Communication & Research Consultant

Where Research meets strategic influence.

PhD-level expertise bridging public health communication, defense-sector strategy, and evidence-driven narrative intelligence — built for the clients who can’t afford to get the message wrong.

PhD, Mass Communication

10+ Years Experience

WOSB
Federal Contractor
Consulting Practice

Catasha Davis, PhD

Years in the field
7 +
Sectors served
3

NCI

NIA & federal past performance

DoD

Defense & emerging tech clients

About

Research authority. Strategic clarity.

The gap between what communicators assume and what audiences actually do — that's where I work.

UW–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication, 2026

I’m a freelance Communication and Research Consultant with a PhD in Mass Communication and a decade of applied experience across public health, clinical trials, national defense, nonprofit, and private sector environments.

My work spans the full arc of the research-to-action pipeline: designing rigorous studies, synthesizing evidence, and translating findings into communication strategies that perform in real-world conditions — whether that’s a federal health campaign, a defense information environment assessment, or a longitudinal policy research agenda.

I bring past performance with federal health agencies (NCI, NIA) and defense clients through Protagonist Technology and Parenthetic. With prior experience in classified and sensitive government environments — including TS/SCI and Public Trust clearance history — I understand the operational context, access requirements, and stakeholder expectations that define high-stakes government work. My academic grounding in Third-Person Effect theory and Influence of Presumed Influence informs everything I build — including my proprietary EchoPosture™ framework for strategic influence analysis.

 

Services

Full-spectrum consulting
capabilities.

1

Strategic Communications

Message architecture, narrative development, and information environment analysis for government, defense, and institutional clients. Grounded in behavioral and social influence theory.

Narrative Framing

Influence Analysis

Defense Sector
2

Research Design & Execution

Mixed-methods research design, survey instruments, qualitative inquiry, focus groups, and longitudinal data architectures. Delivered to federal, academic, and nonprofit standards.

Mixed Methods

Survey Design

Federal Reports
3

Health Communication

Campaign strategy, audience segmentation, and science translation for public health initiatives, clinical trials, and federal health agencies. A decade of applied expertise at NCI and NIA.

Public Health

Clinical Trials

NCI / NIA
4

Policy & Equity Research

Longitudinal demographic and socioeconomic data analysis, reparative action research, archival research management, and evidence synthesis for legislative and government audiences.

Longitudinal Data

Racial Equity

Government Contracts
5

Training & Capacity Building

Research team management, archival research guidance, communication training for organizational stakeholders, and bespoke curriculum development for research and communications staff.

Team Leadership

Curriculum Design

Workshops
6

Intelligence & OSINT Analysis

Open-source information environment assessments, adversarial narrative tracking, and strategic communications analysis for defense and emerging technology environments.

OSINT

Adversarial Narratives

Defense Sector

Proprietary Framework

Introducing EchoPosture™

EchoPosture™ is a proprietary strategic influence framework designed for defense and emerging-technology environments. It provides a systematic approach to diagnosing how messages move through information environments — and how to position communication before, during, and after influence events.

Grounded in two foundational theories of media psychology, EchoPosture™ translates academic rigor into an operational diagnostic and recommendation tool — ready for government, defense, and institutional deployment.

Theoretical foundations:
Third-Person Effect (Davison, 1983)
Influence of Presumed Influence (Gunther & Storey, 2003)

EchoPosture™ is a proprietary framework. All rights reserved.

 

The EchoPosture™ Cycle

01

Diagnose

02

Map

03

Monitor

04

Position

05

Deploy

Testimonials

What clients say.

Dr. Davis is among the top 1% of students and collaborators with whom I have worked. Her insight, rigor, and intellect strengthened the quality of every recommendation, analysis, and report she touched.

Dr. Shawnika J. Hull

Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Rutgers University — Dissertation Advisor & Research Collaborator

Catasha is one of the most adaptable people I’ve had the opportunity to work with. She steps into complex, fast-moving work and figures it out fast, leading a project down from months to just three, and building a full consultation plan in three weeks. She’s the kind of person who shows up, delivers quality, and makes the work better.

Sharon L. Smith

RN, DNP, CCRP, Acting Director, Office of Clinical Research, National Institute on Aging (NIH)

Research & Publications

Selected works.

Peer-reviewed research spanning health communication, media effects, and strategic influence. Full publication list available upon request.

2025
Research Report
District of Columbia Breastfeeding Needs Assessment Report
DC Department of Health, Title V Maternal and Child Health Services & DC Breastfeeding Coalition Long, S., Tender, J., Nash, J., Roess, A., Davis, C., Robinson, C., Moffett, K., Gambrah, E., & Sierra, K. — Role: Parent Focus Group Facilitator & Analyst (NIH/National Institute on Aging)
Mixed-methods community needs assessment: qualitative focus group facilitation & analysis, thematic coding via MAXQDA, and behavioral science framework application across 15 focus groups with 64 DC parents.
2021
Journal Article
Racism and Resistance: A Qualitative Study of Bias as a Barrier to Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding Medicine, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 471–480
Davis, C., Van Kirk Villalobos, A., Turner, M. M., Long, S., & Lapinski, M. K.
2021
Journal Article
Breastfeeding in Context: African American Women's Normative Referents, Salient Identities, and Perceived Social Norms
Health Education & Behavior, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 496–506
Van Kirk Villalobos, A., Davis, C., Turner, M. M., Long, S., Hull, S., & Lapinski, M. K.
2018
Journal Article
The Addictive Potential of Television Binge Watching: Comparing Intentional and Unintentional Binges
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 589–604
Hull, S. J. & Davis, C. R.
2018
Journal Article
A Contested Cultural Space: Color-Blind Rhetoric in Discussions of College Football
Communication & Sport, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 457–476
Davis, C. R., Thornton, M. C., & Moxley-Kelly, S.
2018
Journal Article
Perceived Community Acceptance of Same-Sex Marriage: Persuasive Press, Projection, and Pluralistic Ignorance
International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 305–315
Perryman, M. R., Davis, C. R., & Hull, S. J.
2017
Journal Article
Evaluation of the Acceptance Journeys Social Marketing Campaign to Reduce Homophobia
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 173–179
Hull, S. J., Davis, C. R., Hollander, G., Gasiorowicz, M., Jeffries, W. L., Gray, S., Bertolli, J., & Mohr, A.
2017
Journal Article
Elite Cues, News Coverage, and Partisan Support for Compromise
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 94, No. 3, pp. 862–882
McLaughlin, B., McLeod, D. M., Davis, C., Perryman, M., & Mun, K.
2015
Journal Article
When Women Attack: Sex Scandals, Gender Stereotypes, and Candidate Evaluations
Politics and the Life Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 44–56
McLaughlin, B., Davis, C., Coppini, D., Kim, Y. M., Knisely, S., & McLeod, D.

Contact

Let's work together.

Available for research consulting engagements, and strategic communications projects. 

Background
TS/SCI & Public Trust clearance history
Entity type
Single-member LLC · WOSB · TX registered