Courtney Williamson joined the Communications Network as Community Manager in June 2012

Williamson’s responsibilities include developing programs, both on- and off-line, designed to create more member-to-member connections, and promoting a lively and ongoing exchange of information about effective communications strategies and practices.

A firm believer in the positive political, social and literary power of social media, Williamson has been dabbling in the art of online communication for more than a decade. During her “mash-up” of a career she’s worked as community relations liaison to soldiers and their families, written advertising copy for a newspaper in Australia, taught literature at independent schools, managed dormitories full of teenagers, and written for literary and news journals both online and in print.

Williamson first encountered the social web way back in 1998 when an advisor in her graduate program started one of the first e-zines – a poetry compendium called Jacket. From there she co-designed and edited her own literary e-zine, started blogging, and got an early-access account to Facebook when Mark Zuckerberg trialed it at her then employer, Phillips Exeter Academy. From there it was an easy transition from English teacher and writer to digital writer, editor and strategist. It was at the Jewish Funders Network, a consultancy offering philanthropy best practices and services to private foundations, that Williamson directed her first website design projects and communicated cross-culturally between philanthropists in the U.S. and Israel. Since then she’s been fine-tuning her strategy skills in her most recent roles as Director of Communications at the Corlears School in Manhattan and CEO blog consultant at SmartBear Software.

She holds a B.A in English from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong, Australia.

Contact information: courtneyw@comnetwork.org or  (603) 686-0793.