Messaging & Content

Evergreen develops sophisticated written content that delivers a clear message and drives action. We write speeches, op-eds, and social media posts for leaders from Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C., and everywhere in between.

Media relationships

We have relationships across the media landscape and provide access to national and policy-focused press beyond the normal reach of in-house communications teams. We help clients select the right media outlets, build relationships, and ensure press engagements tell the right story.

Policy development

Our team has worked on a wide range of domestic and international policy issues in government, on the front lines of national, state, and municipal political campaigns, and in the private sector with some of the best brands in the world. We have the experience to help clients develop policy initiatives that move them from talk to real solutions.

Partnerships

Coalitions are force multipliers. We map the influence landscape and tap our extensive network to build partnerships with activists, policy experts, companies, and organizations.

SENIOR director

Alena Yarmosky (she/her)

Alena is a communications strategist with extensive experience in government, advocacy, and non-profit communications. Before joining Evergreen, Alena served as senior communications advisor to Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia, for whom she developed messaging strategies to secure historic victories on issues including criminal justice reform, gun safety, and voting rights. She has previously led communications efforts for NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and has consulted for organizations including the California Policy Lab. She has a Master of Public Policy degree.

SENIOR Associate

Arman Abrishamchian (he/him)

Arman studied History and Mandarin at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with highest honors. While an undergraduate, he assisted with manuscripts and publications for two history professors and wrote a funded thesis on 20th century U.S.-Afghan diplomatic relations. He has previously interned with Evergreen and as a policy researcher for Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Krekorian.

senior ASSOCIATE

Bree Henshaw (she/her)

Bree supports client projects and the administration of the firm. Before joining Evergreen, Bree served as a legislative aide and correspondence manager for Senator Patty Murray. She began working for the senator soon after receiving her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

senior Director

Caty Gordon (she/her)

Caty is a speechwriter and executive communications strategist who helps leaders shape compelling narratives that drive impact. She previously led executive communications for the president and CEO of an international gender equality nonprofit, and managed speeches, written content, and correspondence at the Clinton Foundation. She started her career in the editorial departments of Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House after receiving her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.

senior Advisor

Chelsea Kohler (she/her)

Chelsea specializes in working with founders and CEOs to effectively tell their stories. She is a seasoned communications, policy and marketing leader who has developed and executed strategic campaigns for some of the world’s best-known brands and high-profile principals, including the CEOs of Uber, Google and YouTube, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a member of Planned Parenthood’s Trademark and Brand Committee and lives in San Francisco with her husband, their two children and their boisterous dog.

PARTNER

Corey Ciorciari (he/him)

Corey leads Evergreen’s policy work and has expertise on a wide range of domestic policy issues, including voting rights, gun violence prevention, and education. Before joining Evergreen, Corey served as senior policy advisor to Senator Kamala Harris and as a policy advisor to Secretary Hillary Clinton and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. A lawyer by training, Corey started his career on then-Senator Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.

co-founder & managing partner

Dan Schwerin (he/him)

Dan helps leaders find their voice and works with clients to craft powerful public engagement campaigns that reflect their core values. He recently served as a senior advisor in the Biden White House helping implement the American Rescue Plan. Before co-founding Evergreen, he was Hillary Clinton’s longtime Director of Speechwriting, book collaborator, and policy advisor. Dan is also a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy.

Intern

Ella Price (she/her)

Ella is a Senior at the University of Michigan, pursuing a BA in Public Policy with a focus area in Human Rights and International Development. Prior to Evergreen, Ella worked in the political communications field as a Congressional Intern for Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-30) and a Content Production Intern at Crooked Media. Most recently, Ella worked as a Research Associate for the Economic Growth Institute, where she worked on economic recovery and small business investment in Southeast Michigan.

senior associate

Faith Williams (she/her)

Faith is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her Bachelor’s in International Studies and minors in Anthropology and French. Prior to Evergreen, she was a Digital-Communications Fellow at the Working Families Party. She has also conducted research for the Penn Cultural Heritage Center on illicit trafficking and worked as an exhibit liaison and social media coordinator for the Undocumented Migration Project.

