Frequently Asked Questions

Third Culture Comms is a boutique strategic communications and advisory firm founded by Yasmine Djellal, based in the Washington D.C. area. We work with institutional leaders, international organizations, and senior decision-makers who need communications that operate at the level of their work: across borders, institutions, and high-stakes environments. We function as a senior strategic partner, not a traditional agency.

It comes from the concept of "third culture kids": people who grew up moving between cultures and ended up belonging fully to none of them, but fluent in all of them. That is the lens we bring to communications. Our founder's global upbringing, combined with nearly two decades building that fluency inside international development institutions, shaped how we think, how we write, and whose stories we know how to tell.

We work with a small number of clients at any given time, all operating at the highest levels of their fields. Some are senior executives, founders, and public figures building a presence that must carry authority across borders, institutions, and high-stakes environments. Others are international organizations, multilateral institutions, and sovereign partners where communications strategy shapes how work gets funded, replicated, and remembered. Others are NGOs, foundations, and policy institutions whose impact has outpaced their narrative. And others are privately held businesses and executives navigating cross-border expansion, geopolitical complexity, or high-stakes market entry. What they share: the stakes are real, and the margin for error is narrow.

Our work falls into three areas. Strategic Communications Advisory addresses the foundational questions: what you are saying, to whom, and why it matters in the environments where you operate. Narrative Positioning identifies and articulates the through-line in your work and builds the narrative architecture that makes it land with the right audiences. Executive Communications serves the leaders themselves: speeches, talking points, thought leadership, and the preparation that makes high-stakes communications feel authoritative, not effortful.

Washington D.C. area-based, yes, and that location is deliberate. The region sits at the center of international development, global policy, and institutional influence, home to the World Bank Group, the IMF, and a dense network of think tanks and bilateral partners. That proximity informs how we work. Our clients are across the United States, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

Yes. Many of our clients are headquartered outside the United States or operate across multiple regions. Being Washington D.C. area-based puts us close to where many international decisions take shape. Our cross-cultural background and multilingual capability give us the range to operate well beyond it.

Start by reaching out through our contact page. We will have a real conversation about what you are working on and whether there is a genuine fit. We take on a limited number of clients at a time. That is intentional. It is the only way to do this work at the level it deserves.