"In the short amount of time that I have worked with Joan Barnes, I have come to respect her talent and strategic insight. She helped us with public relations, project managed the re-design of our web site, and helped with our marketing communications strategy and implementation. She is currently working on the development of the Nerites brand. One of the things I like best about Joan is that I can give her a project and I don't have to think about it. It gets done efficiently and effectively."

"I have had the privilege of working with Joan Barnes on several occasions here at Hennepin County Medical Center. She has a strong understanding of marketing and communications strategies and has demonstrated successful implementation of such plans. She is an esteemed colleague and I value her willingness to share insights on effective health care communications."

"After working with Joan Barnes on a project for a mutual client, I knew I'd found the perfect partner for my future clients' projects. Joan is strategic, creative, understands the resource limitations of not-for-profit organizations, offers appropriate, cost effective solutions and has the patience and tact to deal with organizations and staff that are new to the communications or too buried in other priorities to implement a new communications plan with the speed that everyone hopes for. Her wonderful sense of humor is an added bonus when tackling complex communications messages!"

"We have known Joan for about 10 years. She has helped us with strategy, re-worked our web site, conducted public relations, and has written all of our communications pieces. Joan is a team player, with a sense of humor, who has stuck by us during some fairly significant changes in the organization because she has a commitment to our organization and the work we do to make a difference in patient's lives. She understands the challenges facing both the non-profit and health care sectors and she works to provide the best strategy and implementation to clients in both areas."

"We are a small non-profit, with an annual budget of approximately $400,000 and we are run solely by volunteers. After getting a call from the USDA about rescuing close to 100 dogs in South Dakota, we turned to Joan for help with strategy. She dropped everything and within two days put together a communications and fundraising strategy and then worked tirelessly to implement it. Her work helped us rescue these dogs without going out of business. We communicated successfully and quickly with volunteers, donors and the general public, receiving national media coverage, money to cover these dogs and more, and a flood of applications. I can honestly say that we couldn't have pulled it off without her help."

"As a consultant, Joan Barnes worked with the marketing department at William Mitchell College of Law to develop communication plans for a number of areas in the college. She also headed our event marketing and media relations and assisted in much of our communications writing. Joan worked with people across the college, and we appreciated her ability to provide both broad-level guidance as well as accomplish the small details. Our plans were to work with Joan for a few months, but we valued her and her work so much that we continued to work with her for over a year."

"I have known and worked with Joan for almost ten years. She is creative, talented, smart and keeps a sense of humor whenever possible, believing that hard work can be fun. She also understands how to work with different groups of stakeholder to reach a common goal."