BRENNA SWANSTON
Storyteller.
Editor.
Marketer.
Lifelong learner.
About Me
I'm Brenna Swanston (she/her), a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience in customer and content marketing, SEO web content, and journalism.
My best work lives at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and human connection. I believe good human stories live everywhere — even buried in the messiest, most complicated ideas. I help organizations dig up those stories, decode the complexities, and turn around clear narratives that engage the right people.
I've worked across storytelling formats, audiences, and industries to translate dense and technical subjects into accessible content. I'm a strong researcher, thoughtful strategist, meticulous editor, and collaborative teammate. Let's work together to surface the meaningful stories that'll drive impact for your organization.
Work Experience
CUSTOMER MARKETING MANAGER
Peregrine | Full-Time | San Francisco, CA | Feb. 2026 - Present
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Systematically turn customer wins into external-facing stories and proof points in both editorial and video formats across Peregrine’s blog, website, and social media channels — 45 customer stories YTD, contributing to an 88% increase in website traffic
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Own end-to-end production of editorial customer stories, from ideation and interviews to writing and publication
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Manage customer video program, including identifying strong stories for video; coordinating planning sessions with customers; scheduling travel, interviews, and b-roll opportunities; producing detailed creative briefs; conducting on-camera customer interviews; and iterating with director of video during post-production
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Built and maintain a roadmap of customer proof priorities tied to product launches, competitive positioning, vertical expansion, and sales needs
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Continually assess content opportunities across the customer lifecycle to identify and fill proof gaps based on vertical, persona, and use case
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Establish and maintain relationships with customers and internal customer delivery team to surface wins and ensure a continuous pipeline of success stories
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Identify customer successes that tell Peregrine’s AI story, validate Peregrine’s value and credibility in the market, support Peregrine’s brand and reputation, and spotlight leaders who use Peregrine to drive impact in their communities
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Partner with product and engineering leaders to produce blogs, videos, white papers, and landing pages that support feature launches and illustrate Peregrine’s positions on responsible AI in public safety
CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER
Peregrine | Full-Time | San Francisco, CA | Sept. 2024 - Feb. 2026
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Published 50 blogs, 21 customer stories, and six long-form guides
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Drove 184% increase in monthly website visitors
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Fueled $2M in pipeline in 2025 alone
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Launched Peregrine’s first content program, owning strategy, development, and publication across the website, LinkedIn, and third-party outlets such as Police1
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Built and maintained Peregrine’s content style guide, serving as the internal standard-bearer for the company’s editorial voice
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Wrote long-form guides providing in-depth research, real-world examples, and practical guidance around industry-specific pain points and technology investments for both technical readers (CIOs) and non-technical audiences (public safety leaders, elected officials)
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Collaborated with co-founder and CTO to produce thought leadership content, translating technical product strategy and perspectives into digestible narratives for a general audience
FREELANCE WRITER AND EDITOR
Various Clients | Freelance | Remote | July 2014 - Feb. 2025
Recent notable projects include:
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Slack: Wrote and edited blog posts, e-books, and marketing emails to build out AI content library and drive awareness of new Slack tools, integrations, and features
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Archetype Agency: Ghostwrote op-ed articles for tech execs at companies like Mailchimp and Slack for placement in publications such as Human Resource Executive and CMSWire
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Queen City Nerve: Wrote a three-part series exploring racial and socioeconomic segregation in North Carolina schools; placed second for long-form news story at the AAN Awards, second for education reporting in the NCPA Editorial and Advertising Awards
DEPUTY EDITOR
Forbes Advisor | Full-Time | Remote | May 2022 - June 2024
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Collaborated with managing editor and SEO team to ideate, outline, and assign 60 long-form articles per month covering higher ed degrees, career paths, alternative education options, and college rankings
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Edited content for style, grammar, accuracy, clarity, and SEO best practices
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Nov. 2023 – April 2024: Backfilled for the managing editor during her leave; saw record 80% growth in traffic for EDU content (weekly sessions increased from 114,000–206,000)
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Dec. 2023: Led a content optimization project to update 200+ legacy education articles in one month, contributing to 37.7% SEO growth rate month over month
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Worked with the PR team to produce stats pages and other data-driven content, securing 228 backlinks in 2023 with an average link score of 79.53
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Managed an updates editor and a remote team of ~20 freelance writers and editors
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Created and maintained the education team’s style guide
