HUNTER ATKINS
www.HunterAtkins.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunter-atkins-reports/ (917) 774-5674 / hhatkins@gmail.com
An award-winning and anthologized journalist recently transitioned into the corporate world who is eager to increase messaging through meaningful content creation, purposeful brand-awareness campaigns, consistent audience engagement, community outreach, data monitoring, DEI initiatives, foresight into media trends and assignment completion on deadline. More than 10 years reporting for tier-one, and a reputation for fact-driven yet heartfelt storytelling. Excels at building meaningful working relationships with individuals and organizations from Fortune 500 companies, major sports franchises, politics, academics, technology, law enforcement, nonprofits and everyday people with inspirational stories. Possesses expert writing in long-form and smart brevity formats, detail-oriented copy editing, storyboarding and multimedia skills, investigative reporting ability, clear creative vision and a global mindset. Currently a communications consultant at ENGIE NorthAmerica.
EXPERIENCE
ENGIE NorthAmerica
Communications Consultant
April 2023-Present
Copywriting, compiling, editing, page designing and writing articles for weekly internal communications newsletter, as well as other content projects for strategic messaging.
• Using 18 years of professional writing and grammar expertise to make the newsletter process more efficient for the internal communications team and easier to read for NorthAmerica employees. Maintaining and creating efficient communications processes/procedures. Developing written content to complement internal and external messaging. Producing clear content on behalf of the NorthAmerica Corporate Communication team that reflects the company’s voice, as well as the communication channel’s audience and style.
• Completing multiple daily assignments on short deadlines, while also continuing long-term revision of company website with strategic messaging.
• Content creation: Using a creative, proactive, research-driven and customer-focused mindset to edit and generate accurate content. Project management: marketing content across a variety of channels, including web copy, email campaigns, social media, video/animation scripts, advertising and other marketing collateral.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including product management, regional sales and government affairs to create messaging that aligns with our brand and supports our business objectives.
• Interviewing thought leaders, executives, lobbyists and stakeholders to enhance company messaging on array of energy, DEI and civic-minded topics, prominently renewables and the Zero-Carbon Transition.
• Monitoring multiple branches and sites company intranet, LinkedIn, Twitter and Yammer – for continuity.
• Coordinating with External Communications for stories about the company. Strategic public relations programming: Contributing to program development and execution, including corporate announcements, trend pitches, media events, thought leadership and executive visibility.
• Supporting the team to craft and distribute internal messaging during times of crisis for the workforce (e.g. –Hurricane season, winter freezes, fires, floods, social justice causes, etc.).
• Weekly coordination and approvals with content providers, analysis of site content and advisement for improvements. Using Microsoft Teams for daily coordination and projects with communications team.
Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church and Homeless Shelter
June 2020-April 2023 Head Chef, Kitchen Manager & Volunteer
Manage and train chefs and dozens of volunteers while developing and cooking 1,000-plus weekly meals for a total cost of less than $80 to feed the homeless.
• Lead strategic planning for an unpredictable ebb and flow of donated supplies, compliance with health department codes and operations in a limited physical space. Expanding the network of collaborating community and civic organizations, tracking inventory and retrieving charitable donations.
• Elevating the nonprofit’s brand with a food program that offers new content to promote at its annual fundraising event and keeps the shelter viable, while other area facilities remain shuttered in the wake of the pandemic.
• Regularly problem-solving and working hand-in-hand with the homeless on their needs for other shelter services: medical and psychiatric care, addiction specialists, food stamps, immigration attorneys, mail, Medicaid and council with social workers.Also, regularly handling dangerous situations with the homeless and law enforcement.
• Joined a minimized staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic, created a new food infrastructure with a strict budget in my first week, raised the standard of cuisine with 350 to 450 meals for the homeless every morning Monday through Friday, and innovated an approach that has served more than 200,000 meals to date.
The Houston Chronicle
Sports Enterprise Reporter
April 2016-Feb. 2020
Reported breaking news, long-form features, video and other multimedia on all Houston sports teams to impact the local community and increase readership.
• Met daily deadlines while balancing long-term projects and working flexible hours.
