You’re in the right place if you need a clear message & strong connection with complex audiences.
Hi, I’m Ashton. I often step in to help with communications when a project is moving into a new phase, and now the public is paying attention. Or a new funding round has been secured—and you need to hit the press. When the commissioners are asking questions and the team needs to be on the same page before someone puts a camera on them.
Has explaining your work started to feel harder than doing it?
That’s usually a sign that you’ve outgrown the messaging you started with—but that’s a good problem (and I love working on good problems).
My Services
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Best for:
Preparing for funding, partnership, or approval conversations
Clarifying a project or initiative that has grown unwieldy
Aligning internal teams before public-facing work
Translating technical or interdisciplinary work for non-expert audiences
What we do:
Map the system your work has to move through
Clarify what different audiences need to understand
Translate the work into clear, credible language that holds up under scrutiny
You leave with:
A clear message architecture
Audience-specific explanations you can reuse
A shared language that supports decisions and next steps
Format: 2–3 weeks, focused engagement
Investment: Starting at $2,500
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For work that unfolds over time
Some projects can’t be clarified in a single push. They evolve, attract attention, face resistance, or cross into new contexts. This option is for clients who want an ongoing strategic communications partner—not another vendor.
Best for:
Multi-phase research, development, or community projects
Work involving multiple institutions or stakeholder groups
Teams navigating growth, transition, or public scrutiny
Leaders who need a thinking partner, not just deliverables
What this looks like:
Ongoing advisory and translation support
Message refinement as context changes
Preparation for high-stakes conversations and decision points
Staying close as coalitions form—or strain
Format: Quarterly contract, hours-based consulting and services
Investment: Starting at $2,500 per month for 12 hours of messaging strategy, copywriting, content development, and social media management (as needed). -
Sometimes you don’t need a full engagement—you need a sharp outside perspective at the right moment. Think pivots, new market entry, issues management, crisis management, etc.
Best for:
Pressure-testing language before an important conversation
Untangling a specific communication challenge
Sense-checking how your work is landing with others
Format: Single or bundled 1-hour sessions with detailed follow up and action steps.
Investment: $350 per session
When to reach out
My expertise is a good fit if:
Your work is solid, but understanding hasn’t caught up
You’re navigating multiple audiences with different stakes
You need clarity to build trust, coalitions, or momentum
The cost of being misunderstood is no longer theoretical
If that sounds familiar, we should talk.
My process:
Complex work requires strategic partnership, not vendors.
That means I don’t start with tactics or deliverables. I start by understanding the landscape your work has to move through—and where it’s getting bogged down in the muck of complexity, competing voices, and risk mitigation.
1. I listen for communication breakdowns.
We identify the moments where your work loses traction
between audiences, between institutions, between experts and decision-makers, or between your team and the communities affected by the work. These gaps happen when the team is too close to the work to explain it to the public without getting bogged down in the weeds — I call it The Curse of Knowledge.
It’s not your fault, it’s the nature of complex systems in an information-deluged world.
2. I clarify what your different audiences need — without distracting them.
Not everyone needs the same explanation—or the same level of detail. I help you distinguish between funders, partners, policymakers, internal teams, and the public, and clarify what each group needs to understand in order to engage, decide, or collaborate.
3. I translate your work without flattening or losing detail.
Together, we shape language that holds up under scrutiny while remaining accessible. The goal isn’t simplification for its own sake—it’s precision that makes complex work legible without stripping it of nuance or integrity.
4. I get your team ready to tell your story when the stakes are high.
I often work in focused engagements or as an ongoing strategic partner—especially during moments of growth, public attention, funding, or transition. I train teams to tell the story of your work in a way that’s accurate, appropriate, and effective.
I’m Ashton, your comms partner.
My work fits best in that in-between space, when you’ve outgrown self-managed media but aren’t ready to hire a comms team in-house (though I can help you do that).
I hold a master’s degree in strategic communication and have spent more than a decade working in communications in public and research institutions, including roles at Duke University and Oregon State University.
I’ve managed hundreds of Facebook pages, dealt with billions of media hits, and worked on partnerships with household brands and the NFL. I’ve screened calls from Fox News and had to respond to legislators and attack billboards.
Alongside this work, I hold a graduate certificate in public policy, which shapes how I approach communication. I pay close attention to incentives, power, decision-making processes, and the practical realities ideas have to move through in order for our messages to be understood, supported, and acted on.
At home in Oregon, I’m a community organizer and Commissioner of a local Special District. If I’m not working on a project, you’ll find me out on the Columbia with the girls or hiking. Contact me at ashtonwhitney@proton.me or on Signal at forestinformant.26. I’m also on TikTok and Instagram at @forestinformant, where I mostly talk about housing policy and co-housing projects in the PNW.