Our team brings smarts and heart in equal measure.
Founded by sisters. Led by women. One foot in the corporate world, the other in movements for social impact — and a dedication to deep partnership across the board. Meet the people behind Perennial.
Robin Abadía
SENIOR STRATEGIST
Robin thrives at the intersections of strategy, communications and social change.
MORERobin sees the possibilities that arise when people and organizations hold purpose at the center of all they do. With over 20 years of experience, she’s worked with stellar teams around the world to create effective strategies, launch campaigns and connect with audiences. At Perennial, you’ll find her partnering with our clients on all sorts of strategy – organizational, brand, message, channel as well as team alignment, stakeholder research, benchmarking, mission and more.
She graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and has a Master’s degree in Public Communications from American University in Washington D.C.
Emily Brew
CO-FOUNDER + CHIEF STRATEGIST
Emily founded Perennial for folks who are up to something bigger than they are.
MoreIn 2012, Emily and her sister Perrin teamed up to create a firm that put people and ideas first — in our work, team and operations. (That was brew advisors, now Perennial.) Today, Emily works with leaders and teams to facilitate big ideas and provide strategic oversight towards social impact, as she draws from nearly 30 years of experience in brand strategy and creative processes across corporate and social change sectors. (And Perrin? Check out Electrify Now. Big idea.)
A cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Emily holds a graduate degree in Human Rights and Women’s Studies from the University of London.
Emily Jensen
WRITER
EJ has worked with words for over a decade, crafting stories that help build a better world.
MoreEJ has found professional homes at nonprofits, creative agencies, and indie publications. Writing with Perennial allows her to bring the best of these worlds together. Favorite projects include an award-winning digital campaign for Google’s Made with Code, and developing citizen-friendly climate communications for The Nature Conservancy and Project Regeneration. A fourth-generation Portlander, her graduate work on gentrification in North Portland received distinction for outstanding journalism.
EJ holds a BA in Critical Theory & Social Justice from Occidental College and a Master’s in Multimedia Journalism from University of Oregon.
Janna McDougall
SENIOR STRATEGIST
Every day, Janna unleashes her strategic drive and agile mind on complex problems.
MOREAt the heart of Janna’s 20 years of experience as a strategist, researcher and storyteller is a commitment to scaling equity and impact. At Perennial, Janna pulls from her multi-sector, global expertise to help leaders and teams define transformative ideas and set doable strategies. Her skills in facilitating groups, developing clear visuals and crafting sharp language convert inspiration to action.
Janna earned her Master’s in Public Health from University of North Carolina and her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Meghan O’Malley
STUDIO DIRECTOR
Meghan ignites connections and nurtures teams at Perennial like there’s no tomorrow.
MoreWith our team, Meghan builds business intelligence and serves as the connective tissue between all team members and projects. With our clients, she sets up projects and often runs them, and is our in-house expert on B Corp certification. With over a decade of experience — including many years at Apple — she’s passionate about managing teams small to large to work towards a shared vision, applying her unique communication and analytical skills for the social good.
Meghan graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in business administration and management.
Julia Parsley
BUSINESS MANAGER
Jules makes sure our business operations work as hard and as smart as our team does.
MoreJules scaled our work from a family upstart to a full-fledged consultancy. An astute and people-centered problem-solver, she’s built our back-end systems and provides financial and legal guidance. Her wisdom arises from over two decades of front-line business experience — from managing Nike brand operations to co-founding Wildfang apparel to bringing her skills to new (to her) industries like commercial real estate and CBD products. She’s been described as an operations swiss army knife — which is not far off, in our experience.
Julia graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a Bachelor of Business Administration.
Learning from those with lived experience is core to our practice.
We are perpetual students of the wisdom that’s held within communities of color, on-the-ground movement leaders, survivors, and all those who disproportionately bear the burden of injustice.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the individuals, organizations and movements that have contributed to our understanding, with particular appreciation for:
Béalleka Consulting
Move to End Violence
Emerging Leaders
The Anti-Racism Daily