Debi Rager

I was born and raised in a small town in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. I hold two degrees, both from Johns Hopkins - a bachelor's degree in history (focusing on 19th century American history, particularly the waves of immigration from Europe) and a master's in liberal arts (focusing on history and the history of art). My career has been primarily in the higher education administration sphere, most recently in fundraising. My last role at Johns Hopkins was as principal gifts strategist and senior writer. In that position, I worked on the funded proposal that established the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships. I also was part of a team of four that wrote the $1 billion+ proposal that funded financial aid at Johns Hopkins and was the largest gift to a university at the time.

I retired from Johns Hopkins in 2021 and as a freelancer, I have continued to accept a limited number of projects. Chief among them has been my writing and editing work with the International Arts and Minds Lab and the NeuroArts Blueprint. I have assisted with writing a wide variety of articles, as well as letters of intent and proposals. My writing and editing repertoire runs the gamut from developing marketing materials and ad copy to crafting thank-you letters to writing vision statements to creating and editing faculty governance documents. Current projects include working on corporate engagement materials for a highly ranked U.S. school of engineering and completing an array of writing projects for one of the most influential grassroots environmental organizations in the country.