Foundations and Practice

Cultural Strategist and Interpretive Researcher

I hold an MSc in Culture and Society (Honors) from the London School of Economics and a BA in Communication (Summa Cum Laude) from USC, where I focused on cultural theory, media and audience studies, semiotics, gender, consumer psychology, and applied psychoanalysis.
My early academic research explored how creative subcultures in Tel Aviv used digital platforms to reframe urban identity and symbolic economy — reshaping how cities are marketed, experienced, and contested.

I work at the intersection of symbolic systems, identity, embodiment, and narrative meaning — translating emotional and cultural depth into frameworks for understanding and change.

My practice blends cultural theory, media studies, and applied psychoanalysis with strategic advisory and grounded qualitative research. I help institutions, initiatives, and brands understand how meaning circulates — and how that insight can inform culturally intelligent, emotionally attuned, and outcome-aligned strategy.

I often begin with high-level inquiry: conducting literature reviews, media mapping, or landscape analysis to grasp the symbolic terrain, institutional context, and stakeholder aims. From there, I move downward — into communities, discourse, and lived experience — to trace where symbolic coherence unravels, anchors, or requires reframing.
Whether in for-profit, nonprofit, or public contexts, I guide clients in navigating this field of tension with clarity and care.

Career Snapshot

Over the past decade, I’ve led cross-sector projects for global NGOs, city governments, health researchers, and cultural institutions — often working across the gap between grassroots meaning and institutional strategy.

Selected Roles:
– Research Consultant at Catalyst Group International LLC
– Insights Analyst at Stanford Genome Technology Center
– Leadership Fellow at the American Jewish Committee


Selected Projects:
My work has included:
– Grant writing and partnership development for Holocaust survivor services (via the German Claims Conference)
– Environmental and cultural strategy with KKL-JNF and Expo 2020
– Influencer and culture mapping for the City of Jerusalem — including ethnographic insight and strategic advising on authenticity in municipal narrative
– Narrative development and strategic messaging for ME/CFS and Long COVID at Stanford Genome Technology Center
– Symbolic discourse analysis on antisemitism and anti-Zionist ideology for the American Jewish Committee

Across all of these, I serve as a bridge between communities and institutions — surfacing symbolic undercurrents and translating them into clarity and direction that aligns with organizational goals while remaining reflective of human experience on the ground.

Philosophy and Method

Social and cultural research is a magnifying glass into the audiences, symbols, and cultural logics that shape human behavior.
It allows organizations — for-profit or not — to build strategy on real foundations: beliefs, practices, representational systems, and the affective tenor of the moment.
Whether analyzing digital ecologies, identity narratives, or grassroots cultural forms, I guide clients toward strategies that reflect — not overwrite — the cultural field they operate within.

My interpretive toolbox includes:

• Discourse and thematic analysis

• Literature and media review

• Stakeholder interviews

• Ethnographic observation

• Semiotic interpretation

• Narrative framing and translation

I approach narrative through a symbolic and psychodynamic lens, integrating emotional depth with interpretive frameworks grounded in cultural theory and psychoanalytic thought.

From policy campaigns to health equity tools, city branding to trauma discourse — I work to surface invisible meaning and transform that insight into clarity and direction.

Writing and Long-Term Vision

Alongside strategy and research work, I write essays exploring chronic illness, grief, gender, symbolic trauma, and the emotional life of Jewish/Israeli identity — published in The Times of Israel, The Daily Trojan, and other platforms.
My writing carries the same aims as my research: to bridge theory and feeling, and to render the symbolic material of life visible and alive.

I’m currently deepening my focus on psychodynamic and trauma-informed modalities, with the long-term intention of integrating this insight into therapeutic practice.
You can learn more about 1:1 reflection sessions with me here.
While chronic illness sometimes shapes my pace, it also sharpens my listening — to the emotional undercurrents that matter most.

For those who speak in typologies, I’m an INFJ-T with a Ni–Fi core and a 4w5 sx/sp instinctual stacking. I’m guided by intuition, depth, and a quiet pull to give shape to meaning — especially when it’s still forming or felt more than known.
That inner process shapes how I work: tracing symbolic and emotional patterns, connecting psychological and cultural threads, and, in my consulting work, translating them into research-based insight and strategy.

At heart, I’m drawn to integration, symbolic healing, and emotional depth.

When I’m not immersed in cultural questions or symbolic patterns, I’m swimming, writing melodies on the piano, and exploring the emotional topographies of cities that have shaped me — from Tel Aviv and Stockholm to LA, NYC, Jerusalem, and London.
I find grounding in nature and recharge through quality time with friends and family — ideally with food, laughter, and just the right amount of ridiculousness.

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If you’d like to collaborate, learn more, or explore shared threads — I’d love to connect.