Getting the nut from the shell

Over several months, Anna helped Portland (Ore.) Tribune reporters Ben Jacklet and Jim Redden organize and make sense of a roomful of historic police intelligence files that had been hidden in nearly 40 damp cardboard boxes in a rural barn. The hundreds and hundreds of files – reports, newspaper clippings and photographs spirited away from police file cabinets years before by an officer who had since died – held an amazing story. In them was evidence that Portland police had spied on ordinary citizens and political activist groups well past the time such activity was barred by state law in 1981. They also provided a fascinating window on investigative techniques that the police don't ordinarily talk about with outsiders.

But extracting the information that mattered from the chaos of the moldy papers was a daunting prospect. Anna helped create a database and indexing system to flag facts and expose patterns in the material police had collected. Then she went to work looking through every document, page by page, and alerted the reporters to the most important finds.

The five-part "Secret Watchers" series based on the research, which ran in the Tribune in September 2002, garnered investigative journalism awards locally and nationally. Jim Redden later said: "Anna and Helen (freelancer Helen Silvis, who helped index the many files) deserve special praise for their untold hours of tedious research. It couldn't have been done without them."

Postscript: In 2004 the old police files found a permanent home at the City of Portland's Stanley Parr Archives and Records Center, which also houses police Red Squad files from the 1920s through the '50s.

Current awareness

A PR firm was interested in keeping an eye on the developing bioinformatics industry – the branch of biotechnology where life sciences and computer science intersect. It's a collaboration where revolutionary things are happening, and experimental developments may be measured in nanoseconds or in decades.

To bring senior executives up to speed on the rapidly evolving national scene, Anna researched and wrote an overall industry profile. Then she assessed the players and identified firms that might make a good match as potential clients with the agency's strategic goals and objectives. After the profile was complete, she continued to monitor mainstream, business and scientific news sources, summarizing and organizing what she found in a weekly package so executives could read all the news for themselves or rely on the summary, as their time allowed. They got the news they needed, efficiently and reliably, and didn't have to neglect their other interests to do so.

As a volunteer for the Soapstone writers' retreat at the Oregon Coast, Anna researched which books would be best suited to form the core of a library on the natural and cultural history of the area – information that many of the writers in residence had requested, but that the retreat's organizers didn't have the time to look into. Her annotated list of recommended titles included information on where the books (some new, some out of print, some obscure but comprehensive) could be obtained, and the nonprofit was able to acquire them all through the generosity of donors and a friendly bookstore. Now when writers wonder, "What was that fish I saw in Soapstone Creek?" or "Where can I hike in the Coast Range?" or "Did Native tribes live in this area? What plants did they gather for food?" the answer is there for the asking.

What clients say

"Whether it's writing press releases, reports or reviews, Anna engages her rare combination of wit and responsibility to do quality work every time. She's remarkably clear-minded, and flexible – quickly determining objectives and then writing with skill and understanding. I'm always happy when Anna's either writing for us or advising on our projects."
– Jane Erskine, Editor
Book News Inc.

"We can assign the research to an employee at random, and after 30 hours of work get back incomplete and often incorrect information, which like as not makes us look like idiots in print. We can have a principal do it, which produces the same result. So we just send the job to Fact Wrangler, and get back a mass of information we never would have found ourselves, plus a capsule summary and notes pointing out any inconsistencies in the data. Faster, cheaper, and it avoids embarrassment."
– Nicholas Carroll, Chief Project Manager,
Hastings Research, Inc.

"I had the pleasure of meeting Anna for the first time in the fall of 2004 when she responded to a call for help from the World Affairs Council of Oregon’s K-12 Education Program to create questions for its annual WorldQuest Global Knowledge Competition for High Schools. Anna proceeded to play a pivotal role in the success of the committee that subsequently formed to complete this monumental task . ... Anna consistently provided excellent feedback that was critical to our final product: 100 challenging questions about the world to be answered by eager and well educated high school students. In addition, Anna volunteered extra time to collate the questions into a format that we could produce our final Powerpoint from. Anna was pleasant and fun to work with. She followed through on everything she promised to do in a timely manner. Anna also seemed to really enjoy the research and creativity involved in developing material that was not only useful but thought provoking as well. We would be thrilled if she would join our team again next year!"
– Karen Ettinger, K-12 Education Director
World Affairs Council of Oregon

© Copyright 2011 Anna Skinner. All rights reserved.