Services
Strategic Communications
Creating narratives and providing marketing, messaging & ghostwriting
Stakeholder Engagement
Conducting outreach & building coalitions with diverse partners
Campaign Planning
Developing objectives, strategies, audiences, timelines & more to reach a concrete goal
Digital Content
Creating videos, scripts, social media strategies & data analytics
Public Policy
Researching & crafting legislation, rules & administrative processes
Government Affairs
Engaging legislators & administrators directly to move policy
CURRENT CLIENTS include a global renewable energy company, a nonprofit supporting families after suicide, and a groundbreaking violence prevention group
Cross-Functional Expertise
Strategic Communications
Jesse created an award-winning national media campaign on criminal justice at Brave New Films and founded a media center opposing the Religious Right. He provides marketing & messaging and has ghostwritten over a hundred pieces.
Stakeholder Engagement
Jesse has built & run diverse coalitions on issues from mental health to criminal justice and managed boards such as the Chicago Board of Health. His political work has supported numerous officials.
Public Policy & Research
Jesse got ~40 laws health & environmental laws enacted for the city of Chicago, leading a team that designed policies & navigated them through government & advocates. He has an Master in Public Policy from Harvard.
Programs & Metrics
Jesse ran a $150M/yr program for the state of Illinois to provide healthcare & social services to 80K residents annually. He develops metrics to focus on outcomes, not activities.
“Jesse is a talented leader, writer, and strategic thinker whose drive and unmatched tenacity make him highly effective.”
Julie Morita, CEO, Joyce Foundation; former Commissioner, Chicago Dept. of Public Health
"Jesse is one of the most talented individuals with whom I have ever worked. He is a strong writer, an excellent thinker, and a person of great integrity and sense of purpose.”
David Wilhelm, CEO, HGR Energy; former Chair, DNC
"Jesse is a passionate leader and strategist. He launched our criminal justice reform campaign and was instrumental to its impact and creativity."
Robert Greenwald, President, Brave New Films
About Jesse Lava
When Jesse was five, he wrote to Ronald Reagan asking him to stop harming kids in Nicaragua. He used crayon, hoping cuteness would be persuasive. It wasn’t. But Jesse stayed idealistic. He stayed strategic. And he stayed creative.
Today, Jesse is an advocacy architect for the public good. With roots in strategic communications, he integrates policy, outreach, and programs, serving as a translator between worlds. Jesse has a habit of building projects from scratch.
His work — which has spanned more than two decades — has resulted in 40 health and environmental laws in Chicago, millions of dollars for healthcare & social service providers in Illinois, funding for alternatives to incarceration in multiple states, and national media for mission-driven nonprofits and businesses, among other things. His approach to change is data-driven, emphasizing results, not just activity.
In addition to Lava Public Impact, Jesse runs the Lava Impact Fund, a new family philanthropy serving communities in Chicago and globally. He has a Master in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in Government from Wesleyan University.
Jesse teaches Sunday school and plays music in the Lava Brothers. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two kids.
Lava Impact Fund
20% Revenue Pledge
Jesse believes we are each part of a story far bigger than our own. At least 20% of Lava Public Impact's revenue goes to the Lava Impact Fund, a new family philanthropy that will support mental wellbeing and migrant success in Chicago as well as the dignity of global populations facing extreme poverty or humanitarian crisis.