Collaborators

What Alexis loves to do — and what she does best — is support those who are accomplishing extraordinary feats. She first developed this skill as a network television producer for CBS Atlanta, Turner, and Speedvision.

Feeling that those feats weren’t quite extraordinary enough, she turned her attention to the theatre, working as a stage manager and joining Actors’ Equity Association. Having managed everything from actors to chickens, Alexis then transitioned to nonprofit administration.

Alexis spent close to a decade as a development director, raising millions of dollars for causes she believes in, before pursuing an independent career as a nonprofit operations guru. She is now proud to head up operations for LightBox Collaborative.

A southern transplant to the left coast, Alexis lives in Oakland with her husband, son, and a sweet Mexican rescue dog. She currently serves on the boards of the Glenview Elementary PTA and Integrated Community Services, who forges partnerships between individuals with disabilities and our community to create a diverse and inclusive place for us all.

When not working, she can often be found at the barn riding her favorite warmbloods or at the dojang working on her poomsae. She holds a B.A. in journalism and a M.A. in nonprofit management from the University of Georgia.

Alicia Walters is a dreamer and creator uplifting and engaging people in a generative conversation around how we get free. Alicia helps build effective movements from the inside out through transformative facilitation, writing and creating art that shifts narratives and culture. She has worked with organizations and institutions across the United States to transform their internal cultures, clarify their strategies and communications and develop innovative programs, campaigns and artistic works that stretch people's imaginations and sense of possibility. Alicia has spent 20 years centering the needs, visions and gifts of Black women and women of color toward liberation. She is the visionary and creator of the Black Thought Project, which creates sanctuaries for Black expression, facilitating interactive art installations that have engaged thousands of Black people about their experiences and visions of a world where they are truly safe and free. Combining her skills in facilitation, cross-movement collaboration and creative direction, Alicia was facilitator and co-creator of the Black Future Newsstand and creative director and author of WHOLE: a Vision for Abortion Freedom. She has authored legislation that ended the shackling of pregnant incarcerated women in California, led research on the impact of incarceration on families, and organized for full access to reproductive healthcare, among many other issues. Alicia served as the Movement Building Director at Forward Together where she managed the Strong Families Network of over 200 organizations and created Echoing Ida to raise Black women and nonbinary writers’ power, influence, presence and storytelling in the media. Her clients and collaborations include All* Above All, ACLU, Black Cultural Zone, East Bay Community Foundation, Essie Justice Group, MediaJustice, If/When/How, Forward Together, Free Press, Race Forward, Media 2070, Tipping Point, YWCA and Wakanda Dream Lab, among many others. She and her work have been featured in numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, Ebony and TIME.

Amanda fantasizes about winning the lottery (which is extra funny because she doesn’t buy tickets), but in every post-win fantasy, she continues to do the same work she does now! She loves her clients and their projects and takes pride in helping them reach new heights, whether it’s winning a national campaign, nailing a presentation or interview, or crafting a persuasive message. Amanda is particularly proud of her long-term relationships with clients such as the Transgender Law Center, the Kataly Foundation, and State Voices.

Amanda came to consulting with more than fifteen years of experience working with organizations in labor, legal rights, children’s services, and food insecurity. She has placed thousands of stories in every medium of the mainstream press and has created buzz for her campaigns in social and progressive media. She revolutionized the training of worker spokespeople, bringing them inside the strategy so they became more focused, passionate, and effective.

Amanda serves on the Board of NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) and previously the Guttmacher Institute. She founded NYC Progressive Public Relations Professionals and is a founding member of the RadComms Network. She co-authored a chapter in Liberation Stories and is a contributor to Think Big: Abundance in Narrative, and “Loud and Clear in an Election Year”

Amanda’s tenure as a dancer with Big Moves helped her realize a bucket list goal she never knew she had: playing fat Rizzo in the emFATic Dance reinvention of Grease. She lives and tap dances in the East Bay of California.

Anna is a senior communications strategist, trainer, and conflict navigator with more than 25 years of experience elevating good ideas and forging beneficial connections across a range of issues, organizations, and sectors. As a trainer, she is passionate about demystifying strategic communications and helping every participant see themselves as a communications leader, regardless of their title. A keen editor and vivid storyteller, Anna is known for writing that draws readers in and moves them to act. She also helps individuals and organizations strengthen feedback loops, skillfully navigate conflict, and foster trust to unlock team potential.

As a communications consultant since 2015, Anna has partnered with nonprofits, philanthropies, and social enterprises to advance a healthier, more connected, and more just society. She is extremely proud of the work she did at the social justice communications firm Change Communications to advance racial justice messaging principles and take a decolonized approach to traditional nonprofit communications capacity building. Some of her previous, current, and repeat clients include the Levi Strauss Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, Brookings Workforce of the Future, Nourish California, Childcare Law Center, Alameda County Community Food Bank, Center for Youth Wellness, San Mateo Heath Systems, California Wellness Foundation, and Numi Tea.

