Solutions By the Movement for the Movement
Cutting-Edge Strategy, Training, and Media Relations for Organizations Building a Better World
Meet Our Team-
Alexa Gelbard
Director
Alexa’s work is driven by a passion for storytelling, a commitment to social justice, and an understanding that the two are intimately connected. Before joining Megaphone, Alexa led communications at Voice of Witness, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the voices of people impacted by injustice. During her time at VOW, Alexa coordinated the national releases of two oral history anthologies addressing criminal justice, migration, and displacement in the U.S., as well as a field guide on storytelling for social justice.
Alexa began her career on the social impact team at Allison + Partners, where she represented a variety of public health and environmental organizations, including the Goldman Environmental Prize, California Tobacco Control Program, Impossible Foods, and Dignity Health. Alexa grew up in Los Angeles and holds a degree in communications from the University of Pennsylvania. -
Aly Ferguson
Communications Associate
Alysha — known by the team as Aly — is a writer, editor, and communicator from Los Angeles County. She graduated with both a B.A. in Narrative Studies and an M.A. in Literary Editing and Publishing from the University of Southern California, where she was an executive producer for a show on USC’s television network and a member of the Multicultural Greek Council. Before joining the Megaphone team, she worked as a copywriter for a creative marketing agency in Seattle. As a biracial woman, Aly believes in being an ally to every and all marginalized communities, not just the ones she is a part of.
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Aprill O. Turner
Senior Director
Aprill O. Turner is a public relations professional with a wealth of experience working with non-profit clients in the areas of political and communication strategy, message development, media training, crisis communications, thought leadership, and public affairs.
She has worked on Capitol Hill in several media capacities, including Press Advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Deputy Press Secretary to Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Communications Director to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of New York. She has led media strategy for several local, Congressional and Senatorial campaigns.
Aprill also founded Turner Communications, LLC, which focuses on cause-related organizations and campaigns. She has worked with organizations such as the Campaign for Youth Justice, The National Association of Black Journalists, Education Post, The Children's Dental Health Project, The National Black MBA Association, Resilience Force, The NAACP, The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and Medgar Evers Center for Law and Social Justice.
Turner holds a bachelor's degree in legal communications from Howard University and a master’s degree in political communication and fundraising from The George Washington University. She is currently completing her dissertation for a Ph.D. in strategic communications at Regent University. She also teaches public relations and communications courses at Montgomery College and Trinity University. -
Cabot Petoia
Senior Communications Strategist
Cabot is a senior communications professional who has worked on a range of issues with a particular focus on worker’s rights and economic justice, health care, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues, and has amplified important fights such as the continued struggle to hold Wall Street accountable and the push for universal health care. They’ve booked and prepped spokespeople for high-profile TV news appearances on 60 Minutes, PBS, and CNN; have written and placed op-eds in a variety of national outlets including The New York Times and Newsweek; and have secured interviews in a variety of print media such as Vox, The Wall Street Journal, The Intercept, and more.
Having seen firsthand as an openly queer person from the rural South that the stories of real people have the power to authentically move our country forward, they’re deeply committed to continuing to uplift voices and issues not traditionally heard in the media. Cabot holds a degree from Emerson College in Political Communications. -
Catalina Velasquez
Co-Founding Principal and Senior Advisor
Catalina is a transgender, refugee, Colombiana Latina and founding board member of Megaphone. As an early leader at Megaphone, she helped imagine, build, and co-run one of the most diverse PR organizations in progressive U.S. politics. Catalina is also also a solopreneur and Managing Principal at Consult Catalina, a diversity consulting firm. Catalina can help you find innovative solutions to your research, communications, and public relations needs, customizing multi-outlet messaging, media, and community organizing strategies based on your personal and institutional goals. Her versatile expertise and skill-set allow her to creatively and comfortably consult on a wide range of diversity issues, messaging strategies, reputational risks, teaching endeavors, curriculum development, and speaking projects.
In the past several years, Catalina helped create the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP) at United We DREAM and worked with organizations such as End Rape on Campus, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, the AFL-CIO, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Catalina was the first transgender immigrant Latina appointed as a Commissioner for the D.C. Office of Latino Affairs from December 2013 to June 2017, and she was also hand-picked by the 2016 Bernie Sanders Presidential Campaign to join the Vermont U.S. Senator's LGBT Policy team, which led to her recognition by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of “16 Young Americans Shaping the 2016 Election” and one of Mitu’s “Young Latinos that are Leaving a Footprint in Politics.” Catalina is the recipient of the 2017 Women of Excellence Award from the DC Mayor Bowser Office of Women Affairs and the 2017 Advocacy Award by the Latino GLBT History Project.
Catalina is fluent in Spanish and English, and an experienced political analyst, social justice organizer, and feminist teacher. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, a Master’s degree in Feminist Studies from the University of Washington, and is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies also at the University of Washington--Seattle.
