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A Life Committed to Communication For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in communication in different forms. As a child on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, I was a voracious reader and journal writer. At the age of 17, I published a history of my Swedish family that homesteaded that farm in 1881. As a college student, I declared a major in journalism because I was curious and thought journalism was my vehicle for changing the world. After graduation, I worked in newspaper journalism for three years. I joined the Peace Corps to have an adventure. But after two years in Africa, I decided that I needed something more than journalism to help me change the world. Thus began my career in international development. Since I started that career 30 years ago, my love of communication has manifested itself in many different ways:
My professional experience started in newspaper journalism, moved into grass-roots development in West Africa (primarily in agriculture, forestry and wells construction) and then into health social marketing in Africa, Asia and South America. When I returned to my home country in 2001, I also returned to my communications roots while developing new skills in strategic planning, advocacy and new media. Here's my career at a glance: Since 2011: Independent consulting for Olson Global Communication, providing services that produce measurable results in strategic communications and policy, social marketing, social and behavior change communication and project implementation. 2019 clients include DKT International; Palladium and Hyderus. Writes for Huffington Post, Impatient Optimists (Gates Foundation), Fast Company, Washington Post and others, and has over 3,300 followers on Twitter @davidjolson and Instagram @davidjolson. Member and secretary of Board of Directors of Christian Connections for International Health. 2009-2011: In charge of policy communications at the Global Health Council, the world's largest membership alliance of global health organizations, and responsible for formulating, managing and leading efforts to communicate the policy positions of the Council. I represented global health at G8 summits in Italy, Canada and France; the NGO Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development in Berlin; the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh; the White House and the World Health Assembly at the World Health Organization. 2001-2009: Managed the public affairs department of a major non-profit, charged with highly targeted communications through a variety of media and developing the capacity of our overseas programs to do the same, which led to tangible results. Later, founded and led the organization's successful effort to advocate for evidence-based global health policies and started telling its story through social media. 1992-2001: Led social marketing programs in Paraguay, Bangladesh and Zambia. While I was based in Zambia, I used that platform to convince donors and governments in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to support social marketing programs. Those four countries now account for more than 20% of all the organization's health impact worldwide. 1983-1992: Created a successful grass roots development program in Mali that is still going strong, taught agriculture as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, led the training of new volunteers in Benin and led a major evaluation for Oxfam U.K. 1978-1983: Worked in just about every conceivable position in three daily newspapers in North Dakota and South Carolina. That adds up to 36 years of communications and nonprofit management experience in four languages and in 40 countries on five continents - at newspapers from North Dakota to South Carolina; in rural villages on the coast of Togo, the sands of the Sahara Desert and the Parana of Paraguay; and in the power centers of Washington, New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin and Geneva.  |
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