International Communications Consultant
As Communications Director with the USAID-Iraq Governance Strengthening Project/Taqadum was the most challenging and delightful of my career.
Managing and building the capacity of a 10+ member communications team, together we produced 125-200p Quarterly Reports and 25-50p magazine-style Weekly Reports (complete with special features, success stories, profiles, op-eds, sidebars, etc.) capturing the activities of 140+ staff located in 15 provinces.
As the project’s only native English speaker, I was responsible for art direction, design, and editing of all English- and Arabic-language Communications deliverables. I developed a magazine-style Weekly Report format that garnered the attention of Congressional, State Department, Pentagon, and other Washington, D.C. entities, and was shared with USAID Missions worldwide as a model to follow.
2017: A special highlight of my work with GSP/Taqadum was to direct and produce nine YouTube-accessible USAID-branded video shorts (5 to 12 minutes in length) highlighting the project’s trajectory and successes. Also accessible via GSP/Taqadum’s website, these serve as guides for governments and organizations interested in implementing successful decentralization processes worldwide.
Writer
Beginning my writing career covering town and school board meetings for mid-Hudson Valley regional publications, I later broke into international reporting in 1995 covering on the Mexican Zapatista Revolution.
In 1999, I approached publishers of the popular mid-Hudson Valley-based Chronogram Magazine and successfully pitched the addition of a separate news and politics section devoted to in-depth reportage of issues not covered by mass media. Under my direct guidance as News and Politics Editor, and later Senior Editor, readership and ad sales increased exponentially regionally and nationally.
My journalism reputation has been built on reporting the “other truths” – stories that go beyond mainstream media coverage of explosions and dead bodies. Walking among Iraq’s powerful and destitute alike at crucial historical moments, beholden to no editorial authority or political agenda; I have had an unparalleled opportunity to witness complex developments thus earning a unique and comprehensive perspective.
"Tychostup’s body of work is essential for anyone hoping to understanding any aspect – domestic, political, environmental, or otherwise – of what has been the world’s most conspicuous crisis."