Virginia Professional Communicators

Bonnie Atwood named 2016 Communicator of Achievement

bonnie and gail-1

Bonnie Atwood (right) poses with VPC President Gail Kent at the 2016 Conference.

Bonnie Atwood has accomplished so much in life, you’d swear she had skates strapped to her feet. Oh wait – she DID have skates on her feet – but more about that later.

On Friday, April 15 at the 2016 VPC Conference in Winchester, Atwood was named the 2016 Communicator of Achievement for her career achievements and many contributions to the organization and community.

Today Atwood writes about family, health and human rights, is an experienced professional lobbyist and a founding member of the Virginia Association of Professional Lobbyists. Her business, Tall Poppies Freelance Writing LLC, is state certified as a Small Women or Minority Owned (SWAM) business. The tagline for Tall Poppies is, “Where ideas take root, grow tall, and pop!”

A feminist, family caregiver, single mom, cancer survivor, promoter, community volunteer and positive thinker, Atwood works at the intersection of humor, social justice and extreme etiquette. She is immediate past president and longtime board member of Virginia Professional Communicators, formerly known as Virginia Press Women.

The Ice Capades

But let’s go back to those skates . . . Born and raised in Arlington County, VA, Atwood was a goal-setter at a very young age. “At the age of 8, I got into my head that I should be a skater in the Ice Capades,” she says. “I had never skated, and I had no opportunity to skate until I was about 14. That’s a late start. But I threw myself into it with a passion. I pretty much ignored high school in favor of skating.

“When I was 18, I was a freshman in college, but I summoned the courage to audition for the show, and I was accepted. I stayed a year, and what a year it was!”

Atwood says the group went all over the U.S. and played two cities in Canada, travelling by train. She had two roommates, stayed in the cheapest hotels and was paid very little while performing 10 shows a week.

“I loved it! It was a fast life, an intense life, and eccentric life.” After a year, she decided she should go back home and return to college, but, “I am so glad I did it!”

Professional Career

As a student at George Mason College in 1973, Atwood worked as a reporter in the information office. It was during this time that George Mason became a university. She wrote press releases that were published in all the Northern Virginia newspapers.

She graduated the next year with a degree in psychology and joined the staff of the daily Manassas Journal Messenger. Her beat was all of Eastern Price William County, including police and fire, and three town councils. She received much recognition, including receiving an award in 1975 from the Associated Press for breaking a story about child abuse at a children’s camp.

In 1980, Atwood shifted gears, moved to Richmond, married, started a family and began her freelance writing career with The Richmond Times-Dispatch, under the editor of the special sections. Carrying the major responsibility for “Discover Richmond,” she earned more money than any other freelancer at that time.

In 1993, Atwood decided to go to law school with the goal of practicing disability law. She entered the University of Richmond School of Law, but she didn’t abandon her writing. While there she began an etiquette column for young lawyers in the school newspaper. The collection of columns was eventually bound into a book that was sent to all law students accepted to the school. She had several stories published in The Student Lawyer, a national magazine, in 1996, and she graduated with a juris doctor degree the same year.

bonnie_atwoodTwo years later Atwood became a professional lobbyist for various clients, including Virginia Federation of Food Banks, Virginia Girl Scout Legislative Coalition, American Red Cross, Speech-Language-Hearing Association and Virginia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. That year she also began editing a quarterly magazine, Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine, which covers Virginia government, and she was the backstage director of a cable television show, Election Night News.

In 2003, Atwood published her book, “In the Field of Honor: Stories of Virginia Veterans.” She has edited a number of other books and has contributed chapters to additional books.

Atwood started her present business, Tall Poppies Freelance Writing LLC in 2008, which combines writing for many newspapers and magazines, and her lobbying work. Her writing topics spans the gamut from “slut walks” to governors, first ladies and high government officials. This year she interviewed Virginia’s First Lady for Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine, bringing the total number of first lady interviews to five.

Volunteer Work

Atwood has been very involved in the community and in her professional volunteer work. “I’ve always wanted to change the world for the better,” she said. “Using writing and speaking seemed to be the best way.”

She has been involved with the cause of children with disabilities for many years. She was elected president of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Autism Society of Virginia in 1985, which required her to give presentations at universities and community groups about how to support people with disabilities. In 1998 she presented at an international conference for parents of children with disabilities in Atlanta, GA. The topic was how to manage being a single parent of a child with a disability.

