Alan Nelson

I'm a Partner at CRA, Inc., where I've worked since 1992 and where I serve as a consultant and coach on leadership communication and communication strategy.

Now is probably an appropriate time to say that Seat 1A is my personal blog, and that it in no way reflects the positions or interests of CRA, its partners, or its clients. Everything here begins and ends with me from a responsibility standpoint, so please don't sue the firm. Thank you.

While my vocational passions are building our firm and serving our clients (I'm fortunate to love my work and the people in it), my avocational passion is spending time with my wife (travel as it is). Along the way we seem to enjoy wine, a little golf, SCUBA, and whenever possible, the wilderness of the Western United States.

I also have an interest in how the Web is changing work and society, which has led to my interest in blogs, which I've been publishing since 2002. (You may read my take on the web and journalism here.)

One such blog is CommLog, CRA's blog for clients and people interested in organizational and leadership communication. Another is The Command Post, now retired and archived, which was a hobby that became (near as I can tell) the web's first massive-scale, multiple-author collaborative news blog. I'm proud to say that four of its sub-sites have been added to the Library of Congress MINERVA Project permanent historical collection.

An even better blog experience has been Strengthen The Good, a blog-based non-profit that highlights microcharities. I created STG in 2004, and in addition to helping raise $15,000 for the education of a family of deserving kids and building an English-language library for students in Petrzalka, Slovakia, it's simply been very fulfilling and a lot of fun.

Finally, I'm most passionate about my wife, Kate, who, for reasons I can't fathom, chooses to love me even in the face of my travel schedule. She's the light of my life.