The Ones Who Build the Stage

May 11

Our Interview with Terry Christiani, executive director at R Consortium, and founder, Random Acts of Tourism

By Jennifer Cloer

There’s a particular kind of leader we don’t talk about enough: the ones who build the stage.

I was reminded of this in a recent conversation with Terry Christiani, executive director at R Consortium and a Story Changes Culture client, who says she has spent her career “in the back orchestrating things.” She creates platforms where other people can shine.

She acknowledged the tension in that choice, that when you spend your career making others visible, your story can get lost. That’s why I’m so excited to share more about Terry with y’all today, because her role is clearly more than a supporting one. Like so many of us in storytelling, communications and PR, this is the work.

Terry started her career in sales, first in nutritional supplements, then in early enterprise tech, back when “content management” meant scanning checks and storing them on optical drives. When she moved from sales into marketing, everything changed. She found herself shaping how companies showed up in the world and communicating what that meant for stakeholders.

At one company, she developed a tagline so enduring it was eventually licensed and used long after the company itself had been acquired. That moment stuck with her because of what it revealed. She learned through that experience that ideas have value and story is the foundation for any successful business or organization.

Terry’s work evolved from marketing into community-building, something that most marketers do – but Terry started to build and nurture communities in the open source ecosystem where cultural norms vary across diverse and often competitive partners, users, and contributors. She describes her work today as a continuum of conversations across websites, events, newsletters, and social media, all working together to create an exchange.

Terry has a philosophy I hadn’t heard her articulate before: Content is currency. She said that content is what convinces someone to invest, it’s what earns attention, and it’s what creates momentum inside a community, and nowhere is that more visible than in events.

She describes building event experiences not as programming, but as designing for attention. Once someone has spent money to attend, their attention becomes the most valuable thing in the room. Content is what earns it.

“Content is currency. It is what convinces someone to invest, it’s what earns attention, and it’s what creates momentum inside a community, and nowhere is that more visible than in events.”

This is where her work with the R Consortium comes into play. The R Consortium supports the global R ecosystem through technical collaboration, community development, and industry engagement (the R programming language is open source and specifically designed for statistical computing, data analysis, and high-quality graphics). Story Changes Culture has worked with R Consortium for years but recently partnered with Terry to reimagine how the consortium engages its community. The result is an interconnected system designed for engagement and contribution through events, storytelling, and a Quarto-based website.

“The strength of the R ecosystem comes from its community. By sharing stories from R user groups and organizations around the world, we help connect people and highlight the impact R is having in many fields. SCCMC has developed the ability to identify, refine, and communicate the technical and human stories that define the R community.”

When I asked Terry what she’s most excited about right now, her answer lit me up: Stories.

Specifically, the stories of the people inside organizations who are advocating for open source, who are doing the work to bring their companies into the community, often without recognition. She said that from the outside, it’s easy to assume that companies simply decide to participate. But that’s not how it works. It’s individuals who push, advocate, and build the case for why this work matters.

Terry wants to make those people visible. To show that behind every “organization” is a network of humans choosing to invest their time, energy, and influence in something bigger. In doing so, she’s doing what she’s always done: Building the stage.

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Our work with R Consortium is delivered in partnership with Oppkey. You can read a more detailed account of our recent work on their website.