STRATEGIC ADVISOR
The person you call when the conventional solutions haven't worked.
I help leaders and teams make sense of complicated situations, figure out what's getting in the way, and find a path forward. Because sometimes the problem is communications, and sometimes communications reveal something deeper.
SELECT CLIENTS
AARP
AMAZE
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Cancer Society
American Heart Association
CDC
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
#GivingTuesday
Harvard University
Heifer International
Muscular Dystrophy Association
National Conference on Citizenship
Obama for America
Phillips Foundation
Planned Parenthood
WBUR
ZOE
AARP AMAZE American Academy of Pediatrics American Cancer Society American Heart Association CDC Children's Hospital of Philadelphia #GivingTuesday Harvard University Heifer International Muscular Dystrophy Association National Conference on Citizenship Obama for America Phillips Foundation Planned Parenthood WBUR ZOE
The problems I solve
Maybe communications have stalled. Your team is fragmented. Everyone seems to be telling a different story. A strategy is sitting in a drawer. You're trying to launch something important and don't know where to begin. Or maybe you just know that something feels off. Here are some common reasons people call me.
01
“We paid a lot and have nothing to show for it.”
The board approved the budget. The agency pitch was polished. Six months later, the deliverable is a strategy deck sitting in a folder that no one opens. I make space for the reality of that frustration, then build a plan that creates impact and calm.
02
“The CEO is carrying everything on their own.”
CEOs often singularly hold the strategy, funder relationships, and internal tensions. I become a thought partner who knows the full story, can hold the hard parts without flinching, and helps you think out loud without needing to soften the message first.
03
“Our programs and people are deeply siloed.”
Your organization’s work is impactful, but the teams are siloed and the story is fractured. What's broken is upstream — in how the work is understood internally before it's communicated out. I find the connective tissue and build the shared language so you can tell one story.
04
“We know we do good work but don’t know how to tell our story.”
Organizations change over time for lots of reasons, and often times the story gets built piecemeal, with different people telling different parts of the story in different rooms. I take all of the pieces and turn it into one story an outside audience can follow.
Who I am
I’ve been out of the lab for 20 years, but my Ph.D. in music and brain science still informs how I think about information, narrative, and what happens when a story is under tension. Since leaving academia, I've built businesses, brands, campaigns, communities, and communications strategies from scratch. Doing that in hard rooms, under pressure, is why colleagues started calling me The Diplomat.
“The most effective communications professional I have encountered in decades in the field.” —Former client
Does one of the scenarios above sound familiar?
If you've been living with a communication problem the usual fixes haven't solved, I'd be glad to talk. Just an honest conversation about what's not working.
Or email me: christine@christinekoh.com