Principals
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
—Emma Goldman
Melissa Torres-Montoya, JD/MPH and Jenni Kotting, PhD provide rapid response support in policy, communications, and design for nonprofits, government agencies, and other institutions. They are as devoted to building strong relationships as they are to shaping political change and can bring your vision into reality with efficiency and care.
Melissa Torres-Montoya, JD/MPH
Melissa Torres-Montoya is a strategic political thinker who is comfortable with the multi-faceted and various avenues to shape political change. For nearly a decade, Melissa has worked at advocacy nonprofit organizations advancing policies at local and national levels of government. Her unique and varied experience ranges from working in state and federal government, traditional legal settings, and nonprofits.
She has dedicated her professional career to addressing the lack of affordable quality healthcare in the United States and advancing sexual and reproductive autonomy. Melissa has gained extensive experience conducting legislative research, tracking, and analysis while developing expertise in translating dense policy into accessible language to prompt greater political engagement.
Melissa earned her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law and is admitted to practice in the state of Maryland. She also has a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University.
Melissa is as devoted to building strong relationships as she is to shaping political change.
Jenni Kotting, PhD
Jenni Kotting, PhD (she/her) is a seasoned Communications Strategist who has dedicated her career to using narrative as a powerful tool for cultural and political change. Born in the Appalachian mountains of Maryland, Jenni learned early on that real change comes from heart-to-heart conversations where trust is built through honest, respectful dialogue — finding common ground without diluting one's values or compromising on core beliefs, even when navigating political, cultural, and personal divides.
Jenni holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Minnesota, where her academic focus on place, power, and liberation continues to inform her professional approach. That understanding drives her approach to strategic messaging, compassionate dialogue, and crisis communications across sectors, including nonprofits, school districts, philanthropies, and advocacy networks. Jenni's work spans reproductive justice, racial equity, youth leadership, education, and birth justice.
She is known for her creativity and deeply held values in designing ethical storytelling programs, producing innovative visual media, and translating complex issues into accessible, action-driven stories that inspire change at every level. Her professional background includes a proven ability to build organizational strategy, and execute and complete projects with resourcefulness and attention to deadlines. She's just as powerful in rapid response mode as in long term, big picture planning.
Press Clippings
“It’s really important to facilitate young people’s autonomy around their reproductive health decision-making … providing young people the information about their own bodies—exploring sexual pleasure, sexual health,” said Melissa Torres-Montoya, a lawyer specializing in reproductive justice and a former sex educator in California.
Melissa Torres-Montoya, The kids having sex aren’t alright: Abortion bans threaten sexuality development, Prism Reports, Katie Tandy, May 2024.
“No document can solve a big cultural problem in any major way. So instead, it’s tempting to treat a toolkit like a receipt — proof that you understand the problem and did your best to take on the loudest critics. A toolkit that is a receipt is often more lengthy and less useful than a short document designed for the people who will actually use it. All the explanatory, argument-based text covering every foreseeable critique makes it less useful to them. The change is not the toolkit — the change is what happens after it gets used extensively.”
Jennifer Kotting, How a Toolkit Can Contribute to Change, Region 16 Comprehensive Center, August 2023.
“Lessons from Appalachian community schools may be broadly relevant to other rural places, but it’s important to understand the diversity across counties, as well. With a little creativity, community schools strategies work well in different places, based on the needs and strengths of people who live there. The bones are similar from school to school, but aspects will always look different based on what works best for the local community.”
Jennifer Kotting, Past and future teachers ensure student success in rural Appalachia, Brookings Institution Community Schools Leader Insight Series, May 2022.
“As public funding expands, insights from leaders in places like the Greater Salt Lake region that have successfully leveraged local partnerships and family engagement can inform how schools everywhere can transform to serve young people and local communities.”
Jennifer Kotting and Hayin Kimner, Community schools in Utah’s Salt Lake City region thrive on place-based partnerships and family engagement, Brookings Institution Community Schools Leader Insight Series, April 2022.
“School leaders are within their role and responsibility to ask plainly: What is the ‘balanced perspective’ when it comes to racial equity?”
