Transform ideas into action.
We help corporations, NGOs, and public figures shape narratives to influence the audiences who matter most.
Services
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS & REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
There’s a difference between telling a good story and telling the right story, and understanding that nuance can make or break your public influence. We deliver campaign-style strategy to effectively shape public perception and strengthen—or repair—your credibility among the audiences who matter most. From long-term positioning to high-stakes messaging, we’ll work closely with you and your communications teams to create a strategy that seamlessly fits your existing operations (and actually gets used).
CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS & SCENARIO PLANNING
Whether you’re preparing for what could go wrong or dealing with what already has, we’ll bring clarity, credibility, and narrative control to protect and strengthen your reputation. We’ve successfully guided political leaders, global corporations, and NGOs through public scandals, global media firestorms, and catastrophic PR failures—always with an eye toward turning risk into opportunity.
INTERNAL REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Internal reputation can be just as important as external, and it's often far more fragile. When employee morale takes a hit, we help reestablish trust, reset narratives, and reinforce confidence across your teams. Working with your HR and internal comms teams, we’ll guide you through leadership transitions, reorganizations, employee unrest, and other sensitive shifts to restore a sense of stability and retain top talent.
MEDIA & MESSAGE TRAINING
You already know your work. We’ll help you talk about it in a way that resonates with the audiences who need to hear it. Based on more than 20 years of experience on the record with top-tier journalists, influencing the news of the day, and preparing everyone from Fortune 100 executives to global political leaders, our custom trainings help you and your team elevate your delivery to confidently and effectively tell your story.
STRATEGIC COUNSEL
Our strategic counsel retainers offer high-level, on-call support that’s quick, incisive, and deeply strategic. We work directly with executives, founders, communications teams, and agency partners to bring sharp, external perspective rooted in 2 decades of experience advising political leaders, global corporations, and nonprofits.
About Chrysalis Communications
Chrysalis is the stage in metamorphosis when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Inside the chrysalis, it undergoes a cellular reorganization transforming its existing parts into a new form, allowing it to realize its true self and take flight.
At Chrysalis Communications, we work with individuals and organizations to reshape their narratives by identifying, framing, and telling their existing stories in a purposeful and strategic way—preparing and guiding them through the next stage of their business or reputational journey.
From message development to reputation management to comprehensive communications strategies and everything between, we provide clients the exact tools they need to transform their public image, their ideas into action, and their crises into opportunities.
Jennifer Kohl
Founder
Recognized by the Washington Post as one of D.C.’s “top image-makers,” Jen has nearly two decades of experience behind some of the most transformative individuals and moments of our time.
She’s served as a key strategist for U.S. and global leaders, corporations, and advocacy campaigns, from electing the first African Director-General of the World Health Organization to saving lives by raising awareness of the deadly Takata airbag recall.
Jen oversaw communications in a top battleground state for President Barack Obama’s reelection and served in his executive branch as the strategic communications advisor to FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg.
She also led communications for Nobel Peace Prize nominee and celebrity chef José Andrés and his three dozen restaurants at José Andrés Group during a period of explosive growth for both.
Earlier in her career on Capitol Hill, she developed the strategy that elevated Congressman Elijah Cummings into a leading figure on oversight and the economy, and she served as a spokesperson on national security issues for Democrats as the communications director for the House Armed Services Committee.
Over the years, Jen built and led a media relations team of 45 people, led progressive issues campaigns and insights-driven corporate brand and reputation campaigns, and generated attention for her clients in every major Western print and broadcast media outlet, along with hundreds of regional and local outlets throughout the U.S., South America, Africa, and Europe.
Jen currently lives in Paris and works with clients in the U.S., Europe, and Central America. She can often be found ordering the entire dessert menu (and occasionally attempting to recreate it at home).
Our work
We bring deep expertise and strategic thinking to create campaigns that help clients reach the next stage of their business or reputational goals. Here's a selection of who we've worked with (past and present).
Contact us
We'd love to stay in touch! Email us at info@chrysaliscomms.com and join our mailing list below.