Additive Impact is pleased to welcome the newest members to our team this year senior project manager Shelby Rashap, social impact writer Lila Tublin and senior strategist Alex Withers!
Below each shared what drew them to join Additive and the kind of impact that matters most to them.
Meet Shelby
Shelby elevates our workflows, strengthens client relations and plans projects that foster stakeholder engagement and community building. Her mission is to ensure that our work showcases strong strategic and creation vision through co-creation with our clients.
Shelby’s background spans design, strategy and copywriting for progressive candidates, mission-driven organizations and community organizers. From the start of her career, she has been dedicated to promoting social justice and equipping organizations with the communication tools they need to tell their stories and build movements.
We caught up with Shelby to dive into her passions and creative practices outside of work.
What excited you about the opportunity with Additive?
Additive’s strong emphasis on strategic, data-informed and rigorous processes drew me in. This focus ensures that our projects are deeply grounded and provide unique insights into the spaces we work in.
In purpose-driven work, things often move quickly and can be under-resourced, which sometimes leads to prioritizing flashy messaging or visuals over a solid strategic foundation. However, Additive excels at balancing depth and speed. We can meet our partners where they are and create compelling storytelling.
It’s truly inspiring to collaborate with clients who have the infrastructure and commitment to drive meaningful change, especially during a time when many challenges are being exacerbated by the current climate.
What causes are motivating to you right now?
I’m interested in exploring how we can implement policing alternatives in our communities. It’s clear that there are more effective ways to meet our neighbors’ needs while ensuring safety, respect and care for everyone.
We’re at a critical point, with a growing movement away from punitive systems and the brutality that often comes with them. Instead of relying on fear-based power dynamics, we need to focus on solutions that address housing, mental health and economic challenges.
It has been encouraging to see innovative initiatives popping up across the country that show how this shift toward systems of care can lead to safer, healthier and stronger communities.
It’s great to see more solutions rooted in community care gaining traction. Does this passion influence your own creative practices?
I really enjoy exploring and creating care-based interactions — it’s something that energizes me. I have a textile and sculpture practice where I make soft sculptures that invite play and comfort. I often describe these objects as big, funky pillows. This creative outlet lets me work with my hands and introduces a softness into my life that hopefully brings others joy and comfort too.
Meet Lila
As a social impact writer, Lila joined our team to help translate strategy into messaging platforms that drive recognition, relevance and reach for our clients.
She comes to Additive with a decade of copywriting experience. For the majority of her career, she has worked with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations, developing compelling verbal identities, engaging campaigns and more. Before picking up the pen full time, Lila honed her project management and communication skills at an architectural hardware factory.
We chatted with Lila to learn about the causes on her mind and the world of professional wrestling.
What excited you about the opportunity with Additive?
Values alignment. When I began pursuing a career in copywriting, I found that many opportunities didn’t align with what I valued. While they can be impressive, I wasn’t drawn to agencies that work with multinational corporations. I didn’t want to play a role in promoting products that might hurt people rather than help.
I wanted to use my writing skills for good. When I found Additive, it seemed like a perfect place to do that. The work is beautiful and grounded in strategy. The team is smart and talented. The clients are making a positive impact. I wanted to be a part of it.
What causes are motivating to you right now?
Gambling harm prevention. Many states have legalized sports betting, and gambling addiction has skyrocketed as a result. Betting is entertainment, and people should spend their money however they want. But with costs of living so high, I think sports betting is the last thing anyone needs to get hooked on. And betting sites are designed to do exactly that.
The National Council on Problem Gambling’s mission feels important to me right now, along with the work of state regulators and public health agencies. They’re helping people bet in ways that align with their best interests and supporting those affected by gambling harm. Sports betting ads are everywhere — even in pro-wrestling where results are predetermined — so it’s hard to ignore the topic.
Yes, people should be able to have fun safely, especially young people who watch sports entertainment. When did you become a fan of pro-wrestling?
My partner and I went to a wrestling show at Madison Square Garden on a whim in 2011. It was ridiculous and we both had a lot of fun. We’ve been going to shows in New York ever since. We’ve even travelled to Canada, Mexico and Japan for big events.
I love how wrestling blurs the line between fiction and reality. The stories are planned, and the performers are playing exaggerated characters, but real life influences the drama.
For example, sometimes locker room grudges unexpectedly derail scripted segments, or stories leverage decades-long relationships between performers. Plus, behind-the-scenes business and administrative decisions affect what happens, from wrestlers’ contract terms to athletic commission rules around intentional cutting. I’m drawn to these stories within stories and the unending absurdity of it all.
Meet Alex
Alex combines his passion for understanding human behavior with critical problem-solving to help organizations positively affect society when it’s needed most.
Before joining Additive, Alex shaped the strategy of a wide range of major brands at crucial moments of change — from tech giants to nonprofits to emerging innovators. Across every challenge, he’s guided by the belief that great strategy should always lead to real change — the kind that moves people and organizations to make a lasting impact.
We sat down with Alex to learn about the cause that motivates him most and how he’s finding creative inspiration in the kitchen.
What excited you about the opportunity with Additive?
I’ve always wanted to spend my days working with organizations that do good. But it’s one thing to talk the talk — it’s another to create work that is concrete, actionable and lasting. From all I’ve seen, Additive’s work doesn’t just inspire; it empowers organizations to actually make a difference.
It was the obvious next step for me to join a team that’s committed to doing work that genuinely helps people. And everyone here is just so kind, thoughtful and generous. That energy means something.
What causes are motivating to you right now?
The biggest right now for me is reproductive and sexual healthcare. The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a devastating step backward. As restrictions on bodies and care spread across the country, it’s critical that we protect and expand access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual healthcare for all people. Organizations like Planned Parenthood continue to do such vital work — not only providing care, but advocating for the rights and dignity of every body. That fight is more important now than ever before.
What creative or personal pursuits are feeding you at the moment?
Anyone who knows me knows I’m an avid cook. Cooking has always been one of my favorite creative outlets — it’s tactile, expressive and endlessly experimental (with a good ole dose of chaos). As we head into the colder months, I’m looking forward to more time spent in the kitchen. I’ve even been thinking about making a little cookbook for friends and family — nothing fancy, just a fun collection of my favorite recipes.
And when I’m not in the kitchen, there’s a good chance I’m playing chess — one to two hours a day, minimum (it’s a problem, I know). It keeps my brain sharp, and away from Instagram…