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Danielle Ceribo
Operations Manager
Danielle Ceribo is a queer, nonbinary mixed-race Filipinx Pacific Islander, a social justice advocate and activist who believes intersectionality is essential to understanding and embracing difference, and Operations Manager at Megaphone Strategies. Their 15-plus years of operations experience include roles as: Operations Coordinator at Promise54, Executive and Operations Assistant at Bellwether Education Partners, Executive Assistant for Cambridge Research Group, Graduate Financial Aid Assistant at Boston University, and Banquets Office Assistant at La Costa Resort and Spa. Danielle holds a BS in Foods and Nutrition from San Diego State University and a MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University (you could call them a foodie, but they aren't much for labels). They consider Guam and California as two of their homes, and currently reside in Washington, D.C.
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Jacqueline Lara
Senior Director
Jacqueline Lara is a Senior Director at Megaphone Strategies and prides herself on advocating for unheard voices of the community. She has worked in progressive public relations for more than a decade and was a contributing writer covering the intersection of arts and social justice for Adobe’s 99U, Adobe Create Magazine, i-D Magazine, OkayAfrica, and mater mea. Jacqueline’s distinctive approach has resulted in broadcast and print coverage that includes op-eds and interviews in The New York Times, CNN.com International, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Code Switch,” Salon.com, ESSENCE Magazine, Advocate.com, and Communication Arts Magazine. She got her start at Fenton Communications, and has provided strategic media support to She the People, Community Voices Heard, Working Films, Living Cities, New American Leaders, and Collective PAC. She is a proud graduate of University of Maryland, an alumni of the Urban Bush Women's Summer Leadership Intensive, and 2017 alumni of THREAD at Yale: Storytelling in Modern Media.
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Kenrya Rankin
Senior Advisor
Kenrya Rankin is an award-winning author, journalist and editorial consultant who creates and shapes dynamic, high-impact content that amplifies the lived experiences, advocacy and work of people of color and shifts the narrative around who deserves liberation, justice, joy, and dignity in America. A 20-year veteran in the editorial space, Kenrya's insight has been tapped by leading media outlets such as the New York Times, the Huffington Post and ThinkProgress, and her work has been published in dozens of outlets and translated into 21 languages. She's also the author of five books, including How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance and Anti-Racism: Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas. Kenrya earned her undergraduate degree in journalism from Howard University and her master's degree in publishing from New York University. She is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, and currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
Photo Credit: Kea Dupree Photography -
Kira Goldenberg
Senior Advisor
Kira Goldenberg has more than a decade of journalism and communications experience, specializing in op-eds. She has worked at The Guardian, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Massive Science, and with LPAC, Out Leadership, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, among others. She is a volunteer mentor-editor for the Op-Ed Project.
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Louie Tan Vital
Communications Associate
Louie Tan Vital is a Filpina American poet, community organizer, and graduate of the Master of Public Administration program at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. She has recently worked for the Washington State House of Representatives and the United States House of Representatives. At the intersections of migration, diasporic trauma, and bodily politics, Louie has dedicated her life to fighting for racially-equitable public policy and harnessing performance arts as a means for political activism. Her words have appeared in TVW, the Smithsonian, The Filipino Channel, Yahoo News, and various news and radio outlets in America and the Philippines.
Louie also gives workshops, lectures, and speeches on race in public policy, culturally-competent civic engagement, diasporic narratives, and combating anti-blackness racism in the Asian Pacific Islander community. You can find her poetry in TAYO Literary Magazine. Ultimately, Louie seeks to uplift all marginalized communities through political advocacy and eventually elected office while remaining true to herself, her community, and her ancestors. -
Molly Haigh
Founder and Managing Partner
Molly founded Megaphone in 2016 with Van Jones, and now co-leads the firm as a Managing Partner. She has led winning communications efforts for dozens of state and national social justice organizations and political campaigns.
Molly specializes in transforming big progressive ideas into a practical reality and unknown voices into national names through storytelling, narrative benchmarks, and targeted media campaigning. She is an alum of FitzGibbon Media, PCCC, 350.org, and numerous local and national Democratic campaigns including Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential race. Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, she got her start as a community organizer on LGBTQ rights. -
Nicholas L. Hatcher
Communications Strategist
Nicholas is passionate about amplifying activists working on critical issues like LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant justice, racial equity, and disability justice. Their background is in student organizing and they began working at the intersection of activism and communications with the University of North Carolina's Center for Social Justice. They also serve on the boards of the East Coast Asian American Student Union and Act to Change, two nonprofits focused on empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander youth.
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Shai Vaz
Intern
Shai is an aspiring communications consultant and women's rights advocacy leader. She has worked with clients such as TIME's UP Legal Defense Fund, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and other nonprofits supporting equity within marginalized communities. Shai is passionate about black liberation, LGBTQ rights, sex work reform, and immigration policy.
Shai is a New York native and first-generation Jamaican-American. She is a communications graduate from the illustrious Howard University and is currently completing her master's program in strategic public relations at George Washington University. -
Zainab Chaudary
Senior Advisor
