This page highlights selected projects developed across community engagement, advocacy, publishing, and independent initiative. Some projects are collaborative. Others are self-directed. All of them reflect how I approach communication as a practice grounded in responsibility, care, and long-term thinking.
I do not treat projects as accomplishments to display. I treat them as contexts for decision-making. What matters most is not what was produced, but how choices were made, who was considered, and what the work was designed to protect.
How I Approach Project Work
Across different settings, my project work tends to share a few core principles:
- Clarity before scale – communication should be understood before it is amplified
- Ethics as practice – values are embedded in process, not added afterward
- Human-centered systems – tools and messages should support real people in real conditions
- Continuity over novelty – durable work matters more than performative innovation
Each project included here reflects these principles in different ways.
Selected Projects
Embrace the Spectrum: Queer Awareness & Visibility
A community-centered communication initiative developed in collaboration with members of the Evergreen Public Schools Equity Advisory Committee. This project was designed to normalize LGBTQ+ visibility through consistent messaging, calendar-based awareness, and educational framing that supports students, families, and staff.
The work emphasizes visibility without sensationalism and inclusion without coercion, grounding advocacy in care, accuracy, and respect.
Always With Hope: Memoir Publishing & Companion Website
A legacy publishing project centered on editing, preparing, and releasing Always With Hope, a memoir written by my mother, Lyudmila Oparina. The project also included the development of a companion website to support the book and preserve family narrative.
This work required sustained editorial judgment, design decisions, and ethical care, particularly around memory, voice, and truth.
Vancouver Arts LIVE: Community Visibility & Cultural Engagement
An undergraduate capstone project focused on increasing visibility for local arts and cultural events through digital media and community-oriented communication strategies. The project explored how platforms can be designed to elevate participation and foster a sense of belonging.
This work represents an early exploration of themes that continue to shape my practice: access, representation, and public narrative.
Foster Washington: Awareness & Social Marketing Concept
A strategic communication concept developed to raise public awareness around foster care in Washington State. The project emphasized education over persuasion, aiming to support understanding without simplifying the lived realities of children and families involved in the foster system.
The work focused on ethical framing, empathy, and responsible messaging.
On Scope and Selection
The projects presented here are selective by design. They reflect work that can be shared publicly and that aligns with the broader themes explored throughout this site. Other professional and operational work exists, but is not presented here when it is better suited for internal or contextual use.
Invitation
If you are reading this as a collaborator, community partner, or professional peer, I invite you to open any project and look closely at the process. The way a project is shaped often matters more than the artifact it produces.
Projects are not endpoints. They are points of learning. This page will continue to evolve as new work is published.
Mikhail Oparin 