Before becoming a consultant, Anna led communications for national nonprofits focused on economic development, sustainable and equitable food policy, and community organizing. Before that, she worked with filmmakers, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, and corporations as an agency consultant and in-house executive. Anna lives in San Francisco with her beautiful bi-racial, queer, blended family and spends as much time as possible biking, beaching, and hiking with Athena, the sweetest little rescue dog on the planet.

Catherine is a creative communications professional with an unrelenting passion for supporting purpose-driven people, organizations, and initiatives, helping them be the force for good they want to be in the world. She’s been serving the non-profit, philanthropic, public health, environmental, educational, and social science sectors for nearly 20 years in a variety of in-house and consulting roles. She is the founder and strategist for ColorThisWorld Communications, a purpose-driven, creative communications consultancy helping people and organizations advance their cause and articulate their purpose in a clear, compelling manner that connects with audiences and brings their unique story to life.

As a visual designer, writer, and musician with an education in theology, religion, and cultural studies, Catherine brings a deep understanding for how people’s spiritual and cultural orientations operate beneath the surface of our daily interactions and influence how we find meaning and connection with one another. Her communications abilities stretch from the tactical to the strategic. Her work spans everything from developing brand platforms and communications strategies for organizations and activating audiences on broad public health and environmental campaigns to engaging audiences through multimedia communications — graphic design and visual storytelling, writing op-eds, producing videos, creating brand identities, developing and maintaining websites, composing and performing music, and more. She has earned her accreditation in public relations (APR).

When not enmeshed in the virtual world of her computer, Catherine can be found adventuring through the more tactile world around her. She enjoys running, bicycling, hiking, culinary adventures, and making music with her husband. She is a regular practitioner of meditation and yoga. And she makes killer pies.

Claudette Silver's work blends progressive politics with art, music and popular culture.

For the past 20 years, Claudette has worked on message development, fundraising, strategic communications and event production for clients such as Welcoming America, Forward Together, ACLU of Northern California, Deep Center, and Animating Democracy, among others.

With a strong emphasis on using events and public performances to deliver the message, Claudette creates cause-related communication strategies that reflect the individual needs of each client. From planning a post-Katrina benefit concert for The New Yorker to designing get-out-the-vote events for Gloria Steinem during presidential election years, Claudette creates compelling cause-related campaigns that tell the story effectively and with integrity.

Claudette is also interested in the connection between thriving local economies and healthy communities, and she is a past steering committee member of the Asheville Grown Business Alliance.

Prior to her foray into communications strategy and public event production, Claudette received her B.A. in design from the American University and taught art in the D.C. public school system. While she’s never been asked to prove this, Claudette boasts that she can sing every word to the Jesus Christ, Superstar soundtrack. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Deborah (she/her) has been a nonprofit consultant for over a decade, helping nonprofits increase their visibility and impact through ethical storytelling and strategic communications.

Previously she led communications at Thousand Currents, the international grantmaking organization that supports community-led initiatives in the Global South. She also has a background in documentary news production and brings a journalistic lens to her work.
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Her specialties include writing about social issues from an intersectional perspective—and a proven track record in the creative and strategic use of digital platforms.

As a communications strategist, she advises on and implements digital strategies related to storytelling, website development, email list growth, social media engagement, and messaging. A deep commitment to movement building guides her consulting practice.

Deborah is based in Alameda, California, where you can find her chasing after her two sons or biking around the island.

Eliza (she/they) believes that stories have the ability to transform and connect us. Well-crafted stories help us imagine and work towards a more liberated world. Eliza comes to LightBox as a designer and communications organizer with over a decade of community organizing experience. They continue to be deeply rooted and involved in community-led movements for social justice. With a background in environmental justice, she’s spent the last seven years fighting for decarceration with organizations like the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Ahimsa Collective, and Me Too Behind Bars. Their grounding in community work allows her to develop community-responsive communications strategies and craft messaging like an organizer. Her words and visuals compel diverse audiences to take action.

As a consultant, she integrates her diverse political and professional experiences to invigorate projects and catapult organizations’ impact to the next level. They work in digital, print and web mediums and utilizes creative illustration, captivating messaging, and strong layout to communicate ideas boldly and accessibly. Both a strategic thinker and a skilled project manager, Eliza balances big-picture visioning, collaborative process, and acute attention to the nitty-gritty details. She values relationship building at every stage of shared work and is attuned to both the needs of her clients and their audiences.

