Strategic solutions for purpose-driven initiatives.

selected clients & projects

First Presbyterian Church of Durham

About me

As an experienced strategy and communications professional, I help public sector organizations and grassroots initiatives clarify and distill their ideas into clear, actionable plans that deliver results.

Let’s work.

What exactly do you do?

What services do you offer?

1. Integrated marketing communications for social good

2. Youth program design and improvement

3. Strategic planning and activation

But what does that mean?

I help clients:

1. Craft compelling messaging and execute marketing strategies that help them achieve their goals. This includes sharing their stories and ideas, promoting events, recruiting participants, and raising money.

2. Design programs for young people, including out-of-school programming (cultural enrichment, STEM, workforce development) and youth leadership training for decision-making (think: youth advisory council or integration of youth onto an existing board of directors).

3. Simplify the strategic planning process into an energizing and collaborative activity that transforms their vision into an immediate action plan.

Who do you serve?

Formalized public sector organizations (nonprofits, schools, governmental departments); grassroots initiatives; individuals working in social impact, including scholars and community researchers; businesses exploring social impact work.

What specific actions do you perform as a consultant?

1. Meeting and workshop facilitation

2. Research (primary, best practices, tools, market)

3. Marketing and public relations activity execution

4. Writing and content development (including editing)

5. Assessments (internal/external surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.)

6. Outreach: media, community, partner/stakeholder

and other burning questions

I have more questions. How can I contact you?

I love questions! Send me an email here and I'll be in touch soon.

What are your qualifications?

Click here to read more about my experience. A formal resume can be provided upon request.

simplyfing the consulting process

Every project solution is customized using a simplified process to begin work ASAP.

1. Exploration phase

2. Customized Project Pathways™ to determine the right-sized scope of work

3. Finalized project action plan

4. Agile collaboration and continuous feedback

Consulting can be a minefield of endless emails and meetings with poor outcomes on the other side of a project. I want to minimize this at all costs which is why clients can depend on the following in an engagement with me:

➢ Consistent communication
➢ 21 days or less project ramp-up time
➢ On-time project completion

About me

mah-LEE-nuh

Recent Experiences

Marketing Consultant | First Presbyterian Church of Durham

Develop marketing strategy, design visual elements, and manage public relations with world-renowned musician Shana Tucker for a community event.

Program Consultant | Sonja Haynes Stone Center at UNC-Chapel Hill

Malenia photographed by Kennedi Carter.

As a daughter of the Lowcountry, my upbringing in rural South Carolina among the storied landscapes of the Old South profoundly shape my perspectives on community, education, service, and spirituality. I have a deep understanding of what it means to be invisibilized. Thus, my life experience has drawn me to becoming a champion of groups often deprioritized by those in power. This work has manifested through programming, facilitation, and strategic planning with nonprofits, small businesses, community initiatives, and government entities serving youth and their families, ensuring an equitable approach to each level of decision-making.

Assessment of the longest-standing program, CommUniversity, to explore opportunities for growth and improvement. Included hiring of permanent staff, volunteer management process development, written out-of-school time curriculum, partnership development, and visual identity.

Consultant | HIGOL

Provide strategic planning and communications expertise for clients: leading internal assessments, executive coaching, training and facilitation, and effective operationalization of strategic plans.

10 years as a Social Impact Professional in the Triangle of North Carolina

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer, Communities In Schools of Durham

• VP of Community Engagement, Youth Mentoring Collaborative

• Marketing & Communications Manager, Morehead Planetarium & Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill

• Strategic Associate, Twig Green Store

I'm excited for what we'll accomplish together.