Robert Griendling

I write for food--most gratifyingly for entrepreneurs and progressive and/or community organizations. Progressive ideas – those based fundamentally on the premise that as a society we have some obligation to each other to maintain health, opportunity and a sense of security – have fallen not necessarily out of favor, but due to inarticulate or fretful "leaders," on deaf ears.

The certain meanness, intolerance and selfishness that characterizes much of our political discourse has driven a wedge between what used to be thoughtful conservatives and progressives about how we maintain the greatest society in the world.

I have been involved in grassroots organizing in my community. I was co-founder of RENEW, advocating for school renovation, and its spin-off, RENEW Virginia Schools, a political action committee that was active in the Virginia House and Senate races. I have worked for a couple of candidates, though none recently.

Before starting my firm, Griendling Communications, in 1989, I was a journalist and radio producer, and for a short time, a federal worker.

I live in Fairfax, Va, a suburb of Washington, DC, and spend some time in Colorado. I'm both a jazz and baseball fan, neither of which I play all that well. I'm married with three adult children.