COLLEGE HOUSING NORTHWEST PROVIDES BELOW MARKET RATE HOUSING TO STUDENTS IN PORTLAND AND CORVALLIS. it's an organization for students by students.

My work with College Housing Northwest, CHNW, spanned several years and a variety of projects. Our goal was to level up the organization while collaborating with stakeholders. We moved through a variety of facilitations and design sprints aimed at understanding student voices, hearing from board members, and helping staff to synthesize insights.

Specific areas we facilitated and designed solutions for:

Marketing: Understanding what kinds of images and stories compelled students to want to live at a CHNW property. I provided photography to CHNW to enhance their marketing efforts based on student input.
Collaborative Board Retreats: Focused on building connections between board members and staff, understanding the context of the organization, celebrating milestones, and collaborating on goals.
Operational Efficiency: Facilitated design sessions to uncover roadblocks to efficiency, conducting effective meetings, facilitation training, focused staff coaching, and designing a unique goal setting process.

For more information on CHNW visit: http://chnw.org/

Role: Designer, Facilitator, Photographer, Coach, Trainer, Consultant

Collaborators: CHNW Executive Director and Staff

The photography aspect of the project focused on capturing student portraits while showcasing important amenities, such as the package room.

A view from the Goose Hollow Tower into the courtyard for use on their new website.

Through the storytelling design process we found having a key fob for secure into the building was a key feature prospective residents should know about.

For the board retreat, we designed a series of engagements to help the Executive Director and participants gain insight on high level questions the organization was working toward answering. We used a variety of templates to capture thoughts, ideas,… — Board retreats included a series of engagements to help the Executive Director and participants gain insight on high level questions the organization was working toward answering. We used a variety of templates to capture thoughts, ideas, and concerns.

In an effort to reduce the dependency on and complications of technology, staff members created a financial power point that I redrew onto a 4x8 foot sheet of paper. This allowed participants to see all of the information at once and for the ED to m… — In an effort to reduce the dependency on and complications of technology, staff members created a financial power point that I redrew onto a 4x8 foot sheet of paper. This allowed participants to see all of the information at once and for the ED to move back and forth through the numbers story. This was part of the Executive Director’s goal to improve financial transparency in the organization.