• Averaged 200,000 page views per year and published more than 1,000 articles, including featured spots in the daily newsletter.
• Leveraged content management systems to publish at peak hours for maximum exposure and alerted social media coordinators to share my work across Chronicle’s social platforms.
• Used cross-functional approach to coordinating assignments with editors, page designers and other reporters. Often contributed own photographs and produced videos.
• Produced several articles daily during coverage of the biggest sporting events: Super Bowl LI, the 2017 and 2019 World Series, 2018 AAU Junior Olympic Games, two NCAAFootball bowl games, six Chevron Houston Marathons, and 13 playoff series in total.
• Co-hosted sports and pop culture podcast, “The Weekly Brew,” garnering more than 35,000 weekly listens. Booked high-profile athletes, sports executives, broadcasters, entertainers and influencers.
• Afeatured writer in the 2018 launching of the Chronicle’s subscription-only vertical Texas Sports Nation.
• Published frontline reports on Hurricane Harvey as part of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist staff in 2017, and later commemorated in the book Hurricane Harvey: by the staff of the Houston Chronicle, which donated proceeds to the Greater Houston Community Foundation Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund and Rebuild Texas Fund.
Several Publications
August 2011-April 2016 Freelance Reporter
Generated my own story ideas, relying on my expert sense of newsworthiness, and daily research regarding diverse topics. Developed my own network of news outlets, adapting to the niche demographics and topics of publications in business, fashion, hospitality, sports and technology sectors.
The New York Times, August 2011-April 2016 Reporter
Same-day deadlines for game coverage of all major New York sports teams and long-form feature writing with a spotlight on social justice issues in sports.
Rolling Stone/Men’s Journal, April 2012-April 2016 Reporter
Reported on pop-culture, profiled industry leaders and investigated crime with a focus on boosting online traffic and executing big-budget stories published in Wenner Media’s global circulation of magazines.
Sold film rights for $20,000 to 20th Century Fox Film Corp. for “The Coast Guard’s $1 Billion Drug War,” August 2016.
ESPN The Magazine, November 2011-April 2016 Reporter
Long-term and long-form writing about athletes and trends in major sports.
Forbes/ForbesLife/Forbes.com
August 2014-April 2016 ForbesLife Contributor
• Established own niche for reporting on hospitality, fashion and sports for Forbes’brand of lifestyle content and news coverage, with articles on Fortune 500 companies Nike, Oracle, NRG Energy, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Williams-Sonoma.
• Fostered sustainable relationships with public relations representatives to profile adventurous venture capitalists, celebrity chefs, luxury product designers and sports figures for the print magazine ForbesLife and several monthly online articles for Forbes.com, accompanied by self-produced multimedia.
• Surpassed 100,000 total page views.
Newsday (N.Y.)
Sports Reporter Internship
June-September 2010
• Reported breaking news and long-form features on New York-region sports, including Yankees, Mets and Jets.
The Cape Times (SouthAfrica)
April-June 2010 Reporter/Journalism Residency
• One of 10 students selected to Northwestern University’s only study-abroad program for undergraduates in the Medill School of Journalism.
• Adapted to the foreign standards and expectations of news coverage in southernAfrica. Met severe deadlines for daily breaking news stories on subjects including the plight of homophobic-rape victims, shadowing homeless children and spending two weeks reporting at a refugee camp.
• Recipient of a Global Lund Fellowship grant in partnership with the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University in order to report on “The Chosen Few,” SouthAfrica’s first all-black lesbian soccer team that formed in protest to patriarchy
The Chicago Sun-Times
Sports Reporter
• Reported breaking news and long-form features on Chicago-area sports.
• Appeared on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” with columnist Jay Mariotti.
EDUCATION
Northwestern University
- Medill School of Journalism
-Graduated Summa Cum Laude
June-August 2006
Graduation: June 2011
3.92 GPA
-Dean’s List, Northwestern (10 times, 2008-2011)
Trevor Day High School
AWARDS/HONORS
Graduation: June 2007
Anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing 2019
Anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing 2018
Texas APME Sportswriter of the Year 2nd place 2018