She’s honored to have worked on a recurring basis with organizations doing critical political work including the National Lawyers Guild, Young Women’s Freedom Center, the Stable Homes for Oregon Families coalition, and International Rivers. They live with their partner and two ever-so-perfect and quirky cats.

Erin is passionate about supporting movement organizations to effectively tell their stories. She loves supporting organizations to sharpen their communications strategy as well as building the teams, knowledge and systems necessary to create the most effective communications. She does that through supporting recruiting, training and coaching, as well as facilitation.

Erin has over 20 years of experience as a communications practitioner and over seven as a senior leader in nonprofits and foundations. She has experience working with unions, universities, nonprofits, and foundations and on issues as wide ranging as workers’ rights, reproductive justice, gender justice, housing, disability justice, and racial justice. She’s worked internationally and across multiple languages. Her recent clients as a consultant include Morehouse College’s International Comparative Labor Studies program and CUNY’s Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice Fellowship program.

Her most recent organizational post was as Director of Communications for Foundation for a Just Society. Before FJS, Erin was the communications director at Forward Together, a national reproductive justice organization for five years where she oversaw all aspects of the organization’s communications and developed strategies to spread Forward Together’s message of empowering families with the rights, recognition, and resources they need to thrive.

Prior to her work in the gender and reproductive justice movements, Erin came from the labor movement where she worked as a communicator for 1199SEIU and the Committee of Interns and Residents. As a seasoned communications strategist, she has led communications campaigns to win paid sick days and living wage legislation, secure affordable housing, keep hospitals open, secure strong union contracts, and provide medical relief in Haiti. Erin has previous experience as an organizer working to build union and community coalitions in the Bronx and Newark, organizing tenants at the University of California-San Diego, and as an educator fighting for access to higher education and the retention of underrepresented students.

When not nerding out on the latest trends in communications strategy, you can find her in her garden, on the dance floor, or roaming the streets of New York with her camera.

Holly has spent her entire career helping do-gooders do better. She launched the LightBox Collaborative to harness fresh talent operating in an increasingly networked world.

Her work has been honored by the Council on Foundations for Excellence in Public Policy Communications. Holly was named by PR News as a creative practitioner in the industry. She was editor of “Loud and Clear in an Election Year,” a guidebook created to help nonprofits convey their messages in the crowded election environment. She is a frequent speaker for nonprofit and academic audiences alike, and her efforts to launch the LightBox Collaborative were featured in Chris Guillebeau’s book The $100 Start Up.

Holly co-created and for 20 years led The SPIN Academy. This important communications training and talent-development effort grew out of the SPIN Project, of which Holly was director.

Holly’s experience also includes her work at Spitfire Strategies, where she created communications programs for grantees of the nation’s largest foundations. Holly started out as press secretary for the Sierra Club, alternately doing battle with and cozying up to the Washington, D.C. press corps. She was primary contact for the national media, and created national, regional and local campaigns.

Holly serves on the board of directors of the Center for Artistic Activism; she has previously served on the boards of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Center for a New American Dream, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, and the Green Media Toolshed.

Because she wanted to be an English teacher when she grew up, Holly holds a B.A. in English literature and language from the University of Southern California. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Irene loves listening closely for language, narratives and strategies that will spark movement for social justice and human rights. In recent years, this has taken the form of partnering with clients such as the Center for Racial Justice in Education, Change Elemental, Prospera—International Network of Women’s Funds, If/When/How, Provide, and PEAK Grantmaking to craft communications strategies and messaging for rebranding efforts and campaigns.

Irene is also drawn to the challenge of solving complex research problems and writing and editing for a wide range of audiences. Over the years, she has contributed to a number of publications, from annual reports and activist profiles, to in-depth investigations of LGBTQI social movements and Indigenous women’s health and human rights.

Before becoming a consultant, Irene worked for the Ms. Foundation for Women where she led a communications capacity-building program for grantees and spearheaded communications investments in areas such as health care reform and child sexual abuse prevention. Prior to Ms., she worked for MADRE where she conducted research, public education, and press outreach on US foreign policy and gender justice in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. As a former dancer and graduate student of dance and politics, Irene believes deeply in the unique power of the arts and artists to ignite social change.

Irene lives in Brooklyn, NY, her home for many years, and is proud to hail from the Land of 10,000 (though in truth, so many more!) Lakes.

Isobel’s life’s work is to bring progressive ideals into the mainstream.

She’s a seasoned strategist with deep experience designing and carrying out multifaceted communications campaigns. She’s also a writer, editor, and publicist, seeking out and amplifying stories that shape a compelling agenda for change. And she’s a skilled collaborator, trainer, and project manager, building progressive infrastructure and boosting communications capacity of grassroots organizations.

