Pell Center names Joseph Grady senior fellow for public policy
The Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy has announced the addition of a new senior fellow. Cognitive linguist Joseph Grady has joined the center’s cohort of scholars and practitioners.
Grady’s academic research and publications have focused on the ways in which understanding and communication are shaped by universal metaphorical patterns. He has taught linguistics at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland, and also spent a number of years as a consultant helping to analyze and develop brand names. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
For the past 15 years, Grady has applied his expertise to the challenge of helping create more informed and constructive public dialog regarding policy choices. He is co-founder and principal of Cultural Logic LLC and the Topos Partnership LLC – communications research and strategy firms that help nonprofit organizations develop messages that change minds and engage support.
Working with Cultural Logic and Topos, Grady has helped develop message strategies for many of the country’s most influential nonprofits and foundations, in issue areas from global warming to health coverage access to early childhood development. He has also helped develop innovative research approaches for assessing the public’s current thinking on a topic, and for testing the impacts of different ways of talking about policy-related topics.
The Pell Center’s fellows program is designed to drive the intellectual agenda and ongoing research of the center. Drawing from faculty at the University and seasoned policy professionals across the United States, the Pell Center has assembled a team whose members understand issues, are gifted communicators and teachers, and who have spent time not just studying a topic, but also working in the policy community.
