We're your language strategists.
We've been honing our skills with language for well over a decade, working on some of the most challenging issues: talking about inequality, abortion, LGBTQ rights, the environment, sex education, and health care. We've partnered with leading polling and research firms. We've helped big players have an even bigger impact, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Ford Foundation.
Alyssa Wulf
PARTNER
ALYSSA@REALLANGUAGE.COM
Alyssa is a cognitive linguist who has dedicated her career to understanding language, judgment, empathy, and persuasion. She develops linguistic strategies to support fundamental thinking shifts in areas including reproductive rights and justice, health care, environmental standards, and LGBTQ rights. Alyssa has been a trusted advisor to thought leaders at organizations including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Ford Foundation, and NARAL, and she uses her expertise to draw out innovative language and thinking wherever it emerges. Over the course of her career, she led pioneering work at the Rockridge Institute, co-founded and led strategic analysis at the nonprofit Real Reason, and now co-owns Real Language LLC. Alyssa trained her ear growing up in South Dakota, Iowa, and Western New York and earned her professional credentials at Wesleyan, Gallaudet, and UC Berkeley.
Erik Sahlin
Partner
erik@reallanguage.com
Erik is a political language strategist with a background as a social scientist trained in history, politics, and cognitive linguistics. He has been part of leading efforts to apply cognitive linguistics to political advocacy, starting as Managing Director of the Rockridge Institute think tank, then as a co-founder of the nonprofit Real Reason, and now at Real Language LLC. Working on issues from reproductive rights to health care, Erik has focused on a range of conceptual and language challenges including views of government, understandings of inequality, and perceptions of gender roles. Erik sharpened his political and language instincts while growing up in rural Minnesota, where he first became involved in politics by canvassing in small towns. Educated at Georgetown, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, he also built expertise in international politics and cultures and gained fluency in Mandarin Chinese.