Simone Parrish, Professionally Speaking

All people deserve access to knowledge they can rely on.
My “Inspiration Statement”

I originally set up this blog as a professional tool. I thought of it as a “for further reading” site that I could link to from my resume or my LinkedIn profile. But then I started using it for more than just my professional side. (Read more about that on my “About” page, if you like.) This page preserves the professional pieces.

Fundamentally, I’m a knowledge manager. I see knowledge management (KM) as my calling. At a project retreat in 2015, we were challenged to write an “inspiration statement”—a personal connection to our project’s mission. I wrote “All people deserve access to knowledge they can rely on.”  I have built a career around these convictions:

  • Words have meanings, and should be used with precision and care.
  • Most humans can understand anything, as long as it is explained clearly.
  • How we create, gather, preserve, and exchange knowledge is at the core of our humanity. It is the basis of culture. It’s what makes us more than our genes.
  • Good design matters.

Since 2011, I’ve been with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP). From 2013-2019, I was the Global Repository Director of the Knowledge for Health Project. I wrote occasionally for the K4Health Blog (where my greatest hit was Data Visualization Approaches for Knowledge Management and Beyond) and The Exchange: Knowledge Management Matters on Medium.com. Since Knowledge for Health ended in 2019 I haven’t been doing as much public writing. My current projects include the READY initiative (for which I am KM lead) and Knowledge SUCCESS (KM strategy, analytics, report management, editing). I am also co-chair of CCP’s Digital Community of Practice.

Extracurricular but still professionally relevant posts are below.