Ed Walz, Partner

Ever since that cursed Rubik’s Cube stumped him during childhood, Ed Walz has wanted to solve problems – and he’s gotten better at it since then.

For 15 years, Ed worked for Congress – for someone who likes problems, a dream job. He worked with nonprofits, businesses, and citizens, helping them navigate the bureaucracy and get results. And he helped senior Democratic lawmakers craft and advance their legislative agendas in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

At the bipartisan children’s advocacy nonprofit First Focus, Ed found that children’s priorities weren’t on the radar screens of lawmakers or news media. His work generated news coverage on kids’ issues ranging from education and child abuse and neglect to child poverty and immigration reform. Ed secured placements in The New York Times, USA Today, the Associated Press, McClatchy News, POLITICO, The Hill, Roll Call, Congressional Quarterly, and dozens of regional and trade news outlets all over the country. He’s told he was also covered in the world’s largest newspaper, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, but since he can’t read a word of Japanese, it’s anybody’s guess.

As a communication consultant, Ed has helped nonprofits and foundations solve all sorts of communication problems. Ed led a messaging project that helped state-based advocates make policy gains that covered more than 1.3 million uninsured kids. He crafted a plan that helped a nationwide faith-based grassroots organization raise its profile on the national political stage, and one that helped a one-woman nonprofit raise child care quality standards in Texas. He has trained nonprofit leaders on everything from writing better fact sheets to preparing for congressional testimony. And he designed and launched a project aimed at helping advocacy nonprofits strategically use social media.

Ed grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, accounting for both his badger’s tenacity and his bowler’s physique. He is a passionate advocate for the em dash, the serial comma, and writing the way you speak. Ed enjoys photography, regrets never having learned to play the piano, and lives in New Jersey with his wife, two daughters, and a Beagle-ish dog.