the brand
Coming Clean is a national network of environmental health and justice advocates working at the intersection of chemical policy reform, environmental justice, and movement building.
Their network includes member organizations, staff teams, and a strategic partnership with the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA).
the partnership
I came to Coming Clean as lead copywriter. They needed an annual report, a document that translates a year of complex, coalition-driven work into something legible to funders, partners, and the public. I did that job well. Well enough that they invited me to the next table: facilitating a strategy meeting with staff and leadership.
my role
Coming Clean isn’t a traditional organization. It’s a network, which means authority is distributed and accountability is relational. You can’t just hand people a decision matrix and call it done. Trust has to be in the room first.
As a senior strategist, my work was to create conditions where people who care deeply about the same things can be honest about the tensions in how they work together, and leave with shared clarity.
the outcome
The annual report struck the right tone with the people doing the hardest parts of the work. That response led to a continued partnership; I’m currently supporting the development of the 2025 report.
The organization left the strategy session with greater shared clarity, improved ways of working together, and a path forward on issues that had been shaping their dynamics for years.
deliverable spotlight: relationship-driven facilitation
I brought the same skillset I bring to a brand strategy engagement: the ability to listen for what’s underneath the surface, name it in a way that wards off defensiveness, and hold the tension of conflict without succumbing to anxiety.
Facilitation and creation are closer than most people think. Both require you to understand what a group is really trying to say, and then give them the tools to say it.
Dianna K Benjamin | Senior Creative Strategist 