Recommendations

"I found your workshop on "Social Media" to be extremely thorough and down-to-earth.  We gave you a mixed group of participants from varying ages, backgrounds, and of pro and con persuasions regarding the subject matter - and you handled them, and their mind sets - with incredible ease and success.  We are utilizing the Social Media "tool" as a team effort to ultimately benefit our community. On behalf of Joshua Basin Water District, I thank you and count you as one of our team!"

Kathleen J. Radnich, Joshua Basin California Water District

“Smart, focused, with a sense of humor: Sarah Bott gets things done.

Sam Adams, Mayor, City of Portland

“Sarah is the most skilled person in swiftly and artistically manipulating social network marketing tools I have ever met.”

Anjala Ehelebe, Woodlawn Neighborhood Association

“Sarah is not just an outstanding communicator; she is a problem solver, a natural leader, and a fountain of positive energy. I’ve never seen her take on a challenge she didn’t conquer.”

Randy Leonard, Portland City Council

“When I needed someone to help plan, market, and fundraise for a volunteer project to document the environmental and human impacts of the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast, I turned to Sarah Bott first. Sarah is a highly skilled communicator who’s passionate about the world. She does Twitter, Facebook, websites, media relations and meeting facilitation/management. Sarah is full of great ideas, boundless energy and the determination to produce quality work. She knows her way around all levels of government, is an incredibly quick study and outcome oriented. PDX 2 Golf Coast would never have succeeded without Sarah’s help getting us launched.”

Mike Rosen, Ph.D., Project Leader, PDX 2 Gulf Coast

“Sarah Bott is a hard worker and tireless champion of communications. She is the kind of person who sees a complex, contentious issue and plunges right into the middle of it with a goal of making sure all sides are considered and heard.”

Kristy Athens, Oregon Public Broadcasting

“Sarah is a skilled communications representative who is always willing to assist her colleagues, especially during high-profile demanding incidents. She is highly skilled in crisis communications, including emergency management public information. Sarah is positive, innovative and talented.”

Terri Wallo Strauss, Portland Police Bureau

“Sarah is bright and knows her stuff. She's fun to work with and always wiling to try new communications approaches, which has earned her a strong reputation amongst her colleagues.”

Roy Kaufmann, Communications Director, Office of Mayor Sam Adams

“Sarah really has her finger on the pulse of the city. She's in tune with community leaders and is active in many neighborhoods. She has a real gift for being able to use social media effectively and takes full advantage of the technology available to her.”

Sonia Jones, Owner, Sonia Jones Design

“Nobody turns lemons into lemonade better than Sarah Bott.”

Ty Kovach, Chief of Staff to Randy Leonard, Portland City Council

“Sarah is a stellar example of someone who, through her caring nature, seeks every opportunity to assist others. I had the opportunity to spend 30 days with her during Portland’s emergency response to the City of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sarah exhibited what a deeply insightful person she is - listening without bias, working with a variety of people, and always with exceptional courage and commitment. Had our team gone to New Orleans without her we would have been much less prepared. She had a never-ending ability to find important information about anything we needed. She kept us in touch with the world around us in the midst of a very tough and removed situation. She managed above all else to provide a positive outlook regardless of how grim the setting was. Sarah's wide variety of skills and abilities would benefit any team or endeavor she chooses to commit herself to.”

Deborah Smith, Sr. Engineering Associate, Portland Water Bureau

“Sarah is both professional and fun to work with. Resource materials she created years ago for our staff not used to working with the media are still prized for their clarity and value for new employees.”

Bryan Aptekar, Park Planner, Portland Parks and Recreation

“Sarah understands that keeping people informed promotes involvement and a sense of ownership and shared responsibility for solving problems. She enthusiastically shares her expertise and energizes the people she works with, making them more engaged and effective in the process.”

Mark Chubb, Operations Manager
Office of Emergency Management, City of Portland

“Always quick with creative, results-focused ideas and the ability to turn them into reality just as fast.”

Sandra Martini, Special Assistant, Peace Corps

“Sarah had innovative ideas and executed every project she worked on in a creative and professional manner-always reflecting her commitment to the Peace Corps' mission and goals. I would recommend her for any communications project or position without reservation.”

Mike Meyers, Direct Marketing Specialist, Peace Corps

“As the Liaison between the Portland Water Bureau and Portland State University, Sarah has been an enthusiastic and dedicated champion of my students, who work to create community outreach projects for our city water utility. She is passionate about communications and using new media to reach more people, particularly younger people like my college students. Because of her enthusiasm, the students are free to explore all types of outreach projects - beyond traditional brochures - and have created GIS online tours, dramatic videos, games, websites, and even music.”

Professor Catherine Howells, PhD, Portland State University

“I remember Sarah’s creativity, enthusiasm, commitment and unparalleled work product. She took everything further and better than you might have expected. And she was always so fun to work with!”

Susie Zimmerman, Director of Marketing, Peace Corps

“Sarah is an exceptional resource. Her contributions to the Peace Corps were so significant that I extended her appointment by two and a half years. This is a rare action at the Peace Corps, which by congressional mandate limits all staff appointments to five years.”

Carol Bellamy, Director of the Peace Corps

“Sarah faced a disorganized, weakly staffed operation when she first arrived. She pulled together an excellent team of professional staff who developed a communications plan and received support from senior management for implementing it. She worked with staff throughout the agency to develop and implement one of the best websites in the state. The number of visitors to our site and the length of their stay has increased exponentially.”

Lydia Taylor, Deputy Director, Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality

“Sarah’s marketing instincts are first rate. She is very good with people and comes up with ideas time and time again that please our employees. Her suggestions and implementations have turned our previously drab education center into an environment where staff enjoy spending time before their shifts or during breaks. Specifically, she has done much to upgrade the quality of our catalog, bulletin boards, and presentations.”

Janis Slaughter, Marketing Manager, Hewlett Packard

“Sarah is an extremely talented employee. She knows how to strap herself in when there are deadlines to be met, and her attention to detail ensures that all of her work meets the highest professional standards. She introduced new products and procedures which improved the ways in which the agency communicates with the general public, as well as the manner that employees and volunteers communicate with each other.”

Charles R. Baquet, III, Deputy Director of the Peace Corps

“Sarah brought a zest to her work that often invigorated the entire office. Her creative energy was unparalleled. And she’s a true team player always willing to assist a colleague meet challenges. She wants nothing but the best.”

Mike Berning, Corporation for National Service

“Having watched Sarah work through many inventive projects in a large bureaucracy where getting things done requires a lot of tenacity, Sarah has demonstrated that ‘reinventing government’ is possible. She challenges a modus operandi that most people accept as a given. Working with her has given me tremendous insight into how to accomplish things in a large organization.”

Bruce Schlein, CitiBank

“A characteristic of Sarah which I personally appreciated was her willingness to volunteer for jobs which most of the staff avoided and to approach those jobs with enthusiasm and creativeness. For example, Sarah volunteered to take responsibility of implementing our Classified Business Information program, which included her training staff in proper procedures. For this Sarah designed a clever cartoon training program which conveyed the information in a humorous but very effective way. She turned a drudge job into a fun job and turned a boring, mandatory staff training program into a fun exercise for our staff.”

Michael McCarty, Environmental Protection Agency