The Civil Society Group

We combine media savvy with scientific, educational, and technological leadership.

Whether you need an expert for a news report on scientific or technology issues or an in-depth analysis of your workplace diversity, The Civil Society Group has the expertise to help you communicate your message to your specific audiences. Our two general partners and our many associates have decades of scientific, educational, technical, technological, and creative experience and leadership; a combination of talent that’s hard to find anywhere else.

We can improve your image and your reputation.

You need us to help you assure your audience/market/client base that you have the ability to meet their needs better than your competitors. We can produce the kinds of marketing communications that position you at the top of your industry. Whether you need printed materials, a television commercial, or an Internet presence, The Civil Society Group can produce world-class communications presentations for you and even help you present yourself more effectively in person.

Don’t ignore your social and legal responsibilities.

The changing attitudes of our more diverse and enlightened society are fueling a demand for businesses that can efficiently provide goods and services while observing a more socially conscious approach to business. Consumers, clients, foundations and government agencies more often expect you to prove that you can do the job and also that you can do it while respecting your employees, your clients, all of society, and do it in an environmentally sustainable manner.

You can’t afford to neglect your reputation in any of those considerations. You need to make sure that your target audiences, whether they’re television viewers or a grant panel or other potential clients, have no doubt that you are capable of providing them a generous return on their investment in you. You need well-designed, contemporary, and technologically sophisticated presentations of your work and productivity. At the same time, you need to be known for progressive, Earth-friendly, socially conscious good works. This means combining business savvy with the ability to fulfill society’s expectations and follow the government’s statutory regulations.

Services for the Press

Explanation • Analysis • Commentary
Documentary & News Production • Informational Graphics Production

We have the expertise to serve the needs of the print media with writing, editing, photography, and graphic design. We can serve the broadcast media with writing, on-camera appearances, and production. We can write, develop and produce any type of Internet or Intranet presentation.

We can report news, comment on political and social issues, and/or explain complex scientific and technological subjects.

We have the skills, capabilities, and facilities to produce documentary and news presentations, whether through complete writing, pre-production, production, and post-production services or by shooting simple background footage.

We can produce explanatory and instructive information graphics that include animation and interactivity, for print, video, and Internet presentation.

Services for Political Campaigns

Media Strategy Consultation • Media Production • Media Relations
Position Papers • Speechwriting

Whether you’re running for President of the United States or your local School Board, we can help you present your positions and your attitudes to the electorate. We can assure that the electorate will understand who you are and what you want to do for them.

We can provide complete campaign media services, from media strategy consultation to the production of ads and commercials, to the research and writing of position papers and speeches.

Don’t take a chance that your political opponents will call us first. Make sure we’re on your side.

Services for Businesses & Institutions

Technology Training & Orientation for Executives and Presenters
Training/Orientation • Employee Relations Presentations
Training Materials Development • Quality Control Consulting
Technical/Scientific Writing & Editing • Publication Design
Video Production • Advertising • Public Relations
Grant Proposal Writing/Consultation • Program Assessment
Workplace Statistical Analysis • Statutory Compliance
Grievance Policies & Procedures Consultation
Anti-Discrimination Training

Executive employees at all levels must have at least minimal understanding of the prevalent technologies in your industry. We can train and orient your employees so that they present you in the most sophisticated and technologically advanced light possible.

We’re ready to help you communicate with your clients/market and with your employees. We can build the kinds of sales and marketing communications that present you as you need to be perceived. We can help motivate your employees to understand their work better and to be more dedicated to quality control in every aspect of their work. We can produce training materials, press releases, employee relations presentations, and sales presentations.

We can do all this in whatever media you need: on paper, on television/video, or on the Internet/Intranet.

And you need us to come in and advise you on how to decrease the unintended effects of prejudice and bias in your workplace. We can provide consulting services covering everything from effective grievance procedures, federal statutory (Executive Order 11246) compliance, and anti-discrimination training covering racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice. We can help you install systems that will help you avoid costly litigation.

Services for Civil Rights Attorneys

Civil Rights & Discrimination Expert Testimony
Workplace Statistical Analysis
Evidence Presentation Development
Courtroom Technology Training/Orientation

Our two general partners are experts in workplace discrimination and between them have more than 20 years experience with diversity issues in the workplace. We recently completed a book for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for which we researched the status of minorities among the faculty and students of the U.S. medical schools. The book should be published sometime early this Spring.

We can provide expert witness testimony concerning the statistical proof of discrimination, as well as the common patterns and practices of discrimination.

We can produce evidence presentations for you and even teach you to use the computer presentation technology that’s now available in the courtrooms.

We only work with plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Portfolio

Our portfolio section is still under construction. We have a lot to try to put together. In the meantime, you can view:

“Community-Based Drinking Water Assessment,” the final report produced for Kansas State University, Haskell Indian Nations University, and Gorno-Altaisk State University, describing their USAID grant program. (WARNING: the file is large (162 MB) and you’ll need a fast Internet connection to view it.)
“Media Relations for Science Reporting and Environmental Advocacy,” the final report produced for Kansas State University, Gorno-Altaisk State University and The Civil Society Group describing their USAID grant program. (WARNING: the file is large (69 MB) and you’ll need a fast Internet connection to view it.)
“Powwow For The Planet,” is the documentary we are currently working to finish. The documentary covers the exchange of Traditional Ecological Knowledge between Native Americans and indigenous Siberians. We spent a month in Siberia in July 2005, shooting the last of the footage. (WARNING: the file is large (100 MB) and you’ll need a fast Internet connection to view it.)

