Ahoy!
My name is Kim.
I was raised here in Northwest Washington, and love this place with my whole heart. I grew up playing on the Washington coast, and in the forests on the Olympic Peninsula, and moved to Seattle shortly after I earned my BS in Visual Communication Arts, over a decade ago.
I let my ten-year-old self drive a lot of my life decisions—from fashion and hobbies to my work and career. Young Kim did not know that she was highly justice-driven, but BOY HOWDY WAS SHE. (Better NOT split that shared pack of Gushers unevenly.)
Today, I am a marketing communicator with a deep passion for ethical storytelling and truth and honesty in marketing.
I believe deeply that every person is worthy of love, dignity, honor, and respect—and hold this belief tightly as I go about my work.
I have spent the last eight years of my career working in marketing and communications for non-profit organizations. In that time, I’ve learned an immense amount about storytelling, and specifically how to share true and authentic stories in a way that honors the subject, and creates an impact on behalf of the organization.
In one of my favorite podcasts, You Are A Storyteller from Belief Agency, the hosts talk a lot about the idea that stories can be medicine or they can be poison.
I want to spend my career using stories as medicine, helping to bring about justice, equity, inclusion,and beauty in this chaotic world.
What kind of work am I interested in?
So far, here are a few fields that spark interest for me:
Social justice. I am interested in organizations that are addressing poverty, homelessness, gender, and racial injustices and inequity from both a practical (direct services) approach and a systemic approach, seeking to eradicate the cause of the problem, too.
Body shape/size/ability inclusivity in outdoor and athletic companies. I am a fat female athlete myself, with ample lived experience in this arena. I spend some of my free time creating content around the idea of body neutrality, outdoor/athletic inclusivity, and addressing many of the biases and injustices that fat people face in a world made for and preferential to thinness.
Ocean conservation. Free Willy and the liberation of Keiko captured my little heart back in 1993, and I have recently found myself learning more and more about ocean conservation, and the correlation between a healthy ocean, a healthy planet, healthy people, and climate justice. I have loved the water since childhood—especially big crashing waves—but in recent years have taken to kayaking, paddle boarding, am currently learning to surf, and hope to one day learn to scuba and free dive, and the more time I spend in/on the water, the greater my passion grows for protecting oceanic ecosystems.
Climate justice. While I am most interested in fighting climate change through ocean conservation, I am very much interested in opportunities that fight climate change in general—whether that’s other kinds of environmental conservation, clean energy, or organizations that focus on addressing the disproportional and direct impacts of climate change on under-resourced communities.
Autism advocacy. As a late-diagnosed autistic woman, I am interested in using my storytelling, marketing, and communication skills to create a better world for the younger autistic women (and others) who come after me. “Nothing about us without us.”
Might I be a good fit for your organization or company? Reach out: kim.merrikin@gmail.com