About VA/R

Learning is the gift we give our children… and ourselves. Giving is a belief in sharing with our community… and with future generations.

But in today’s complex world, neither learning nor giving is that simple. We understand the challenges. Devoted to the education and non-profit sectors, we live in your complicated, wonderful, frustrating worlds.

We help identify what people really want. We help you decide what to do. We help you do it well. We help you connect.

Good teachers had a lot to do with our success. We have had the good fortune to:
• Work in the White House
• Provide leadership to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Establish the Broad Education Foundation communications office
• Serve as public officials in higher education and K-12
• Brand breakout media companies including MySpace
• Create award-winning political ads and TV spots that helped elect a US President
• Design winning campaign strategies for Governors, Senators and Congressmen
• Lead more than a dozen bond/levy, state and local campaigns
• Launch a community mentoring program and four companies
• Raise funds for a university, teen center, and dozen of non-profits
• Advise hundreds of education sector organizations
• Work on six continents

Our experiences are your assets. We have an extraordinary team that gets results.

TEAM
Bennet Ratcliff
Melissa Bonney Ratcliff
Karen Vander Ark
Katherine Vander Ark
Tom Vander Ark
Doug Crets
Caroline Vander Ark

Bennet Ratcliff concentrates on providing strategic counsel to VA/R clients and designing integrated communications campaigns that define organizations during times of change, opportunity or repositioning.

Bennet has served as a communications strategist for over 20 years designing, executing, and managing media strategies that integrate corporate communications, public relations, advertising, marketing and public policy. He designed and executed the positioning and communications campaign for MySpace from its start-up to its sale to News Corp. He created TV and radio advertisements for President Bill Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 Presidential campaigns. He has twice won the prestigious Pollie award from the American Association of Political Consultants for Internet advertising and radio campaigns. Ratcliff excels at creating media strategies to reach top-tier broadcast, print, and Internet publications spanning the non-profit, education, financial, technology, entertainment and consumer sectors. His expertise as a media trainer has also aided numerous CEO’s, executive management teams, US Cabinet Secretaries, political candidates and international leaders in delivering nationwide speeches, in debates, at press conferences and for televised appearances.

He also produced a documentary series, “Great American Speeches” which aired in primetime on PBS TV nationwide. He received his A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and did post-graduate studies at the University of Grenoble on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship.

Melissa Bonney Ratcliff leads many of our engagements. She provides VA/R clients with access to top-tier media elites and designs results-oriented media relations campaigns.

Melissa worked as communications strategist for The White House during the Clinton Administration. She also advised Cabinet Member Carol M Browner for four years at the US Environmental Protection Agency. She led the communications office of the national Democratic Party and served as spokeswoman for Roy Romer, DNC Chairman. She also helped design and supervise the media operation at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. After leaving public service, Melissa established the Broad Education Foundation communications office from scratch, and helped build the Foundation into a nationally recognized leader in public education. Her work included the launch of a million dollar prize for education. Recently, Melissa devised a national media tour to introduce top-tier education and news reporters to the new Chancellor of a major research university. Her current work includes a 60 market media campaign for the Internet’s most visited education website for parents of children ages 2 to 6. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Karen Vander Ark leads many VA/R engagements. She makes sure that your goals are the primary focus. With Karen’s leading the team, you can be certain that we do what we’re supposed to do when we’re supposed to do it.

Karen began her career in the University of Denver Development office 31 years ago and she’s been raising money for, speaking on behalf of, and supporting education, environmental and arts organizations ever since. Karen was a gubernatorial appointed college trustee and lead Highline College through a difficult leadership transition. She launched a local chapter of Communities In Schools and led more than a dozen political campaigns including successful school district bond and levy efforts and a statewide education initiative. Karen led the fund raising campaign for the first Boys & Girls Club teen center, served as General Manager of a symphony, served on numerous political and community service group boards and committees. As a political analyst, Karen supported the King County Council and lobbied for funding for community colleges at the state and national level. Karen received her BSBA in Marketing from Waynesburg College.

Katherine Vander Ark manages many of the VA/R projects.  She was writing congressional briefs and doorbelling for a congressman at age 16. Katie graduated from high school in three years and college in two and half years. In her spare time, she was active in local political campaigns, created a communications campaign for a local social service agency, and supported Hollywood fashion designers. Katie’s is working with Gray Matters Capital in Hyderabad to strengthen low cost private school in India.  Katherine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Loyola Marymount University

Tom Vander Ark devotes his time to the most complex and visible VA/R projects, helping clients to create high impact strategies and make high-level connections.

Tom is a partner in Revolution Learning, a Seattle and Austin based private equity investor concentrating on improving formal and informal learning globally. Tom served as President of the X PRIZE Foundation and Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he developed and implemented more than $3.5 billion in scholarship and grant programs to improve education throughout the United States. In December 2006, Newsweek readers voted Vander Ark the most influential baby boomer in education. Prior to his role with the Gates Foundation, Vander Ark was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent for one of Washington State’s larger school districts that has been recognized for narrowing achievement gaps and reducing administrative costs.

Tom also has extensive experience in the private sector serving as a senior executive for retail start up, PACE Membership Warehouse, which achieved $5 billion in revenue and was sold to K-Mart.  Tom serves on the board of MLA Partner Schools, Strive for College, Envictus, AdvancePath, Edmodo, City Prep Academies, and Revolution Community Ventures.  Tom is the chair-elect of the International Association of K-12 Online Learning.  He advises Communities In Schools, ConnCan, Democrats for Education Reform, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the High School Journal. Tom has a BS from the Colorado School of Mines, and an MBA in Energy Finance from the University of Denver.

Douglas Crets joins VA/R as Vice President and Executive Editor of EdReformer.com.

Prior to joining VA/R, Douglas lived for five years in Hong Kong, where he worked as a journalist and a media consultant specializing in analysis of new media and traditional media development in 17 countries across Asia. He has had experience as a wire services reporter for Dow Jones in New Delhi, India and as a television reporter for a local English channel in Hong Kong. Douglas’ most recent career was in creating financial forums for executives in alternative investments, money markets, private debt, telecoms and the for-profit education industry. He is the former Director of the Education Industry Investment Forum, held annually in Phoenix, Arizona. Douglas advocates for social change, entrepreneurial talent, innovation in education and the use of technology to bring human endeavor to scale. He lives in New York, New York and enjoys yoga, scuba diving, international travel, writing and visiting as many of the restaurants in Manhattan that he can afford. He holds degrees from Wake Forest University (BA), Syracuse University (MFA) and The University of Hong Kong (MJ)

Caroline Vander Ark provides organizational support as Director of Operations for VA/R.

Bio coming soon