Team & COLLABORATORS

GINNY SIMMONS

Ginny Simmons is the owner and founder of Aglet Strategies, where she provides strategic communications and campaign guidance to hand-selected clients advancing human rights, civil rights, and other good causes.

Ginny has been a leader in public policy advocacy strategy, with a focus on communications strategy and digital implementation, for 20 years. She has provided strategic guidance to more than 50 local and national organizations while Vice President leading digital strategy for the global PR firm FitzGibbon Media Inc., and as a program officer at the Joyce Foundation. She has led in-house digital teams for the ONE Campaign, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (now known as Everytown for Gun Safety), and the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2005, Ginny created the first blog written by a death row inmate, an online innovation that generated national and international media attention and brought questions of innocence to light in the case. The man received a last-minute stay of execution. Ginny has crafted digital strategies that have generated hundreds of thousands of petition signers, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars online, broken through to national and international media, state legislators, the U.S. Congress, and the White House, and directly contributed to policy changes at the state, national, and international levels. In 2024, Marquis Who's Who honored Ginny as a distinguished leader in the media sector, engaging with nonprofits and issue-based campaigns.

Aglet Strategies services include campaign strategy, theory of change consulting, digital impact, media relations, story and op-ed placement, profile building, writing/editing, graphic design, branding, video production, communications program auditing and strategic planning, report production, website builds, TV booking, data analytics, and influencer outreach. Aglet Strategies clients have included American Civil Liberties Union - National and ACLU state affiliates in California, Colorado, and the District of Columbia, the Campaign for D.C. Statehood for the ACLU-D.C., the Black Girl Freedom Fund, D.C. Maternal Health Campaigns, Film Forward, #FreeSlahi campaign for Mohamedou Slahi, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Just Beginnings Collaborative, Just Futures Law, Justice Action Center, Justice Re-Invented, the MeToo+Philanthropy donor convenings, the National Immigration Law Center, New Public, NILC Immigrant Justice Fund, NILC Winning in the States Initiative, NoVo Foundation, Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US), the Safe Not Stranded campaign to end Remain In Mexico, Reboot, Seed&Spark, Together for Safer Roads, ‘The Tech We Want’ Infrastructure Fund for the Omidyar Network, and Youth First / No Kids in Prison.

Ginny grew up in New Hampshire, studied government and anthropology at Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, D.C. Growing up, her mom always insisted she tie her shoelaces so she wouldn’t ruin her aglets.

TIM RUSCH

Tim Rusch is a strategic communications advisor with deep experience advancing policy reform and social change across a broad range of issues, including voting rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive health, corporate accountability, financial regulation, labor rights, prison reform, and gun policy.

He began his career in public media in the 1990s and has since held leadership roles in advocacy and policy communications. These include serving as Senior Vice President at Fitzgibbon Media, Communications Director at the public policy think tank Demos, and Regional Media Manager at GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). He currently consults with nonprofit organizations, foundations, campaigns and aligned businesses to reach impact goals.

Tim has worked with a wide range of national and local organizations, among them: The United Way of New York City, Interledger Foundation, Echoing Green, Alliance of Families for Justice, The Drug Policy Alliance, NYC Anti-Violence Project, Global Witness, V-Day/1 Billion Rising, Amnesty International USA, Color of Change, the Ford Foundation, Youth First/No Kids in Prison, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, National Immigration Law Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance, All Out, UNITE HERE, Caring Across Generations, Global Zero, Everytown for Gun Safety, and many others.

He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

YASMINA DARDARI

Yasmina Dardari is a communications and public relations strategist with nearly a decade of experience helping mission-driven organizations shape public narratives and advance social change. She has advised nonprofits, advocacy groups, foundations, local governments, and purpose-driven companies on communications campaigns that amplify issues spanning reproductive justice, digital rights, housing policy, civil rights, public health, and foreign policy.

With expertise across media relations, narrative strategy, spokesperson development, digital strategy, media training, editorial strategy, and crisis communications, Yasmina has served as an advocacy and policy communications adviser for organizations including UltraViolet, the Center for Health & Gender Equity, Ekō, Legal Services NYC, and the National Iranian American Council. She has prepared executives, legal experts, advocates, and elected officials for media interviews across television, radio, print, and online outlets. Rooted in a commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices, her work translating complex policy issues into compelling narratives has generated coverage in major national and international outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, Reuters, Politico, The Associated Press, Newsweek, USA Today, The Guardian, and CNBC. Earlier in her career, Yasmina served as the social action community manager for the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War, building and mobilizing an online advocacy community around legislation addressing the sexual assault epidemic in the U.S. military.

Yasmina grew up in Florida and holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Anthropology from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, where her academic interests included human rights law and media policy. She has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Gainesville, FL. When she’s not catching a film screening at her local movie theater, you can find Yasmina dabbling in creative writing or immersed in a science fiction novel.

ALEC SASLOW

Alec Saslow is a communications and media relations professional based in Colorado with a decade of experience working with nonprofits and public interest campaigns. Alec has managed communications strategy, messaging, partnerships, and media outreach for organizations focused on civic participation and voting rights, government accountability, economic inequality, immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, and environmental conservation.

Alec worked as a communications consultant in Washington, D.C. and Oakland, California, and has assisted a variety of issue advocacy organizations, including: the ACLU, State Voices, Consumer Reports, MapLight, National Immigration Law Center; Paid Leave for the United States, and Waterkeeper Alliance. Alec is an experienced writer of media relations materials and opinion pieces with a track record of shaping messaging to help clients break through and placing stories in high-profile outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today, among others.

Alec grew up in Colorado and studied journalism and public relations at Syracuse University before living in Ecuador, Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California. He's a formidable table tennis opponent as well as an avid runner and juggler.

trusted & frequent collaboratorS

Aglet Strategies works with carefully chosen, highly-skilled partners and subcontractors to best meet project needs and produce meaningful results. Among our most trusted and frequent collaborators:

Sam Herrick, Samantha Kate Design - Graphic Design, Report Layout, Illustration, and Photography

Thomas Crawford - Writing, Strategist, Social Media, Research/Analytics, Reporting and Insights

Josh Kalvin, Lone Pine Creative - Video, Design, and Animation to Break Down Complex Topics

Astrid Da Silva - Creative problem solver, strategist, communicator, and designer

Mercer Brockenbrough - Influencer Outreach to Elevate Social Media Campaigns

Henri Makembe, Campaign Strategy, Websites, Social Media, and Mobile technology