Intent
I’m building my professional brand as The Synergist — a creative strategist and Masters student who combines storytelling, communication, and imagination to drive business success.
My background is in creative writing with a specialization in fiction, and I’m currently earning my Masters in Management & Organization at CU Denver. I’m passionate about the intersection of creativity, collaboration, and leadership.
On LinkedIn, and on the SynerGist blog, I’m documenting my masters journey, reflecting on business insights through a creative lens, and exploring how play, curiosity, and narrative make strategy more human and therefore more effective while navigating change.
On my site, you will find more of my personal story, my professional experience, and a breakdown of how it comes together to inspire my brand.
About Me
I’m Bessana—writer, communicator, and creative strategist shaped by two names and two worlds. My adoptive mother, Daun, gave me a name that braids Bess (her grandmother) with Ana (a traditional Guatemalan name) to honor my roots. She raised me in Minnesota until her passing from Non‑Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2001. This loss taught me early how fragile life is, the importance of a stable and safe home, and how vital it is to use our voices with purpose.
I studied Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago, where I fell in love with teaching, collaboration, and the power of stories to move people to action. That passion pulled me into the nonprofit sector as a volunteer coordinator, teaching artist, and eventually a creative writing school administrator. I learned how to translate narrative into community impact.
When the world changed in 2020, so did my path. I returned to Colorado and devoted a year to drafting a young adult fantasy novel about a teenager who discovers a magic system rooted in ancient Maya history. This was an exploration of identity, inheritance, and the stories we carry.
Professionally, I’ve continued building that bridge between empathy and development. I served at a domestic‑violence organization, then moved into fund development at an affordable‑housing nonprofit. Today I’m the Strategic Partnerships and Public Relations Manager at Rocky Mountain Communities, where I lead storytelling that strengthens partnerships, elevates resident voices, and turns mission into measurable momentum.
What ties all of this together is: every organization I've ever been part of was navigating some form of change. And the ones that stayed intact weren't always the ones with the sharpest strategy. They were the ones that held onto a shared sense of culture, who they were, even when everything around them was shifting. I've watched culture quietly unravel when leadership changed and no one had language for what was being lost. I've also watched it hold when someone made meaning out of the uncertainty. That pattern is what I'm going to graduate school to understand. And The SynerGist is where I'll document what I find.