Strategy first. Always.
What We Do
Strategic Advisory & Planning
For leaders who want a strategic partner in the room — not another vendor on the call. We help you think through complex challenges, align leadership around a direction, and build plans that your team can actually execute. We stay in as advisors - not to do the heavy lifting, but to make sure the work stays on strategy.
Stakeholder & Engagement Strategy
When your success depends on how key stakeholders respond — employees, regulators, communities, investors, partners — we help you map that landscape clearly and engage it intentionally. Stakeholder strategy isn't a communications function. It's a business function.
What it looks like
Issues, Risk & Reputation Management
High-stakes environments require senior judgment, not just a crisis playbook.
We work with leadership teams to anticipate challenges, prepare thoughtful responses, and protect what you’ve built - without losing credibility in the process.
Hospital system strategy for aggressive payor negotiations and out-of-network scenarios
Real estate developer stakeholder and community relations strategy for a new development
Consumer brand go-to-market shift requiring internal alignment before external execution
Provider group navigation of complex healthcare finance policy changes — value-based care, reference-based pricing, No Surprises Act
Nonprofit capital campaign strategy and thought leadership positioning
Community engagement strategy for a new behavioral health facility — building trust and getting ahead of opposition before announcement
Energy company community relations and stakeholder engagement around a new facility
Health system employer engagement strategy — strengthening relationships with benefits decision-makers
Preserving patient trust during turbulent federal policy shifts — vaccine policy, ACIP uncertainty
Stakeholder research and message testing to understand what key audiences actually think
Reputational exposure from employee issues, leadership transitions, and restructuring
Product recall and supply disruption for a consumer/manufacturing company
Crisis response for an energy company with compressed timelines and complex regulatory stakes
High-profile payor dispute playing out publicly — coordinating negotiation and communications strategy
Financial services or nonprofit reputational risk from leadership change or public scrutiny
Celebrity and influencer vetting before campaign commitments
How We Partner
We’re not a traditional agency. We don’t show up with a team of junior staff and a retainer full of deliverables.
We show up as a senior partner - embedded in your leadership thinking, accessible when it matters, and focused entirely on outcomes that serve your business.
Every engagement is different - because every organization’s challenge is different. But most of what we do falls into one of three models. Sometimes it’s a combination of all three. In every model, you're working directly with me — with trusted partners brought in when the work calls for it.
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Ongoing strategic counsel without the overhead of a full-time hire
Some leaders need a senior strategic partner in their corner on an ongoing basis - someone who knows their business, understands their stakeholder landscape, and is available when the moment calls for clear thinking and candid counsel.
This is a retainer relationship. I become a consistent presence in your leadership thinking - available for strategic conversations, planning sessions, and the moments when something unexpected lands on your desk and you need a trusted thought partner before you decide how to respond.
It’s not a project. It’s not a scope of work. It’s the kind of relationship where you can pick up the phone and say, “here’s what I’m looking at - what am I missing?”
This model works especially well for organizations that have capable internal teams but lack senior strategic leadership at the stakeholder or advisory level - and don’t need (or can’t justify) a full-time executive hire to fill that gap.
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Defined scope, clear deliverables, built for your team
Sometimes you have a specific challenge in front of you - a major initiative, an organizational change, a market entry, a reputational moment - and you need a strategic plan built around it before your team starts executing.
This is a defined engagement with a clear beginning, middle, and end. We start by getting deeply oriented in your business challenge, your organizational dynamics, and your stakeholder environment. From there, I build a strategic plan - that is grounded in research as well as your actual resources and designed for your team to own and execute.
I stay on as an advisor through implementation. Not to do the work for you, but to make sure the work stays on strategy - and to help your team navigate the moments when reality doesn’t follow the plan.
The goal is always a plan your organization can execute well, with confidence, without being dependent on outside resources to carry it across the finish line. (But if that’s the need, we take care of that.)
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Senior counsel when the environment shifts fast
High-stakes situations don’t follow a schedule. When something unexpected surfaces - a regulatory challenge, a reputational threat, a leadership transition gone sideways, a stakeholder relationship under strain - the quality of your response in the first hours and days matters enormously.
This model is for organizations that need senior judgment, fast. I work alongside leadership to assess the situation clearly, identify the real risks (not just the visible ones), develop a response strategy, and help you engage with the stakeholders that matter most - employees, regulators, media, community, board - in a way that protects your credibility and keeps your long-term interests intact.
We also work with organizations proactively — identifying the issues most likely to surface, mapping out response scenarios, and building the internal alignment and external positioning you need so that when something does hit, you're one step ahead instead of two steps behind.
I’ve worked in enough of these environments to know that the instinct to move fast and say something is often the wrong one. The work here is about thinking clearly under pressure, not responding quickly.
The most forward thinking leaders often ask me to identify the issues most likely to surface, map out response scenarios, and build the internal alignment and external positioning needed so that when an issue hits, they are one step ahead instead of two steps behind.