ListenStart with the people and communities closest to the work.
LearnUnderstand the history and relationships already in place.
ConnectLink people and programs so decisions are data-informed.
DeliverFollow through with intention and preserve what’s learned.

Prepared for the Office of the President · Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

A living sample of artifacts from my work.

Community Engagement & External Relations I seek to understand how people, organizations, and programs connect, and where they don’t. Stakeholder researchCommunity partnersConvenings and public events

Research board assembling federal awards, program authorities, FOIA requests, and reporting into one view — Federal landscape mappingAwards, program authorities, and reporting assembled into one operating view. Revealed where funding, authority, and reporting diverged.

Network graph linking organizations, programs, people, and findings, with dense hubs and isolated clusters — Ecosystem graphOrganizations, programs, people, and findings linked as records. Hubs are the actors everything routes through; isolated clusters are the gaps.

The work: Conducted stakeholder research as new NSF and EDA investments reached the region: attended convenings, engaged 20+ federal, university, and industry stakeholders, and presented at 1 Million Cups.
What changed: Made visible where three federal initiatives in the region overlap, and where the connective work between them belongs to no one. Brookings Metro’s Mark Muro called the analysis “good, needed work and counsel for the region.”

CEO & Executive Office Support I help leaders put their work into words that funders, partners, and policymakers can act on. Talking pointsBriefing documentsExecutive decision-making

First page of a working brief asking how three federal innovation investments in the Kansas-Missouri region can become accessible opportunities for Kansas firms, institutions, workforce systems, and rural communities — Sample: Kansas Federal Innovation Capacity working briefAugust 2026 · public sources. Asks how three federal innovation investments can become opportunities for Kansas firms, institutions, workforce systems, and rural communities.

The work: Prepared talking points, briefing documents, and decks for university, nonprofit, and corporate leaders, and delivered 50+ briefings to a Fortune 500 research sponsor.
What changed: A senior director’s talking points were approved as written. A nonprofit president’s legislative briefing secured an endorsement letter. A stalled 15-page proposal, rebuilt in four days, won $325,000 in Michigan state funding.

Special Projects I help turn the gaps between teams into owned handoffs. Coordinate stakeholdersActionable recommendations for leadershipCross-functional initiatives

Ten small RACI charts for numbered steps of a client lifecycle, showing which roles are responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed at each step — Recreated workflow mapRecreated workflow map of a 92-step client lifecycle. Roles generalized; company and client data removed.

Data pipeline workflow with connected nodes that clean, join, and transform records — Data pipelineReproducible workflows that clean, join, and transform records. A finding can be re-run and defended.

The work: What began as shadowing one director grew into special projects for the Chief Commercial Officer: 30 stakeholder interviews in 30 days, and 2,000+ contracts and CRM records synthesized into 8 actionable, zero-cost recommendations.
What changed: Clarified who owned each step across seven departments, and helped cut a ten-month client feedback cycle to about four weeks.

Lasting impact depends as much on governance and coordination as on funding: who convenes, who tracks commitments, and who connects the systems across programs. That is the work I hope to support.
Jacob Allen Freitag