COPY EDITOR
Red Ventures Education | Full-Time | Remote | Aug. 2021 - May 2022
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Promoted to manager 11 months after joining; scope expanded to oversee a team of two internal editors and 10+ freelance writers and editors
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Copyedited SEO and news content for Red Ventures’ portfolio of higher ed (EDU) sites
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Maintained and continually updated the EDU style guide
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Created and continually updated EDU's conscious language guide to ensure the use of inclusive, appropriate language across all EDU content
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Developed EDU’s first training and feedback system, which kept writers current on EDU's style guide, sourcing best practices, and other writing processes
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Launched a QC process that implemented ongoing content audits to catch and correct errors and refresh copy across 60 pieces of live content per month
STAFF WRITER
The Sun | Full-Time | Santa Maria, California | Jan. 2016 - June 2017
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Wrote long-form news articles and short-form briefs covering education, agriculture, immigration, religion, and environmental issues; also contributed a weekly food column
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Copyedited the paper’s news section weekly
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Stepped in as acting managing editor during absences to maintain publication standards and deadlines without interruption
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Won first for agricultural reporting at the CNPA Better Newspapers Contest
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Earned honorable mentions for profile feature story and education coverage at the CNPA Better Newspapers Contest
Awards
ASSOCIATION OF ALTERNATIVE NEWSMEDIA (AAN) AWARDS 2020:
Second Place: Long-Form News Story
NORTH CAROLINA PRESS ASSOCIATION EDITORIAL CONTEST 2019:
Second Place: Education Reporting
CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION (CNPA) BETTER NEWSPAPERS CONTEST 2016:
First Place: Agricultural Reporting
Honorable Mention: Profile Feature Story
Honorable Mention: Coverage of Education
COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION PINNACLE AWARDS 2015:
Third Place: Arts & Entertainment Story
CNPA CAMPUS EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM CONTEST 2015:
First Place: Profile Feature Story
Find my full resume in a PDF here.
My Writing
The Hayward Evaluation and Response Teams (HEART) make up a community-based crisis response and outreach program that serves unhoused and other vulnerable community members in Hayward, California. HEART's field operators use Peregrine to connect its clients with county resources for mental health treatment and housing.
Manatee County Emergency Management invested in Peregrine, a data integration platform, to level-up the agency's disaster response lifecycle in 2024. Peregrine ultimately enabled better situational awareness for the county during hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, along with faster damage assessments and relief aid.
History Is Now: Segregation in Charlotte's Public Schools
Queen City Nerve
First Installment | Second Installment | Third Installment
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) — Charlotte, North Carolina's public school district — has led and reflected national segregation trends for generations. Nearly 50 years ago, a Supreme Court case involving CMS sparked a wave of busing policies and reintegration efforts across the United States. Now, the district is again one of the country's most socioeconomically and racially segregated.
In this three-part series, I explored the historical role of CMS in school segregation nationwide and how segregation still pervades in the district today.
This series placed second for long-form news story in the 2020 Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards. It also placed second for education reporting in the 2019 North Carolina Press Association Editorial Contest.
Slack Blog Posts
Collaborative Intelligence: People and AI Working Smarter Together
Sales Prospecting Tips and Tools for the Modern Org
A Guide to Maximizing Productivity in the Workplace
The Best Collaboration Tools for Remote Teams
Use Knowledge Sharing To Work Smarter
A Guide to Client Communication for the Digital Age
I offer guides, tips, and resources for remote and hybrid corporate teams via SEO-driven blog posts on Slack's website, often highlighting Slack features and integrations.
For Forbes Advisor, I compiled a college application checklist organized according to common application deadlines, complete with a printable PDF to help applicants keep track of their progress. This piece is meant to guide prospective college students through the year leading up to their first year of higher education.
City Farm SLO: A New Way of Farming
Central Coast Living Magazine
I volunteered for City Farm SLO, a nonprofit regenerative urban farm in San Luis Obispo, California, from 2020 to 2023. In August 2021, I wrote a profile on the farm for Central Coast Living Magazine, a small local publication.
When Los Padres ForestWatch released a report detailing the harms of recreational shooting on health, safety and natural resources, I took a deeper look. My reporting explored the impacts of unmanaged shooting, along with potential solutions.
The New Workforce
The Sun
I looked into local controversy surrounding H-2A, a federal program for temporary foreign farmworkers. This program draws sharp criticism from community members and farmworker rights activists, and it has created housing issues in Northern Santa Barbara County and all along the Central Coast.
This story won first place for agricultural reporting at the 2016 California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest.
The Bully Effect
The Sun
When a local mom approached the Sun with gruesome stories of how her daughter was bullied and the school district didn't appear to be taking action on the matter, I took a deeper look at why kids bully and how schools might address it.
This story garnered an honorable mention for coverage of education at the 2016 California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest.