"Emily Hiestand is the person to work with to address complex communications needs. A strategic thinker with uncommon good sense, Emily helps clients construct a framework necessary to transform a vision – even an idea – into practical goals, and to implement them.
  At MIT, she helped us to realize communications goals for both internal and international projects. Particularly challenging for us was the conceptualization and development of a book series to articulate complex scientific and engineering results to a broad audience of decision makers in business, government and civil society. Quite simply, we could not have done it without Emily's insightful guidance.”

“Emily Hiestand has been an indispensable advisor and creative force in the New England Aquarium's annual Environmental Writers' Festival, a signature program in the Aquarium's outreach efforts to raise awareness about environmental issues, especially those that affect the world of water.
  Emily's contributions to our festival reflect her many talents: as a writer whose readings have inspired our participants; as a teacher who has encouraged developing writers; and as a strategic thinker and community-builder who has helped me shape and refresh our festival.”

"Every magazine aspires to find new themes and discover new voices, but it is the rare editor who can successfully break the ground between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Emily Hiestand is such an editor, and Orion magazine and the community that surrounds it, have been the grateful beneficiaries of her wisdom and vision for more than a decade.
  Working together, Emily and I have had the pleasure of bringing greater diversity of voices and literary zest into Orion’s pages, and articulating the strong connection between human rights and care for the natural world.”

“In the mysterious process of transmuting ideas into printed form, Emily Hiestand is a master. She understands the total process of written and visual communication, from line editing to designing the page layout.”

“Emily Hiestand’s remarkable photographs for our new web site convey the passionate, complex, vibrant tone that I was hoping for.”

“Hiestand’s keen eye and strategic judgments helped push my manuscript, “The Black Mesa Syndrome,” into a national finalist for the prestigious John Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism. Emily has the ability to tone a manuscript into a superb piece of writing with vivid characters, rich scene-setting, and a trustworthy voice.”

“Emily brings out the best in writers. She challenges you to think in new ways by raising questions that tap into veins of unexpressed creativity, and she makes suggestions for rewriting in a supportive manner. Emily has been an ardent supporter of my book, editing chapters, and sharing her knowledge of the publishing world. Her professionalism is unsurpassed.”

Kathy Butler Jones, Author

“They Called It Timbucto,” and “Deeper Roots”

“When FleetBoston Financial Foundation needed to develop materials about our work in the community, we naturally turned to Barbara Hindley.
  She developed the first “Fleet in the Community” brochure following the merger with BankBoston, and then helped us to create the new guidelines for FleetBoston Financial Foundation and our very first annual report.
  Barbara always strikes just the right tone, managing to take information from a variety of sources and create clear and compelling prose. I highly recommend her to any foundation or nonprofit organization wanting to tell their story effectively and powerfully.”

“Barbara Hindley was quite simply the writer we felt we could trust with the important and complex story of one of the Hyams Foundation’s most ambitious funding programs, called the Building Community Initiative.
   Her sensitivity, knowledge of the Boston community, skill as a writer and capacity to coordinate the publication process brought the story of this initiative to life.
   The final publication, called “Safe for Life,” eloquently describes the process of four very different inner-city neighborhoods working from within to create safer, stronger neighborhoods.”

“Barbara Hindley is a master at capturing complex ideas in simple, beautiful prose. For many years, through the Boston Foundation’s newsletters, Barbara has painted the portrait of every sector, every neighborhood and almost every community group in the city. Her work has been a real contribution to our understanding of our city and to the issues and opportunities that confront us every day.”

“The Boston Schoolyard Initiative needed a publication that would help with outreach and public relations, but it was important to us that it not be a puff piece, that it have real content about our program.
   I gave Barbara Hindley a big pile of information gleaned from various documents we had written or had been written about us. In the wrong hands, this could have led to a kind of cut & paste mish-mash.
   What we got from Barbara and graphic designer Kate Canfield was an exquisite looking booklet that was masterfully written and which presented all of our central points concisely and with great clarity. I've never received so many compliments on a publication and I expect that the contacts we've made with potential funders will pay the costs many times over.”