ABOUT ME
Democracy Monument, Bangkok - 2013

​In Thailand to participate in emergency communications training, with UNICEF's Southeast Asia regional office. 

Department of Foreign Affairs headquarters, Ottawa, Canada - 2008
At the podium, speaking to about 500 participants at an international UN-themed conference. ​ ​(In attendance - Canadian diplomats, Global Affairs Canada personnel with the Afghanistan Task Force, and international and Canadian university students.
​On the dais with me: Afghanistan's Ambassador to Canada, and my boss - the Director of the UN Association of Canada). 
White-water rafting with family
​​One of my favourite days, ever. ​
​(Thank you, Sister).
​
​I'm in the front, in the purple wetsuit, ​crying (mostly) from laughter.
2012, Lviv, Ukraine
Briefing teams of short-term election observers on the political and media landscape in western Ukraine. Shortly after my presentation, my LTO partner and I  teamed them up with their interpreters and drivers and sent them out into the field. ​
2008, Ha Noi, Viet Nam 
Putting together an RBM report for the Canadian International Development Agency, (performing a 1-year contract for a democracy-strengthening and gender-equity program with the Vietnamese National Assembly. 
West Vancouver, BC, Canada
With Ferrous, a very good boy.
​​spamurdock@gmail.com
Canada Day in Hanoi, 2008
I had just arrived to begin a 12-month assignment when the Canadian embassy hosted a "Canada-Vietnamese friendship” reception at the Hanoi Opera House. The friends (and work connections) I made with embassy staffers that night were invaluable, and helped me to better navigate and understand the workings of the country's National Assembly, (basically my job). ​​​
​Sometimes 'work' just means shutting-off the laptop and picking-up a glass of wine.
2012 - Memorial to a murdered Ukrainian artist, at the Lviv courthouse 

With my very efficient Election Observation partner, (always travel in pairs), just before attending a court-action regarding irregularities with the electoral process. 

​​My very deep love for Ukraine is equal to what I feel ​for my own country. 
​
2002 - Salt Lake City, Utah

As part of the official Canadian Olympic delegation, with my boss, Canada's Minister for Sport, (Hon. Paul de Villers) and Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. John Manley. 

​Photo was taken moments after the Canadian men's hockey team won Olympic gold, (for the first time in 50 years).
2010 - ​Inspecting ballot boxes prior
to presidential elections, in a small schoolhouse between Kharkiv and the Russian border.
​
As an election observer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, I was assigned to a remote area outside Kharkiv, in the north- eastern part of the country near the border with Russia. As in Canada, ​​voting generally takes place in schools and community centers. Here, in a small schoolhouse in February (with no heating on that chilly day), local election officials brought us steaming-hot bowls of borscht to keep us warm.
​
Tibilisi, Georgia, 2007
With staff from the Presidential Press Office​
Following the historic Rose Revolution, ​I was contracted by the United Nations Development Programme to ​evaluate the newly-elected President's media operations, and to make (and implement) recommendations towards improving transparency and accountability.
Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2010
Smiling like a foolish tourist. Photo​​s taken a dozen years before Russian tanks returned to attack Ukraine, (so unimaginable at the time).
I learned at a young age that a rising tide can lift all boats, (provided that they're not irrevocably anchored-down in the first place). My (mostly) privileged life, my actions, my words, my manner of being and my work are all governed by the same ideals of equality, discretion, dignity and privacy​ - and at its core - basic fairness and justice for those who can't speak-up or protect themselves.
​From 1999 to 2006, I served three federal Canadian cabinet ministers as a political communications and parliamentary affairs advisor, in the advancement of federal legislation, programs and policies deigned to improve people's lives.  

Using what I learned in politics and government, I expanded my reach and went international. With experience in media management, advocacy and good-governance, I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to make contributions to some interesting (and personally fulfilling) international development projects.
​I'm listed on the United Nations 'quick-deployment roster' as a pre-cleared spokesperson for service in public information and special political missions with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Field Personnel Division. I've completed two levels of the UN's "Advanced Security in the Field" requirements, and participated in emergency communications training with UNICEF's Southeast Asia regional office in Bangkok. I've authored UNDP-commissioned reports on media management and restructuring the operations of a presidential press office in a former Soviet republic.​​
​​Since 2006, I've performed several SSA Specialized Service Agreement contracts within the United Nations system and with overseas projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, Canada's Department of Foreign/Global Affairs, and for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). I've advised on parliamentary development projects, gender-equity programs, electoral-fairness, and democratic-strengthening missions in post-conflict zones and emerging democracies (in South East Asia and in Eastern Europe). I've performed several assignments for Canadian-based and international NGOs, involving advocacy, lobbying and government relations. Always (and only) for programs and policies that advance basic social equities and the rule of law.
If you want to know more about who I am, and what I'm really like as a sentient human life form on this planet, please know that I list dozens of  personal and professional references - former colleagues, and bosses - ​​Members of Parliament, federal ministers, directors of national associations, senior officials and communications personnel with the United Nations and with the Canadian government.

​​This list includes  a number of (former) "political adversaries" and other nice people who I might have at times rubbed the wrong way over the past 25 years. They will likely all tell you the same thing - that torpedoes be damned, feathers ruffled, egos bruised or soothed, (no matter what), I get the things that I'm paid to do, done.  (I can make a delicious omelette, but eggs will likely get broken).
​​
Thanks for joining me here.​​  
​Peace and good health to you.
I'm ​​a 'communications for development' (C4D) practitioner, ​​specializing in strategic and results-driven public affairs, the formation and delivery of core messaging, stakeholder engagement and media management.  
​
​My professional (and personal) interests extend only to projects with the potential to ​improve people's lives in meaningful and impactful ways.​
In Twentieth-century America: 
"That a despairing working class - largely abandoned by its traditional allies on the academic and political left - would turn to a strongman for succour and to balm their resentment and bitterness at being left behind and adrift. "At that point, something will crack. The non-suburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking for a strongman to vote for - someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots,"   As long as "the proles can be distracted from their own despair by media-created pseudo-events, including the brief and bloody war, the super-rich will have little to fear." ​​​- Richard Rorty, 1999
Brian Karem is the former senior White House correspondent for Playboy. He has covered every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, sued Donald Trump three times successfully to keep his press pass, spent time in jail to protect a confidential source, covered wars in the Middle East and is the author of seven books. His latest is "Free the Press."
Rachel Bitecofer. Political analyst,  is one of the sharpest, toughest political minds in America.
In most recent years, I represented a small, private consulting firm in Central America, striving to find (and discreetly deliver) the big solutions to some very complex problems. My role chiefly dealt with bridging gaps​ and bringing stakeholders together under common purpose within 3 major infrastructure projects.
​(343) 322-6599
Olivia Nuzzi is a political reporter who serves as the Washington correspondent for New York magazine.