Project

Finding the Story Inside Existing Material

Organization: Coforma
Project: Ragan Communications 2026 Top Women in HR nomination package for VP of PeopleOps
Date: 2026
Formats: Award nomination, two-minute video, archival footage review, internal leadership storytelling, external recognition
Relevant skills: Archival edit, narrative structure, editorial judgment, award storytelling, internal communications, efficient production

Executive Summary

Coforma regularly looks for opportunities to elevate people and projects that reflect its values. I identified a Ragan Communications award opportunity that fit Ellie Saeta, Coforma’s VP of PeopleOps, and helped shape the nomination package. My main contribution was producing a two-minute video from existing internal footage that showed Ellie’s leadership in action.

Core Problem

The challenge was to show Ellie’s leadership without creating extra work for her. Rather than scheduling new interviews or asking her to retell stories, I needed to find the strongest material from recordings that already existed and shape it into a compelling external story.

Strategic Approach

I reviewed internal trainings, All Hands meetings, and company events to identify moments that reflected Ellie’s leadership style: direct, practical, human, and supportive. Several themes became the spine of the video, including “Be the leader you wish you had,” “Clear is kind,” shared management principles, and the idea that PeopleOps is about trust, care, and clarity—not just policy.

Solution & Execution

This project relied on editorial judgment more than production scale. I reviewed a significant amount of internal footage, selected the strongest clips, and edited them into a concise two-minute story. The footage came from different settings, so the production challenge was to create a coherent emotional and narrative arc from material that had not originally been recorded for this purpose.

Deliverables

Written award nomination support
Two-minute supporting video
Curated clips from internal trainings, All Hands meetings, and events
Narrative framing around leadership, communication, and employee support
Supporting materials for external award submission

Impact

Ellie Saeta was named one of Ragan’s HR Communicators of the Year. The project elevated a company leader, created external recognition for Coforma in HR and workplace communications, demonstrated the value of multimedia in award submissions, and turned existing internal material into a compelling external story.

Why This Project Matters

This project shows that meaningful storytelling does not always require a large production. Sometimes the strongest story is already inside the archive; the work is recognizing it, shaping it, and giving it the right context.

Select projects

Honor the Air, Land, and Water — event-led, social-first, documentary storytelling

Building an Annual Impact Reporting Practice — multimedia content system and executive storytelling

Humans of Public Service — interview-driven public-service video series

Scaling Language Access With AI — public benefits, AI, language access, content strategy