By Erica Thompson -

“Helping project teams communicate.” That’s the slogan for Communication Resources Northwest, an organization started by alumna Meg Winch (B.A., 1984).

In many industries, it’s standard practice for companies to compete with each other to “win” projects to work on. An organization will issue a request for proposals and one of Winch’s client firms will issue a proposal to design a building, build a highway system, plan a waterfront, or whatever the job may be. With a huge number of firms competing for the same job, it is Winch’s goal to choreograph, prepare, and coach her client’s formal presentation to win the project.

Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in southern California, Winch’s father was transferred to Richland, Wash., to work at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. After graduating from Hanford High School, Winch selected the University of Washington for her undergraduate education, majoring in Speech Communication.

“The level of rigor and inquiry that is supported and encouraged by the University has encouraged me to think about issues and topics much more deeply, which I think has served my clients very well, in that as an organization we tend to…really seek to understand the culture and characteristics of the organization in which we serve and the projects in which we work,” Winch said. “That traditionally leads to a far better outcome.”

After receiving her master’s at Purdue University in Communication and Group Dynamics, Winch returned to the UW in 1985 to do some doctoral work. She was soon recruited to work for a consulting company that focused on presentation work.

“After about a year working there, I decided to branch out on my own and formed (Communication Resources Northwest) in 1989, primarily so that I would have creative control over my work and focus the company on providing very research-based, rigorous services in communications to our clients,” Winch said.

While her graduate studies allowed her to study communication systems in places as diverse as nursing homes, an automobile manufacturer, a bottling company and a high-tech developer, Winch’s company is centered in specific areas.

“We focus primarily in the private sector for architects, engineers, contractors and planners,” Winch said. “In the public sector we work with a variety of county, state and federal organizations on project management, facilitation and those sorts of things.”

Even in a more concentrated field of work, Winch said, the communication is still incredibly diverse across organizations. It’s her job to understand the communication system in which her clients operate to enact change, rather than superimposing her vision of what the world should look like.

However, Winch said, there are also similarities across all organizations.

“Work happens through communication and I think organizations are defined by their communication system, probably more so than in any other way,” she said. “They’re similar in that people still need to communicate messages. They have a strong desire, and I would say in fact, an emotional and psychological need to be heard and understood.”

While some of her more fun projects have included working with the design team of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and working as part of the design-build team delivering renovations to Fantasyland at Disney World, Winch said the most memorable is whatever she is working on in the moment.

“Always treat what you’re doing right now as most important,” she said. “I find that it changes the communication to be more successful.”

In the public sector, working for the Leavenworth National Cemetery stands out to her as well. She said although it was a sobering experience, she felt that she was able to add a lot to the development.

Winch also serves as chair of the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission, where she spends most of her free time. Without any idea that she would own her own company, Winch said it has allowed her to raise children and work professionally at the same time.

“It was something that we started simply as an ability to have creative control and it never occurred to me that I would be owning a company for 25 years,” she said. “But it provided a great venue for doing the types of work that I like to do.”