FELLOW

Georgina Seal (she/her)

Georgina is a recent graduate of Columbia University with a B.A. in History, specializing in Policing and Control in the U.S., and a minor in Sustainable Development. In the past, she interned with Major League Baseball and sports nonprofits including the Johnny Mac Tennis Project and EcoAthletes. Most recently, Georgina served as a Legislative Intern for NY State Assemblymember Grace Lee, conducting policy research and contributing to Lee's initiative to curb illegal marijuana stores in NYC.

manager

Jacquelyn Katson (she/her)

Jacquelyn is a policy analyst with expertise in gun violence prevention, criminal justice reform, behavioral health programming, and higher education. Prior to joining Evergreen, she served in Virginia’s Secretariat of Public Safety and Homeland Security for three years. Jacquelyn previously worked as a researcher for a higher education consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in public policy from the University of Virginia.

associate

Lindsey Haughton (she/her)

Lindsey recently graduated from University of Michigan with a degree in Organizational Studies, where she explored the relationships between corporations, nonprofits, and governments. Previously, she worked in policy research, writing, and advocacy through the Roosevelt Network and the Michigan AFL-CIO. Directly prior to Evergreen, she served as a Development Assistant at NextGen America where she conducted prospect research and managed stewardship for grassroots donors.

Senior Associate

Lillian Weber (she/her)

Before joining Evergreen, Lily worked as a fundraiser for several members of Congress and on local and presidential campaigns writing campaign ads, organizing national campaign travel, and staffing a finance team. In a previous life, she worked in revenue management and hospitality. She graduated from The New School with a BA in Liberal Studies, focusing on Race and Ethnicity and personal narrative.

FELLOW

Lucas Burgard (he/him)

Lucas recently graduated from American University, where he majored in international studies and minored in Spanish. At American, he focused on global inequality and development and conducted a year-long research project analyzing Russian state-sponsored homophobia. He previously interned with Evergreen and the United Nations Foundation in Washington, DC.

Director

Lucy Coady (she/her)

Lucy is an advocacy and social impact strategist with a background in engaging stakeholders in public policy and community investment initiatives in the anti-poverty and health fields. Before joining Evergreen, she oversaw programmatic and advocacy campaigns on Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign. Lucy has also managed government relations at the American Public Health Association, worked on health policy issues on Capitol Hill, and started her career in the press office at NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Associate

Luis Patiño (he/him)

Luis supports client projects and the administration of the firm. Prior to joining Evergreen, Luis was the Legal Assistant for the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He graduated from Yale with his BA in political science. Luis began his career as an intern on Kamala Harris’ Senate Campaign and Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, and also completed a fellowship at the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School.

Vice president

Mackenzie Long (she/her)

Mackenzie specializes in social impact communications and proudly works alongside her clients to develop and execute external engagement strategies focused on a range of issues including sustainability and environmental impact, economic reform, voting rights, and reproductive rights. She previously managed government and sustainability communications at Bird – the micro-mobility company with a mission of reducing traffic and carbon emissions in cities. Mackenzie is a contributor at Teen Vogue where she writes about the Supreme Court, and she previously ran a daily tipsheet called SCOTUSDaily.

senior director

Maggie Polachek (she/her)

Maggie is a policy and communications strategist with over a decade of public and private sector experience. In the Biden Administration, she served in the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency implementing the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Maggie previously ran social impact and public policy initiatives at Starbucks and worked on policy, communications, and external engagement strategies at the Center for American Progress and on Capitol Hill. Maggie is a proud alumna of Wellesley College and earned her MBA from the University of Washington. Maggie lives in the Bay Area with her husband and their six month old son.

