Adiel supports liberation-minded organizations and people to create bold and meaningful messaging and strategy that is an extension of their vision.
Approach
Adiel (she/her/ella) is a narrative strategist, writer, editor, and wordsmith-at-large. Her work is guided by a belief in storytelling as a force for building narrative power.
She believes that good communication is often personal–starting with a deep understanding of the work and what drives it. Those stories live in the wisdom and experience of her clients; her work is to uncover them. And she knows she’s done her job when her clients see their own wisdom reflected back at them.
Experience
Throughout her career, Adiel has joined most of the organizations she’s worked with as their first communications person—building a communications strategy and organizational voice from scratch. And she loves that.
Adiel was the first Communications Director for Resonance Network, a network of Black, Indigenous, immigrant, women, femme, trans, and two-spirit people and their co-conspirators, building a world beyond violence. She shaped the network’s narrative framework and public voice, and spearheaded the WeGovern campaign—a set of governance principles aimed at rooting governance practice in mutual care and community.
Adiel also served as U.S. Board Communications Director for URBAN REFUGEES, an international NGO building sustainable solutions to the refugee crisis by partnering directly with city-based refugee leaders across the Global South, and as a writing mentor for We Are Not Numbers (WANN), an organization dedicated to sharing the stories of Palestinian young people in Gaza.
Formerly, Adiel served as Communications & Marketing Director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), a national network of funders committed to civic engagement and democratic practice, and as former Communications & Development Manager at the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a global network of over 100 organizations working toward sustainable peace and security.
In 2019, she was selected as an American Express NGen Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Root, HuffPost, Alliance Magazine and more.
Education
M.A. in Communication from Wake Forest University, where her research centered on rhetoric, conflict communication, and narrative theory
B.A. in Public Communication; Business Management and Marketing from Florida Atlantic University
About Adiel
Adiel’s lived experience as the eldest daughter of Cuban immigrants (and family rainbow sheep), inspired her love and study of rhetoric and communication—in short, she was raised in a worldview that she has traveled a distance from. Traversing that distance and maintaining relationships across it have taught her as much about communication as her study and vocational experience. It has shaped her understanding of the way worldviews evolve, and the way ideas move—and move people. She has lived and practiced storytelling in many forms—and believes deeply in its power as a force for worldbuilding, and for connection.