Consulting & Advisory

As the lead marketing strategist behind game-changing racial equity initiatives for brands like Dove (The CROWN Act), Dove Men+Care and the National Basketball Player’s Association (Commit To C.A.R.E. Now), and ESPN (Champion Black Businesses), Orlena has a proven track record of building award-winning inclusive business and marketing strategies that drive impact and growth.

An astute cultural and brand storyteller, Orlena helps brands realize the nexus of business and society through purpose-driven marketing. A former engineer turned marketer over 20 years ago, Orlena is a critical thinker that has a unique talent for unearthing a purpose-driven opportunity through the lens of cultural data and insights. She applies that cultural acumen to developing data-driven strategies that create shared value — value for the business enterprise and value for the communities that it serves. Her framework to “Operationalize Inclusion in Marketing” enables brands to make their brand promise true [for all consumers they serve] with cultural intelligence, credibility, and consistency.

Orlena serves as an advisor and cultural strategist for brands and organizations seeking to build inclusive business, marketing, and communications strategies. She has helped world-renowned global marketing organizations, in both the public and private sector, deliver excellence with inclusion.

Expertise

  • Market Research & Insights

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

  • Brand Identity & Equity Development

  • Brand Marketing & Communications Strategy

  • Public Relations

  • Campaign Strategy & Development

  • Digital Marketing Strategies

  • Content Development & Production

  • Strategic Partnership Development

  • Community Outreach Strategy

Impact

  • Co-created of the CROWN Coalition, the official sponsor of the inaugural CROWN Act legislation to end hair discrimination

  • Chief architect of the marketing and communications strategy behind the CROWN Act Movement resulting in passage of anti-hair discrimination laws in 19 states, and providing legal protections to more than 24 Million Black Americans

  • Lead author of Unilever’s 2021 Guidelines for ‘Unstereotyping Black in Representation in Communications’

  • Designed the first “Retail Excellence with Inclusion” industry training in partnership with the Tory Burch Corporation

  • Redesigned the marketing and communications strategy for the United States Naval Academy Admissions, contributing to the most diverse midshipman class in USNA history

  • Lead strategist and co-creator of Commit To C.A.R.E. Now, Dove Men+Care’s first racial equity initiative in partnership with the National Basketball Players Association

  • Co-created and co-wrote It Comes Naturally, Shea Moisture’s 2021 award-winning anthemic Campaign

  • Chief cultural strategist and co-creator of Prudential’s new Black Consumer Platform

  • Co-developed BET Networks new Brand Manifesto

  • Co-created new Vaseline lotion variant for Women of Color

  • Executive agency lead for ESPN’s award-winning Champion Black Businesses

  • Authored the positioning strategy for The History’s channel’s 2016 remake of Roots, The mini-series

  • Co-owner of JOY Collective, an award-winning cultural insights marketing, creative, and social impact agency.