Senior manager

Mike Martinez (he/him)

Mike is a communications strategist with a focus on climate change, gun safety, economic development, and the future of tech. He previously worked for Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and started his career supporting Everytown for Gun Safety’s political and senior leadership teams in the fight against gun violence during the 2018 midterms.

senior manager

Molly Voigt (she/her)

Molly is a policy and advocacy professional with a background in gun violence prevention and health care policy. Before joining Evergreen, Molly served as Senior State Legislative Manager at Giffords where she advanced GVP policy in state legislatures across the country. She started her career on the Policy & Advocacy team at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation after receiving her BA in Government from Hamilton College.

CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER

Nick Merrill (he/him)

Nick guides clients through a rapidly changing media landscape. Before co-founding Evergreen, he was a senior advisor and traveling press secretary to Hillary Clinton. Nick has designed communications strategies for multiple New York Times best sellers and traveled to 78 countries as a communications advisor to the Secretary of State during the Obama Administration.

Senior associate

Noëlle Elmore (she/her)

Noëlle supports writing and communications projects for clients and contributes to administration of the firm. Before joining Evergreen, she worked in early childhood advocacy and youth engagement at UNICEF, grant-writing for a public health NGO in Liberia, and communications for a U.K. voter awareness campaign. She has an MSc in International Public Policy from University College London.

INTERN

Rachel Chen (she/her)

Rachel is a Senior at the University of Texas at Austin studying Sociology and Psychology, with a minor in French. Prior to Evergreen, Rachel interned at the Pew Research Center and the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, providing research and support for the Women’s and Children’s Rights projects in Pakistan. Rachel is currently working on her senior thesis about the diversity gap between students and teachers in different districts in Texas and its link to student performance

senior associate

Renee Betterson (she/her)

Renee supports client projects and the administration of the firm. Before joining Evergreen, she worked on Marco Lopez’s campaign for the governor of Arizona. She has also interned for Senator Sherrod Brown’s office and the Ohio Supreme Court’s Criminal Sentencing Commission. Renee was a 2020-2021 Fulbright Research Semifinalist for her research proposal on international legal internalization.

INTERN

Roxana Wang (she/her)

Roxana is a senior at UC Berkeley studying Comparative Literature, Classics, and German. Her humanities background enables her to explore the intersection of narrative and policy. She has published articles on cultural property policy, drafted a land management plan for a Californian tribal nation, and co-authored a national-level tourism master plan for Bangladesh.

senior director

Ryan Johnson (he/him)

Ryan is a communications strategist and skilled leader with expertise in crisis communications and executing compelling and thoughtful communications strategies for elected officials and advocacy campaigns. Before joining Evergreen, Ryan served as Deputy Director of Communications for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Account Director at BerlinRosen, Press Secretary for Senator Cory Booker, and Communications Director for Congressman Bobby Rush. He began his communications career at the American Heart Association. Ryan is a Chicago native and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Journalism.

INTERN

Shelby Deibler (she/her)

Shelby is a senior at Wellesley College majoring in Political Science and French. She first joined the Evergreen team as a Summer Intern in 2022 and has since gained valuable experience from her recent roles at When We All Vote, Michelle Obama's voter-engagement non-profit, and her time with the Office of Andy Kim (NJ-03). Delighted to return, she supports the firm's diverse client portfolio by engaging in communications and policy-related projects. 

FELLOW

Sophie Huang (she/her)

Sophie recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a BS in Finance and Cinema & Media Studies. She has previously interned with Evergreen, as well as Boston Consulting Group (BCG), private equity fund Five Elms Capital, and Paramount Global.

operations manager

Thelma Ekeocha (she/her)

Thelma is an operations professional with experience creating and implementing systems and processes to improve teams’ efficiency, productivity, and collaboration. Before joining Evergreen, she managed the day-to-day business operations of the Public Affairs team of the United Nations Foundation.

Senior director

Vasishth Srivastava (he/him)

Vas is a speechwriter and communications strategist with experience on national campaigns and in government. As Chief of Staff to Mayor Luke Bronin in Hartford, Connecticut he directed policy development, citywide communications, and helped lead COVID-19 response. He began his career in opposition research, working for U.S. Senators and Secretary Hillary Clinton. He graduated from Reed College and The Hotchkiss School.