Ms. McKenna serves at the helm of Phase 2 Consulting, bringing over two decades of experience in externally facing roles in strategy, communications, policy analysis and community and government relations. 

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Prior to joining Phase 2, Ms. McKenna was the Chief of Staff at The Collective PAC, the nation’s largest political action committee dedicated to addressing the underrepresentation of African Americans in public office. She has also worked in recent years as Deputy Director of Communications for the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and Chief of Staff to the City Council in Providence, RI.

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Ms. McKenna has particularly deep roots in external relations. In her consulting role at One Voice, alongside the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, she advised the Executive Director on funding strategies, media affairs, government and constituent relations, program development and evaluation. Ms. McKenna was responsible for identifying and managing partnerships with local and regional non-profits, corporations and educational institutions including Harvard Law School, MIT and USDA Rural Development to design and advance programs in areas of education and community development. She is an expert in advancing projects that require public buy-in, incorporating lawmaker, grassroots and grasstops strategies for successful coalition building.

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Moreover, Ms. McKenna is experienced in drafting policy positions and in speechwriting, including for then MS-NAACP Executive Director Derrick Johnson where she covered issues on charter schools, childhood obesity and economic development.

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In her tenure as Chief of Staff to the Providence City Council, she proposed a significant number of impactful ordinances that, with backing from community members, council members and state legislators were successfully turned into law.

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Additionally, Ms. McKenna taught the undergraduate course “Policy, Politics and the Political Process” at Tougaloo College and created and managed a partnership between Harvard Law School and Tougaloo College to allow law students to work with members of the Mississippi State Legislature doing research and policy recommendations.

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Ms. McKenna earned a Master of Education from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and completed her Master of City Planning at MIT. She sits on the Board of Directors at St. Andrew’s School in Barrington RI, is mother to two sons and resides in Providence, RI with her four rescue dogs.