Jessie Landerman

Dynamic problem-solver blending research, capacity-building, and narrative change

Motivated by her belief in collaborative, interdisciplinary problem-solving, Jessie manages research, advocacy, communications, and strategy initiatives that drive innovative solutions forward. A skilled relationship builder, she fosters cooperation among academics, funders, researchers, and other stakeholders to uncover new insights for social change.

Drawing on her background in cultural anthropology and documentary filmmaking, Jessie thinks strategically about the aims of various stakeholder audiences, leveraging storytelling as a tool for impact and innovation through advocacy campaigns and community engagement. Colleagues rely on her ability to break down problems into smaller parts and translate complex information into actionable solutions.

Offering ideas that help link strategy to mission, Jessie delivers results for clients while elevating the voices, power, and expertise of the communities they serve. As a team leader, she synthesizes the needs and motivations of others and moves strongly towards shared goals. With extensive grassroots experience building communications capacity for NGO staff, Jessie brings a strong commitment to advancing equity and social justice to all her work.

At TCC Group:

• ViiV Healthcare:
  • Jessie provides strategic counsel and creative insight to improve the lives of people most affected by HIV at the national and local level. She manages several prevention and community-giving portfolios for the HIV-focused healthcare company, partnering with organizations across the U.S. to strengthen and sustain their work. Helping to manage a multi-million-dollar giving portfolio that breaks down isolation and stigma for women of color living with HIV and supports plans that link women to networks of care, Jessie collects insights and feedback from grantee networks in order to help build the leadership and visibility of women living with HIV, amplify their voices and invest in their communities.
  • As an evaluator, Jessie builds innovations that prioritize insights, learning, and the needs and capacities of front-lines communities and community-based organizations. After listening closely to grantees about how they measure stigma related to HIV, she informed a cross-program evaluation framework that is both participatory and adaptable to a range of organizational capacities.
  • Synthesizing community feedback to translate it into strategies, Jessie helps develop cultural and arts programming to reframe the HIV epidemic and make systems more responsive to people of color, youth, and LGBTQ populations. This includes the design and implementation of communications and arts-based initiatives that change the narrative around HIV—reframing risk, elevating the voices and experiences of people living with HIV, and generating the urgency to act with and for those most affected.

Before TCC Group:

• New Media Advocacy Project: Jessie managed multi-year social change campaigns that utilized digital platforms and narrative framing techniques to help foundations and non-profits advance public health, environmental protection, economic development, and gender equality on four continents. Her work helped secure the release of political prisoners, pass criminal justice reform measures, and strengthen grassroots movements for environmental justice. She provided direct training in advocacy strategy, storytelling and audience engagement to non-profits and activists, and helped launch a media advocacy mentorship program for emerging leaders in the former Soviet Union.
• Colombian National Ministry of Information and Communications Technology: Jessie conducted comprehensive research to help inform the Ministry’s strategy for gender inclusion, including site visits and interviews with indigenous rights groups, domestic violence support centers, technology service providers, digital literacy trainers and academic experts. Her original research was published in the 2015 essay collection Transatlantic Perspectives on Diplomacy and Diversity and identified key facilitators to unlock the potential of technology for development, including trained digital educators, empowered intermediaries, and customized local solutions.

Education:

• Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
  • MA, Public Policy
• Wesleyan University
  • BA with Honors, Cultural Anthropology