifically identified the Seed Oil Free Alliance. Certified products included in the study passed the relevant authenticity testing.

I developed messaging that connected those findings to the Alliance’s larger position on independent verification.

The campaign also included communications involving Dr. Andrew Weil, brand partners, UC Davis researchers and national retailers. It helped support a series of retailer conversations for the CEO and gave certified brands a credible way to discuss sourcing and verification without relying on fear-based marketing.

Building an expert-reviewed Knowledge Center

Another major part of my work has been transforming the organization’s website from a certification site into an editorial and educational platform.

I oversee strategy and development for the Seed Oil Free Certified Knowledge Center, which addresses consumer questions about seed oils, ingredients, food categories, oil authenticity and practical alternatives.

The editorial model is built around expert review.

I work with physicians, registered dietitians, scientists and advisers to ensure content is both useful and defensible. Contributors and reviewers have included Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Nick Jikomes, Maggie Bell, Nicole Petersen, Dylan Gemelli and other subject-matter experts.

My role includes topic development, assigning or rewriting articles, substantive editing, sourcing, search strategy, expert review and final publication.

The objective is not SEO traffic. It is to build a body of information that journalists, consumers, retailers, brands and AI systems can rely on as a credible reference.

Sales enablement and HubSpot

I also assumed responsibility for significant portions of the organization’s sales infrastructure.

I have built and refined:

• HubSpot pipelines and lead-management workflows
• Segmented prospect lists
• Email sequences and follow-up campaigns
• Sales reporting and weekly scorecards
• Lead-status definitions and qualification processes
• Event follow-up workflows
• Lost-lead and cold-lead re-engagement campaigns
• Retailer outreach sequences
• Staff training and operating procedures

I work closely with sales research staff and the CEO to turn prospecting into a repeatable process rather than a collection of disconnected contacts.

That work has included outreach tied to national retailers, trade shows, private-label opportunities and food manufacturers across multiple categories.

Brand and retailer communications

The Alliance’s communications function also serves certified brand partners.

I develop newsletters, talking points, media-support materials, retailer communications and campaign messaging that help brands explain the value of third-party certification.

I have also developed retailer-facing communications around ingredient verification, oil authenticity, sourcing risk and label trust, including outreach supported by Dr. Andrew Weil.

This work sits between public relations and business development. The objective is to make communications useful to the organization’s partners and commercially relevant without turning editorial credibility into sales copy.

Working in a startup environment

The work has required building durable systems. It has also required rebuilding them when organizational priorities, personnel or technology changed.

In a small founder-led organization, responsibility boundaries can be fluid. Websites, CRM processes, and internal workflows may evolve quickly, sometimes after staff have already been trained on a previous version.

The environment in which I’ve evolved has forced me to become highly adaptable.

I document processes, retrain team members, rebuild workflows when necessary and keep projects moving despite shifting resources and priorities.

The experience has reinforced how I approach leadership: infrastructure has to be operationally elastic, not merely well written.

My role today

As Director of Communications, my work spans:

Communications strategy: organizational positioning, messaging and reputation.

Media relations: targeted outreach, expert positioning, issues management and earned media.

Executive communications: strategic counsel, writing and decision support for the founder.

Content strategy: editorial planning, expert review, Knowledge Center development and SEO.

Sales enablement: HubSpot, sequences, CRM workflows, training and reporting.

Brand communications: partner newsletters, campaign support and media resources.

Retailer communications: executive outreach, educational materials and sales-support messaging.

Project management: coordinating work across leadership, technology, sales, advisers and contractors.

Marketing technology: connecting websites, CRM systems, lead generation and communications workflows.

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