In 1998, Atwood ran for the school board for Richmond Public Schools, campaigning on the theme of re-integration of public schools and parent empowerment. Her run for the school board stemmed from her involvement with her son’s school, Thomas Jefferson High School. During the 1990s, there were two occasions when the city proposed closing the school, Atwood says, which was a very politically charged issue. “My strongest argument against it was that closing the school would send a message that our ‘white’ district did not welcome a predominantly African-American school. I was very active; wrote and spoke publicly; worked very closely with my good friend, Harold Marsh. My run for school board was largely built around this concept, and even though I did not win the seat, my candidacy forced a public dialogue.”

Atwood said that after Marsh died, she carried on with her vow to him to protect the school. She worked through her church, Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, asking the members to “adopt” the school as a special project. “After a slow start, they were totally on board. They attend sports and music events, donate money to the school, invite the school community to church events and pray for the school as part of our weekly worship service. I continue to support T.J. in every way that I can.”

Two years later, she was appointed by the governor to the Virginia Board for Rehabilitative Services (1999-2002), and later she was appointed by another governor to the Board for Asbestos, Lead and Home Inspectors (2009-2013). These boards serve as vital advisors to the executive branch of Virginia government.

In 2004 Atwood became a founding member of the Virginia Association of Professional Lobbyists and was elected president for one term. The group created a Code of Ethics for Lobbyists and fostered good communications between lobbyists and government. The group is not currently active.

In 2007, Atwood, who is of Creek Indian descent, proposed and provided extensive research for a highway marker on Black Picture2Hawk, a leader of the Sauk Nation. After leading a final stand to stop the government from a third forced removal from their homelands, Black Hawk was jailed, forced to wear European clothing and displayed at the Eagle Hotel in Richmond in 1833 and later at Fort Monroe in Hampton. Atwood saw a portrait of Black Hawk in the State Capitol and Executive Mansion and learned its history. When Atwood’s proposal was selected, the marker text was researched, written and approved, and the marker was erected at the former site of the Eagle Hotel.

After serving two terms as treasurer, a term as membership director, twice as conference chair and various other volunteer roles in Virginia Press Women, and serving as a judge in NFPW contests, Atwood was elected president of VPW in 2012.

Only a few months later in 2013 – a year after her 102-year-old mother, whom Atwood had cared for at home, had died — she was diagnosed with leukemia. Atwood took this news in stride, remaining in isolation in the hospital for three months, then in near-isolation at home for another three months while her immune system recovered. She credits her son and all her friends for helping her through this difficult time.

Rather than backing out of her commitment to be president of VPW, Atwood pressed on, holding board meetings with her face covered with a surgical mask and her bald head covered by a perky cap. She wouldn’t allow board members to dwell on her condition and only spoke briefly about it at the end of the meeting, refusing to let anyone feel sorry for her. Today she says, “I’m cured! I don’t believe in saying, ‘I’m in remission’ – I’m totally cured!”

Atwood’s presidency was one of the most productive in the organization’s history. During her two-year term, the organization went through the tedious, controversial and long process of changing its name from Virginia Press Women to the more inclusive Virginia Professional Communicators, hired a professional bookkeeper for the first time and accomplished reinstatement with the IRS, a legal situation which had threatened the organization’s very existence. Without Atwood’s legal background, VPC would have had to pay thousands of dollars to accomplish the IRS work. Her legal background (though not technically called “the practice of law” since she is not a member of the bar) were – and continue to be as past president – invaluable.

Picture3In August 2014, Atwood wrote to the Virginia Commonwealth University Library in Richmond and offered to donate her extensive collection of papers that chronicled her active involvement in historical events during the 1960s and 1970s. The papers included flyers, underground newspapers, meeting notes, materials on liberation movements, voice recordings of Malcolm X and other first-hand memorabilia.

“I told them that I was literally in the room when some very important events occurred,” she says. “Three representatives from VCU came to my house to look at my several bins of material, and they were ecstatic. This material is now archived there in what is called the ‘Bonnie Atwood’ collection, and it has already drawn the attention of two historians, who have used the material in their research. Words cannot express how happy I am that this valuable collection of documents will be available to inform and inspire future generations.”

In 2015 Atwood was nominated for “Woman of the Year” for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Richmond. Though she didn’t win the title (based on the amount of money raised), she raised $12,000 in 10 weeks for the fundraiser. As part of the event, she served as a model for the Society fashion show.

***

Just like those skaters that performed on ice so many years ago, Atwood has lived a gracefully choreographed life — even when it wasn’t easy. She has shown up for the hard practices, day in and day out, so that when performance counted, Atwood glided around the ring with a smile on her face.