September 2025 
by Jen Wilkins, ETB Communications Specialist

Cultivating Communication: Growing the Expanding the Bench Ecosystem

My name is Jennifer Wilkins, and I am the communications specialist for Expanding the Bench (ETB).

I can hear my grandmother say, “oh, fiddlesticks!” and then laugh each time I’m faced with another dismantled fiddle leaf fig plant with only one leaf and a stem remaining. I feel loss and frustration. That mix of humor and humility came to mind recently when an ETB Team member shared during a meeting community builder, “I’ve gotta let go of being able to grow this type of plant. They often die for me.”

During another call, in the early few minutes as team members were joining, we diagnosed the culprit behind my fig tree’s decline—mealybugs—shared remedies, learnings, and found community in the process. What began as a small confession of failure became a moment of support, knowledge exchange, and connected laughter. As I sit among many plants at my desk, this conversation reminded me of a truth that undergirds both ecosystems and our work at ETB: what ends, what feels like loss, often becomes the nourishment for what is next. Dead leaves become detritus, detritus becomes soil, and soil feeds new growth.

Over the past six months, I’ve had the privilege of diving deeply into ETB’s communications. Like gardeners preparing the soil, we’ve been cultivating strategies that allow new stories, visuals, and connections to grow. I’m particularly inspired in creating scalable branding for ETB: Regional, designing the upcoming Year in Review 2025, and preparing to convene at the AEA Evaluation 2025 Conference. Our team is intentionally weaving communications across work groups to ensure that evaluation has a voice that is not only heard but also integrated. Just as ecosystems thrive when there is diversity, our communications thrive when they integrate branding, storytelling, and process.

Communications is not simply about delivering information—it’s about building trust, visibility, and belonging. It’s the water and sunlight of our shared ecosystem. Quick internal check-ins become enrichment for our collaborative culture. Public-facing materials become growth that others notice, admire, and join.

In communications, as in ecosystems, we thrive when we let the cycle of loss, growth, and renewal work through us. From behind our desks, we are in community, we are being seen, and we are mapping the way to build and grow together.