J. Kotting and A. Callen, Anti-racism and equity in schools is empirical, not ideological, K-12 Dive, October 2021.
“If we’re going on this screening system that seems to be honors-system-based, and we’re just passing along some ineffective form and someone’s looking at us to see if we’ve coughed in the last minute or not, that is not a good reason to be funneling people into these really crowded areas at 13 specific airports,.”
J. Kotting quoted in “‘I Thought, Here’s 10,000 Cases’: What Happened At Dulles Airport This Weekend,” NPR’s WAMU and “Closely Packed Crowds At Dulles Had ‘Poorly Handled’ Written All Over It” DCist by Margaret Barthel, 2020.
“We have found it to be so important to have allied technologists who are willing to support nonprofits in small ways, or even technologists who are willing to work full and part time at smaller organizations and seek out those opportunities. It’s a labor of love, and we are grateful for those who do work with smaller organizations.”
J. Kotting quoted in “Why Abortion Access Organizations Are Suing Anti-Choice Internet Trolls,” Gizmodo, Melanie Ehrenkranz, 2018.
“We need to pull back the curtain on their activities, motivations, identities, and tactics. We want extremists to know they cannot hide behind … anonymous Twitter handles.”
J. Kotting quoted in “Abortion funds band together to sue their cyberattackers,” CNN Business, Sara Ashley O'Brien, 2018
and “The Week in Reproductive Justice-25,” Kylie Cheung, 2018.
"It's not just a decision about our families, but [it's about] that fear and that potential to go to prison, which shouldn’t be part of the pregnancy experience. What’s been happening in Indiana has been far more radical and severe than people realize."
J. Kotting quoted in “The Indiana women who are anti-Mike Pence and his '1950s mindset',” Mashable, Rebecca Ruiz, 2016.
“The Indiana I know and love shows compassion toward people who are struggling to make ends meet. Our state government should not obstruct taxpayers who need abortions, no matter their insurance or income.”
Letter to the Editor, South Bend Tribune, 2016.
“Indiana has become one of the most dangerous states in which to be pregnant, now more than ever for those who would like to give birth.”
J. Kotting quoted in “Indiana’s Anti-Abortion Bill: A Blueprint for Attacks on Rights Nationwide,” Truthout, Katie Klabusich, 2016.
Jennifer Kotting, communications director at the National Network of Abortion Funds and South Bend, Indiana resident described the post-HEA 1337 Indiana as “one of the most dangerous states in which to be pregnant.”
J. Kotting quoted in “Alaska’s New Sex Ed Law Is Both Ludicrous And Harmful,” Medium, Katie Klabusich, 2016.
“Indiana is not a safe place for pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, or miscarriage. Gov. Pence has devalued the lives and livelihoods of pregnant people by signing HB 1337 into law.”
J. Kotting quoted in “The Crazy New Ways Indiana Will Restrict Abortion,” ThinkProgress, Tara Culp-Ressler, 2016.
Art & Publications
Kotting, Jennifer (2020). Your 10-Day Personal Branding Journey: Connect with your values, your purpose, and yourself.
Ely, G. E., Hales, T. W., Jackson, D. L., Kotting, J., & Agbemenu, K. (2018). Access to choice: Examining differences between adolescent and adult abortion fund service recipients. Health & Social Care in the Community, 25(5), 695-704.
Kotting, Jennifer & Ely, Gretchen. (2017). The undue burden of paying for abortion: An exploration of abortion fund cases: Data From The National Network Of Abortion Funds’ George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund, 2010-2015. 10.13140/RG.2.2.15205.40162.
Kotting, Jennifer. (2013). Baltimore's Urban Fix: Sounds of Excess and Exclusion in Station North. Dissertation for UMN Department of Geography.
Harvey, Francis & Kotting, Jennifer. (2011). Teaching Mapping for Digital Natives: New Pedagogical Ideas for Undergraduate Cartography Education. Cartography and Geographic Information Science. 38. 269-277. 10.1559/1523040638269.
Kotting, Jennifer. (2009). Gallery Exhibit: Benign Neglect: Exploring the Urban Landscape. SSCA Gallery.