One of the advantages of working with a smaller consulting firm is “what you see is what you get.” All of Manifest’s projects are executed by the highly experienced and skilled team you see here. In order to pay their higher overhead, larger firms customarily use senior staff for marketing and management, and more junior staff for project labor. Depending on project needs, we may supplement our team, but our senior staff will always provide the hands-on leadership and involvement to ensure that your needs are met.
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Karen Haas
Communications and Outreach
Karen Haas started her career in Washington as a magazine reporter for Chicago-based
trade publisher Cahners Publications. She developed an expertise in building design and
construction, environmental and energy technology issues. The combination of interests
in political process and technology has developed into a career that includes technical
publications but goes far beyond.
By the early 1980s she was helping to found a trade council to promote passive solar energy technologies, and soon she stepped out on her own, as a freelance writer for trade associations and several trade magazines and newsletters. This grew into technology transfer subcontracts with the Department of Energy’s energy conservation and solar offices. In the mid- 1980’s she was a founding editor of highly successful technical and business management magazine for the American Institute of Architects, Architectural Technology; was a contributing editor for Architecture, and Specifying Engineer; managed outreach for the Society of Real Estate Appraisers; and freelanced widely.
From 1987 to 1992, Karen was Director of Communications and Organizational Relations for the Strategic Highway Research Program, a unit of the National Research Council/National Academies of Sciences. In 1992 she spent six months in Europe working for the Danish Road Directorate, where she was responsible for arranging EU contracts to provide planning assistance to the road agencies in Latvia and Lithuania. From 1993-1996 she was a Senior Public Relations Specialist at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, where she coordinated public outreach campaigns on Clean Air and Long-Range Transportation Planning.
Since 1996, Karen has been in private practice, with her scope of services expanding to include strategic business and communcications planning as well as outreach, communications management, publications, and training.
Karen’s work has won journalism awards from Time, Inc., the New York State Press Association, and the Construction Writers Association. She was a Newhouse Scholar at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, earning a master’s degree in newspaper journalism. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she majored in political science, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Karen enjoys using her skills as a certified massage therapist to exercise her right brain, as a good balance to all the left-brain logic and analysis that her communications work requires.
Amy Gray LightCreative Writing
Amy Gray Light has more than 24 years experience as a writer/editor in the myriad fields of art, architecture, interior design, construction, medicine, social and economic development, forestry, renewable energy, women’s issues, and agricultural development. She is a former editor of ARCHITECTURE magazine, and Public Relations Officer/Editor with Winrock International, a nonprofit organization that works in 47 countries around the world in various capacities, helping people learn to help themselves through sustainable development, economic resources, and environmentally friendly programs. At Winrock, Amy wrote the president’s speeches, edited the fundraising and introductory program videos, and wrote the newsletters and award-winning annual reports.
A freelance writer since 1997, Amy writes for private clients and regional and statewide publications in a variety of fields such as gardening, architecture, medicine, and aviation. She also edits for a small local publishing house and for private clients, and writes personal essays and short stories, frequently based on the experiences gleaned from living in the country with her architect husband and a menagerie of animals, while running a wild horse sanctuary. Amy has a degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and has participated in many advanced writing workshops.
Jane PeriniArt Direction
Jane Perini manages design and production for Manifest’s publications, marketing collateral,
trade show exhibits, websites and multimedia projects. She is an expert in graphic
development, art direction, typography, logo design, corporate communications packages,
advertising, print requisition, and print management.
Jane has more than 30 years of professional design experience and has taken nearly 1,000 publications to press for various national associations, government agencies, and corporations. Her experience includes the complete design and production management of a variety of national magazines, as well as countless annual reports, technical reports, books, brochures, press kits, exhibits, signage and websites, e-newsletters and slide shows.
Jane has designed print-on-demand books and assisted numerous authors in the self-publishing process from concept through printing. She was a founding member of NAWBO of Northern Arizona and the STAR Foundation, a non-profit educational organization involved with the introduction and promotion ofalternative energy technologies. She also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of a Buddhist organization, and is a teacher in its educational programs. Jane is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mary Washington University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Dan Larson, PMPProgram Management
Dan
Larson has over 30 years of increasingly responsible experience in managing
complex technical activities, including more than 20 years in the Washington high-tech and
government community. His expertise includes:
| • | Business process and requirements analysis |
| • | Program planning and management |
| • | Performance measurement |
| • | Risk analysis and management |
| • | Staff and organizational development |
As a Principal for Acquisitions Solutions, Inc., Dan led teams that helped federal contracting offices administer and manage performance-based contracts. Dan has also served as a Program Manager for Robbins-Gioia, the Gamma Group, Avalon Integrated Services, Henderson Associates, and Tonya, Inc.
Dan served in the United States Air Force for 20 years. His assignments included Project Management for the C-17 Aircraft Program; Operations Center Manager at Dover Air Force Base, Operational Flight Test Manager at Edwards Air Force Base, cargo pilot, and Forward Air Control pilot in Vietnam.
Dan is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, where he studied Engineering Science. He earned a master's degree in Operations Analysis at the University of Rochester, and studied Contractor Performance Measurement at Defense Systems Management College. Dan is certified as a Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute.
Wib MiddletonPublic Relations, Marketing, Photography
Wib Middleton is a communications specialist with expertise in marketing and sales, copy
writing, public relations, and photography. His expertise includes identity packages, print advertising, brochures, website development,
copy writing, article generation, PR campaign initiation and management, and general
purpose photography.
Wib has worked in the fields of telecommunications, private aviation, executive training, and personal care. As the Communication Director for a nonprofit learning and meditation center in the Washington, DC area, Wib functioned as: communications director, spokesperson, copywriter, marketing manager, and media coordinator. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Denver and completed masters coursework in corporate and political communications at Fairfield University.
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