James Chiesa

Biography

James Chiesa has for the past five years been the lead communications analyst for the RAND National Security Research Division and National Defense Research Institute. In that role, he has coordinated the preparation of the division's annual reports and assisted the division director in responding to information requests from senior RAND management and from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In his 25 years as a communications analyst at RAND, Chiesa has worked with numerous researchers across RAND's divisions to design and implement effective communication strategies to convey their findings to a variety of audiences. He has helped in outlining and, where necessary, redrafting reports for greater accessibility to nonresearcher audiences, including DoD and other government officials, health service providers and other practitioners, nongovernmental organizations, and the interested public. He has prepared summaries of varying length and character, from booklet-length executive summaries of long reports to single-page media briefs highlighting key points. He is adept at the conversion of text to graphical displays to aid reader comprehension and retention of important messages. Chiesa helps maximize researcher efficiency in project documentation. He aids by offering guidance at the outline stage, which can save redrafting effort later. His participation in a project also allows researchers to focus on aspects of documentation that only they can perform and call on him for assistance with other tasks such as revision of first drafts from a communications perspective, preparation of introductions, and integration of writing styles across chapters in a multiauthored report.