One year ago today, I launched High Grounds Consulting, a policy, communications and strategy business that draws on my decades of experience and expertise as both a journalist and a public policy analyst. And that wasn’t the only big move of 2022. Another was a permanent move to Georgia’s Highest and Coolest City, Sky Valley, after living in Cobb County since emigrating to the United States in 1986!
Among the year’s other “high” points:
- I joined the Badger Institute of Wisconsin as a Visiting Fellow and co-authored a study with Reason Foundation’s Bob Poole that investigated the potential in mileage-based user fees in the Badger State.
- I joined DoNoHarmMedicine.org as a Senior Fellow, working on this impressive organization’s campaign against woke policies in healthcare and hosting a series of podcasts with its chairman, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb.
- I began the ongoing work on the inspiring biography of a fellow Georgian and grateful immigrant.
- I moderated the “Conversation with Candidates,” featuring statewide Republican primary candidates and presented by the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club – the state’s largest GOP women’s club.
- Just last week, I moderated and participated in a panel discussion for the CCRWC about immigrants and the American Dream. The event was covered in an article by the Marietta Daily Journal, ‘This is special’: Immigrant leaders praise the American experiment‘.
I continue to chair the popular monthly Georgia Second Friday Meeting launched in 2016. The center-right coalition meeting returned to in-person gatherings after a COVID-related period on Zoom. They take place nowadays at the Governors Gun Club in Kennesaw and provide a great opportunity to network and share with like-minded leaders and representatives of organizations, as well as to learn from leaders and legislators around the state and nation. Reach out to me if you’d like to speak or attend the meeting.
I’ve continued to help, counsel and strategize with friends and colleagues on their projects and plans, much as I did during my 19 years at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. And through it all, I serve causes I believe in, including on the boards of the Georgia Charter Schools Association and the First Generation Americans Foundation and on the Georgia Advisory Committee for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
In January, a vacation in South Africa – where I was born and raised during the oppressive apartheid era – became a poignant reminder of the incredible job our Founding Fathers did in preserving Americans’ freedoms and protecting our rights in this country. And it reinforced my commitment to the work I’m doing with so many wonderful Americans and organizations.
I look forward to a busy, successful Year Two working with existing clients, new prospects and all my friends and colleagues!
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