Communicator of Achievement: Frances Broaddus Crutchfield

Communicator of Achievement is VPC’s Highest Honor for a Member

How many of us have a building named for us, especially when we’re still on this earth? The symbolism of such an honor runs deep.

On Sept. 14, 2019, Frances Broaddus Crutchfield received a demonstration of decades of appreciation from the Heart of Virginia Council, Boy Scouts of America, when the council named its Nawakwa Lodge 3 Pavilion at Camp T. Brady Saunders the Frances Broaddus Crutchfield Lodge.

Broaddus Crutchfield is VPC’s 2020 Communicator of Achievement. The award recognizes not only her untiring communications efforts, but also her volunteer activism on behalf of the BSA’s Heart of Virginia Council, Virginia’s indigenous Indian tribes, and women’s and environmental causes.

Broaddus Crutchfield is a poet, author, freelance writer, copy editor, actress, public speaker, and community powerhouse. She is best known for her advocacy for women’s rights and Virginia’s underserved Indian tribes. Governor Timothy Kaine appointed her to the Virginia Indian Commemorative Commission, which, in 2018, completed and dedicated a monument to Virginia Indians on the grounds of Virginia’s Capitol Square. She has served on boards of many philanthropic and professional organizations, including that of Virginia Professional Communicators. She has been a member of VPC and NFPW since 2008 and has attended numerous NFPW conferences.

She has won numerous awards in editorial writing, poetry, and other categories of VPC and NFPW’s annual communications contests. Broaddus Crutchfield wrote poems about the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting, bin Laden’s death, and former President Barack Obama’s first year. “I want to be a poet when I grow up,” she said. “I’m old, but not grown up.”

In addition to being a published poet and author, she worked as a copy editor. Her accomplishments were amply featured in the cover story by Northern Virginia freelance writer Glenda C. Booth for the August 2018 issue of Fifty Plus Richmond www.fiftyplusrichmond.com. 

She once told her son that she has reached the age where she fears no attempt to sabotage her professionally and cares less than ever what people think of her personally, as long as she knows she is on the correct side of history. Consequently, she feels a great obligation to be outspoken and politically active. She has lived up to that obligation as a fixture within Democratic Party circles, and in 2018 Senator Mark Warner singled her out in a crowd as someone who attends every event and can be counted on to do the hard work to advance worthy causes.

Virginia Delegate Chris Peace has said, “Frances impresses me with her many philanthropic endeavors that positively impact the quality of life of others. She is leaving a lasting legacy.”

Broaddus-Crutchfield, who was nominated by fellow longtime member Martha Steger, will now go on to the national competition to compete for the National Communicator of Achievement.

Learn more about this remarkable member in this member profile written by Terry Haycock in September 2019: Member Profile: Meet Frances Broaddus Crutchfield.