Sharon J. Rasmussen, Founder & President Polestar Consulting, LLC
Sharon J. Rasmussen is founder and President Polestar Consulting, LLC, providing editorial, research, and management services to federal government agencies, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations in Washington, DC. Recently, she followed a life-long passion and co-authored a historical novel based on her family’s experience on the South Dakota frontier, Along the Trail to Thunder Hawk, funded by a grant from the Standing Rock Sioux Joint Tribal Advisory Committee to be published 2010.
Ms. Rasmussen earned a B. A., cum laude, from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1975 at the age of 30 while caring for her young daughter. For the past 30 years she has served as a technical writer, editor, and publications manager. As a senior editor and communications consultant, she has edited a broad range of scientific and technical documents specializing in energy and economic development, advised organizations on how to effectively target their communications to a variety of audiences, implemented publications programs and activities, and participated as team leader in winning multimillion-dollar proposals for government contracts.
Recent projects for award-winning proposals include writing project performance summaries and hundreds of resumes for the new billion-dollar National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus and writing resumes and summaries for a million-dollar technology services proposal. Her clients include General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), USAID, Nexant, Inc., the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.
Polestar Consulting projects under her direction have included a report on greenhouse gas emissions mitigation for the World Bank and presentations on electricity privatization and finance for the Republic of Georgia. Polestar provided editorial services for a large series of economic assessment publications for the South Asia Regional Energy Initiative, which encompasses Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and, Sri Lanka. Polestar also provided editorial services for technical reports for an electricity master plan for Iraq. Ms. Rasmussen edited and rewrote a publication on innovative approaches to slum electrification for USAID and her firm also provided editorial services for reports on thermal power plants in Southern Africa, electric vehicle technology in India, and economic development in Ghana.
Previously as a Publications Consultant, Ms. Rasmussen wrote and edited materials for Joe Foote Associates, the National Academy of Sciences, Ford Foundation, Office of Juvenile Justice, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, Mid-City Urban, German Marshall Fund, the National Center for Family Philanthropy, the Council on Foundations, and Bechtel Consulting, Inc. As Senior Editor for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit research and communications organization, Ms. Rasmussen edited and reviewed all scientific and technical reports.
Ms. Rasmussen is affiliated with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is a member of the Colonial Dames 17th Century. She obtained an M. Ed. from George Mason University in 2000 and has served as a volunteer historical guide at Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria for 10 years. She is extremely proud of her daughter who is now director of family programs for the US Navy Bureau of Medicine.