The Civil Society Group is a company formed by two former university professors to provide consulting, research, training, and presentation development services to the media, corporations, institutions, and government agencies.

The principal partners of the CSG, Cynthia Annett, PhD, and Mike Cuenca, provide a combination of extensive expertise in scientific and humanities research and analysis, including statistics-intensive analyses. The CSG is capable of providing extensive empirical research services, including the development of original surveys and questionnaires, the dissemination of those surveys and questionnaires via postal or electronic means, the gathering and collection of the data from the research, and the production of electronic databases including the data.

The CSG also has the capabilities and facilities to provide a complete range of presentation development services, including writing, editing, graphic design, print production, video production and post-production, and multimedia design and production for the web.

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Dr. Cynthia Annett — science explanation & analysis, environmental justice and civil rights issues, and writing/producing.

Photo of Dr. Cynthia Annett in scuba gear. Cynthia Annett received her doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and has had more than twenty-five years of experience working in basic and applied research. She has extensive experience in statistical analysis, having produced more than thirty peer-reviewed scientific publications that rely heavily on statistical analysis, in which she developed innovative techniques for the analysis of large data sets that are both spatially and temporally referenced. Her work on population dynamics, river management, landscape ecology, and animal behavior has been used by the US Forest Service, the National Parks Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and state fish and wildlife agencies throughout the US. During the past three years, Dr. Annett has served as an Associate Editor of the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, a national scientific journal published by the largest association of fisheries professionals in the US.

Since 1991, Dr. Annett has run joint US-Russia programs using science to promote community-empowerment, democratization, and environmental justice in indigenous communities on both continents. Her work has significantly increased the participation of Tribal College faculty and students in international research and education in environmental and health sciences. Dr. Annett’s program has been sponsored by the US Agency for International Development, US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NATO. She currently coordinates a program for CSG and a consortium of universities in the US and Siberia (Kansas State University, Haskell Indian Nations University, and Gorno-Altaisk State University in Siberia).

Dr. Annett was one of the first women Assistant Unit Leaders in the federal Cooperative Research Units, and was responsible for creating programs to recruit students from Historically Black Colleges into federal research positions. She was also the first woman hired into her department at the University of Kansas, where she was as an assistant professor from 1993-1999. During this time she founded a chapter of the Association of Women in Science, taught joint courses with Haskell Indian Nations University, recruited the first black and Native American graduate students in the biological sciences, and co-authored a report on the status of women and minorities at the University of Kansas. In 1999, along with Mike Cuenca, she was a co-founder of the Kansas University Sexism and Racism Victims Coalition (http://www.KUSRVC.com).

Download Dr. Annett’s Vita/Resume in PDF format.

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Mike Cuenca — technology explanation & analysis, media analysis & commentary, civil rights legal issues, and writing/producing.

Photo of Mike Cuenca with his video camera. CSG partner and co-founder Mike Cuenca has 30 years of uniquely broad experience as a journalist. Mike has worked in newspapers, magazines, public and commercial radio, broadcast television, motion pictures, and corporate television. In each of those fields, Mike worked both in the creative and professional jobs and in the technological and production jobs, at every level of authority, from the bottom to the top. As a result, Mike has an unparalleled sense of the context of modern communications technology.

Mike first learned to set type by hand and then grew with the advent of desktop publishing and the subsequent revolution in media technology. Mike helped pioneer the application of electronic prepress technology Photo of cover of Mastering Adobe InDesign, by Mike Cuenca. in magazine publishing and the application of multimedia technology for journalism presentations on the Internet. He is publisher of seekpeace.com, a teaching and analysis site for media communicators.

Mike is the author of Mastering Adobe InDesign for Sybex, which has been translated into six languages, and the ACE Photoshop 5 Exam Cram for Coriolis. He can explain highly technological issues in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Formerly an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, Mike can also analyze and interpret the impact of visual media on our collective awareness.

When hired by the University of Kansas, Mike was among the fewer than 50 Asian American or Hispanic journalism professors in the entire country. Along with Dr. Annett, Mike was a co-founder of the Kansas University Sexism & Racism Victims Coalition and is a long-time civil rights activist. Mike was among the first social activists to use the Internet for peaceful protest and advocacy. He built the KUSRVC website in 1999 and it quickly became one of the most visited social activism sites on the Internet. He produced our Bush In 30 Seconds entry, which was selected as one of the 15 finalists from among the more than 1,000 entries.

Mike is studying the impact of technology on the art of reporting news and is developing a documentary on the media coverage of the initial phases of the Iraq war. He is producing documentaries on environmental and cultural issues.

Mike is an army brat whose stepfather was a US Army officer during the Vietnam war. Mike’s father is an immigrant from the Philippines and a U.S. Navy veteran. Mike’s mom is from a long line of Scotch/Irish Ozark hillbillies with names like Maxwell, Rogers, Armes, and McCombs. Mike grew up outdoors, on the farm, in the woods and on the streets, with children of many different ethnicities, cultures, classes, and experiences.

Mike is available for radio and television interviews and commentaries, as well as for producer/writer assignments. He is also available for newspaper/magazine commentaries and editorials.

Download Mike Cuenca’s Vita/Resume in PDF format.

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