Photo by stanley45
About Chrysalis Communications
Chrysalis is both the stage and the mechanism in metamorphosis where a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Under intense pressure, the caterpillar reorganizes its existing parts, transforming its identity and taking flight.
Chrysalis Communications was founded on the same principle: reshaping how you connect strategy, communication, and decisions under pressure to transform your public image — whether it’s to create (or contain) a social movement, win an election, or pivot from a public misstep.
Led by veteran strategist Jennifer Kohl, with a trusted network of senior partners to bring in if needed, Chrysalis is small by design. Strategy isn’t outsourced to junior staff, and time isn’t eaten up by internal meetings or decks you’ll only open once.
Jen works directly with your executive leadership, communications team, and most essential partners — your board, your PR firms, your coalitions — to adapt what you’re already doing in real time.
Using an approach she calls the Filament Effect ™, she strategically threads what’s happening internally, externally, and ten steps out so everything you say and do ties back to long-term positioning.
“
Transformation isn't about becoming something new; it's about revealing what was always possible.
-Jennifer Kohl, CEO
”
Jennifer Kohl
CEO
President Barack Obama. World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros. Nobel Peace Prize nominee Chef José Andrés. Jen Kohl has shaped how the world has seen some of the most transformative figures of our time.
Recognized by The Washington Post as one of D.C.’s “top image-makers,” Jen has spent two decades working across politics, government, philanthropy, and the private sector.
She led communications for President Obama’s re-election in a top battleground state, served in his executive branch as the strategic communications advisor to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and ran communications for the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and the late Congressman Elijah Cummings.
She also led global positioning for Dr. Tedros Adhanom’s successful campaign as the first African Director-General of the World Health Organization and oversaw communications for celebrity chef José Andrés and his international restaurant group during a period of explosive growth for both.
Her crisis communications work has included quietly containing a potential national election fraud scandal, steadying global corporations facing public backlash and regulatory scrutiny after missteps, advising NGOs responding to hostile policy shifts, and guiding organizations through internal divides ranging from union tensions to employee pressure over issues like Gaza.
But reputation work isn’t always about repair. Jen has led proactive efforts to push for increased regulation of the Big Porn monopoly by spotlighting the systemic exploitation of women, was a lead strategist for an automaker reframing its role during the most fatal recall in U.S. history, and advised a global energy company on messaging its shift to integrated energy.
Jen is based in Paris and works with clients across the U.S., Europe, and Central America. When she’s not applying the Filament Effect™ to client strategy, she’s often found studying the effects of filaments in astrophysics (her side passion) and analyzing patterns across French pastry menus (her raison d’être).
Jennifer Kohl
CEO
President Barack Obama. World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros. Nobel Peace Prize nominee Chef José Andrés. Jen Kohl has shaped how the world has seen some of the most transformative figures of our time.
Recognized by The Washington Post as one of D.C.’s “top image-makers,” Jen has spent two decades working across politics, government, philanthropy, and the private sector.
She led communications for President Obama’s re-election in a top battleground state, served in his executive branch as the strategic communications advisor to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and ran communications for the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and the late Congressman Elijah Cummings.
She also led global positioning for Dr. Tedros Adhanom’s successful campaign as the first African Director-General of the World Health Organization and oversaw communications for celebrity chef José Andrés and his international restaurant group during a period of explosive growth for both.
Her crisis communications work has included quietly containing a potential national election fraud scandal, steadying global corporations facing public backlash and regulatory scrutiny after missteps, advising NGOs responding to hostile policy shifts, and guiding organizations through internal divides ranging from union tensions to employee pressure over issues like Gaza.
But reputation work isn’t always about repair. Jen has led proactive efforts to push for increased regulation of the Big Porn monopoly by spotlighting the systemic exploitation of women, was a lead strategist for an automaker reframing its role during the most fatal recall in U.S. history, and advised a global energy company on messaging its shift to integrated energy.
Jen is based in Paris and works with clients across the U.S., Europe, and Central America. When she’s not applying the Filament Effect™ to client strategy, she’s often found studying the effects of filaments in astrophysics (her side passion) and analyzing patterns across French pastry menus (her raison d’être).