My name is Samantha Bakall. I’m a strategic communications leader and journalist living in Portland, Oregon.
Photo by Zoe Ching
From 2013-2018, I was Oregon’s sole staffed food writer of color at The Oregonian and shaped narratives through culturally rich and community-focused storytelling. After I left the paper, I went freelance, honing my skills in copyediting and editorial strategy. And in 2021, I joined the staff at Seeding Justice as Director of Communications and broadened my expertise to encompass strategic communications, brand strategy and management, and narrative change.
Seeding Justice
At Seeding Justice, I built and executed a strategic narrative communications program from the ground up and orchestrated the comprehensive name change, rebrand and website overhaul that transitioned MRG Foundation to Seeding Justice. I oversaw the production of all external content, including growing the newsletter to nearly 10,000 subscribers over three years, and championed public rollouts for multi-million-dollar initiatives including the Reproductive Health Equity Fund. One of my favorite and most proud projects has been writing and managing design of the past four years’ annual reports.
Published work
As a freelance writer, my stories predominantly focus on equity-based food issues centered around the Asian American diaspora in the Pacific Northwest. My work has been published in The Oregonian, National Geographic, Eater, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travel Oregon, The Takeout, Thrillist, Travel Portland, USA Today and I write the Hit List each month for Resy Portland.
Photo by Zoe Ching