Isobel has led communications campaigns for Justice for Janitors, the ACLU of Northern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Mi Familia Vota, in each case using strategic communications to further an agenda for justice.

Her diverse array of recent clients include the Center for Artistic Activism, Sierra Health Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with whom she has worked on multiple early education projects.

Isobel’s academic background – including a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University and an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA – provides her with just enough understanding of policyspeak to translate it into language that resonates with grassroots constituents and journalists.

Isobel leads a Solidarity Sundays chapter and is a newly minted California Climate Steward. When she’s not writing, pitching, or strategizing, Isobel can be found cultivating native plants and equanimity in equal measure.

Janine Shimomura is a strategic communications expert with a background in legislative and statewide advocacy. She works with organizations, institutes, and foundations to develop strategies that advance their agendas and communicate impact. Janine has worked with Golden State Opportunity, Latina Futures 2050 Lab, the Sierra Health Foundation, UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies, UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Institute, and others to develop media strategy and create narrative change.

Prior to consulting, she drove communications strategy for the ACLU's legislative priorities in California. Before the ACLU, Janine worked as assistant director of strategy for Gov. Gavin Newsom, where she coordinated message development and strategic planning, and developed statewide portals for emergency response. While there, Janine also served as a strategic advisor to California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, amplifying her vision for the newly created office that works to address toxic stress and promote health equity across the state. Before her work in the Newsom Administration, she served as special assistant for communications at the California State Transportation Agency, helping oversee public affairs at eight state departments and working on the successful passage of the largest transportation revenue increase in California in more than 25 years. She also served as a research and press aide to then-Attorney General Kamala D. Harris.

Janna A. Zinzi (also known as jaz) is a strategist and storyteller using language and performance to uplift the voices and stories of people of color, especially women and gender non-conforming people. She has over a decade of experience in strategic communications and public relations working with social justice organizations and advocates, artists and entrepreneurs. Janna has worked with Black Lives Matter, Forward Together, Color of Change, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the Guttmacher Institute and others providing media strategy and training, op-ed writing, and organizational assessment. She loves to train advocates and activists in speaking with media and telling their stories powerfully and succinctly.

Janna is also a travel, arts, culture content creator sharing stories about domestic and international adventures. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, The Daily Beast and The Root; and she also writes for the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Equal Voices News. She also uses dance to challenge stereotypes and explore themes of artistic expression, race and feminism, and will be leading sensual movement workshops based on her studies of burlesque as a liberatory practice.

She is currently based in Los Angeles but loves being on the road as a global citizen.

Meena believes that the answers are inside of you, and they just need to be brought up to the surface. Communications can be a rigorous field of work, and it is often undervalued. In her work, Meena seeks to uplift communications professionals by providing the training, coaching and strategic direction they need to achieve their goals.

For the past decade, Meena has explored digital strategy with social justice groups. As a nonprofit consultant she has worked on a variety of issue areas—from foster youth empowerment to climate change. She facilitates organizations in developing a strategy for digital communications, and trains staff on best practices and tools to effectively communicate their campaigns to their audience. She has also grown into becoming a professional coach, working with communications professionals to sort through the chaos and approach their jobs in a mindful way.

Meena built her unique organizing and strategic expertise during her time at Greenpeace USA, where she ultimately managed all of the nonprofit’s social media assets. As the Email Engagement Manager for Amnesty International USA, she managed the email marketing for 1.6 million human rights advocates in the United States. And most recently at a new project of Climate Nexus called the Water Hub, she co-built a brand and training program from scratch that supports the water justice movement in the West.

Aside from work, Meena loves to cook and hopes to one day write recipes from her culinary diasporas. She also tends to her thriving plants and creates plant medicine for herself and for her friends.

Trina Stout’s life work is to be a part of the transition from systems of domination and oppression to systems of collaboration and care. She believes we can build a world where everyone belongs and everyone’s needs are met. Where all people enjoy lives free from violence. She knows that getting there will require reshaping the public imagination--massive shifts in the stories at the heart of our cultures.

She looks to the wisdom of Gloria Anzaldúa: "Empowerment comes from ideas—our revolution is fought with concepts, not with guns, and it is fueled by vision. By focusing on what we want to happen we change the present. The healing images and narratives we imagine will eventually materialize."

Trina is a communications strategist for social good. She crafts strategies--and stories--to help clients change minds, policies, and behavior. Increasingly, she is interested in changing narratives and culture too.

During her career, Trina has provided communications services for academic institutions, coalitions, foundations, government agencies, nonprofits, and policy/advocacy organizations. Trina holds a M.A. in Public Communication from American University in Washington, DC, and a B.A. in Economics from Pomona College in Claremont, CA. She is grateful to call Southern Oregon home.