WHO WE ARE

A New Hope Consulting (ANH) is a firm of progressive consultants working in collaboration with clients to advance political power for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and working class communities through progressive philanthropic practice and grassroots capacity building.

ANH is the reincarnation of Dancing Hearts Consulting (DHC), originally launched in 2017 by Esperanza K. Tervalon. Leveraging the vast learnings from our DHC days, ANH emerges with a renewed commitment to advancing progressive and innovative projects that hold people and process as our most valuable assets in creating change.

Our practitioner-consultant team brings decades of on-the-ground and in-the-trenches experience to each project to ensure clients are getting honest and helpful feedback and support.

ANH is not a traditional consulting firm—we connect high-impact consultants to client projects based on their expertise and capacity. This model ensures that partners and projects have the attention, support, and execution needed to succeed.

Our Story

A New Hope Consulting (ANH) was founded and is led by Esperanza K. Tervalon. A daughter of East Oakland, California, and Black activist parents, Esperanza was the first woman of color to lead a 501c3, 501c4, and PAC collaborative civic engagement formation focused on mobilizing progressive voters of color in the United States and built a solid reputation as a savvy electoral strategist, seasoned political organizer, and civic engagement innovator. After working in philanthropy as the Chief Strategic Officer for the Groundswell Fund where she developed and led a $5.4M capacity building program for reproductive justice organizations across the country, she decided her leadership was better served at the intersection of social justice and electoral power building and philanthropy. In 2017, she founded Dancing Hearts Consulting (DHC).

After six years of leading DHC, heading up the We Count Oregon campaign, learning and redefining the power building possibilities of Ballots Building Power, designing and implementing c4 capacity building, and redesigning and redirecting dozens of social justice and philanthropic organizations, Esperanza visioned A New Hope Consulting.

This shift marks and underscores a commitment and intention to our work in ways that honor the deep tradition of racial, social, and movement organizing while integrating and interrogating how contemporary culture, change making, and trouble making can be best put to work for progress.

Our Team

Esperanza K. Tervalon

Founder & CEO

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Esperanza is a daughter of East Oakland, California, and Black activist parents. She is the first woman of color to lead a 501c3, 501c4, and PAC collaborative civic engagement formation focused on mobilizing progressive voters of color in the United States and has built a solid reputation as a savvy electoral strategist, seasoned political organizer, and civic engagement innovator. After working in philanthropy as the Chief Strategic Officer for the Groundswell Fund where she developed and led a $5.4M capacity building program for reproductive justice organizations across the country, she decided her leadership was better served at the intersection of social justice and electoral power building and philanthropy. In 2017, she founded Dancing Hearts Consulting (DHC). After six years of leading DHC, heading up the We Count Oregon campaign, learning and redefining the power building possibilities of Ballots Building Power, designing and implementing c4 capacity building, and redesigning and redirecting dozens of social justice and philanthropic organizations, Esperanza visioned A New Hope Consulting.

Lauren Gottfredson

Senior Consultant

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Lauren is a people-centered and collaborative program leader, with a focus on developing and managing collaborative capacity-building efforts for grassroots organizations, grantmaking programs, and trust-based philanthropy as pathways to building power in communities. Lauren is a Senior Consultant with a New Hope Consulting, where she works directly with philanthropic organizations to support program strategy, design, and implementation, as well as with c4 grassroots organizations. Specifically, Lauren supports clients in strategic planning, landscape assessments, infrastructure and capacity building, grantmaking strategy, antiracist philanthropic practice, and power building through 501c3 and c4 funding. Prior to this, she served as the Senior Manager of Community Impact at United Way of the Columbia Willamette (UWCW) where she managed multiple fund programs, including the Oregon Census Equity Fund, a $9.5 million public-private fund to support Oregon’s hard-to-count campaign, We Count Oregon. While at UWCW, Lauren worked with community partners, philanthropic partners, and public agencies to develop impact programming across portfolio areas and bring UWCW into a central role as a backbone funder for the region. Lauren currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and 2-year-old daughter. She comes to Oregon after having lived in Florida and California, as well as for short periods in Central and South America. She holds a Masters of Public Health and a Masters of Arts in Applied Anthropology from the University of South Florida.

Perla Alvarez Lucio

Senior Consultant

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Perla is a decade-long community advocate in Oregon. Shortly after immigrating from El Estado de Mexico to Portland in 2006, she began her civic engagement journey with the Multnomah Youth Commission. There, she discovered her passion for community collaboration in advocating for justice. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of Oregon, Perla then took a leading role in organizing nonpartisan voter registration and GOTV campaigns for the Oregon Student Association and successfully guided their legislative agenda, including important policies like in-state tuition for undocumented Graduate Students. In 2020, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown, Perla directed the #WeCountOregon campaign, ensuring Hard-to-Count Oregonians were informed and accurately represented in the census. She currently supports civic engagement efforts through consulting. During her free time, she enjoys hiking, dancing to cumbia, and cherishing family moments.

Jalissa Fletcher

Senior Consultant

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Jalissa, a dedicated community-centered organizer based in Atlanta, Georgia, thrives on nurturing, coordinating, and partnering with communities, grassroots organizations, and philanthropic initiatives. In 2017, she assumed the role of Vice President within her local NAACP chapter, while also co-directing the grassroots movement, Feminist Leaders for Reproductive Justice. Instrumental as a founding member of the Coalition to End the Death Penalty, Jalissa later played a key role in establishing the Independent Citizen Coalition—a proactive anti-racist group that champions equitable hiring policies within local schools and advocated for the representation of communities of color in redistricting efforts. Collaborating with the Social Justice Fund Northwest, Jalissa passionately amplified the voices and impact of BIPOC nonprofits in rural areas, ensuring they not only gain recognition for their essential work in majority-white areas but also secure vital funding. Her involvement in Climate Action stems from her endeavors with Resilience Hubs, coupling her expertise in racial equity with climate resilience. One of Jalissa's most impactful efforts included knocking on doors and rallying voters to support YesOn2 in Minneapolis—a pivotal campaign dedicated to transforming public safety. Through grassroots engagement and voter encouragement, she played a vital role in advocating for progressive change and community-driven solutions. Outside her professional commitments, Jalissa finds joy in hosting heartwarming dinners for friends and family, unwinding by the beach, or partaking in laid-back outdoor activities.

Core Values

We are the experts; not the authority. ANH is lucky to partner with some of the sector's smartest leaders and practitioners. There are a lot of smart people in the room, and we honor everyone’s experience and ideas. Our highly skilled and accomplished team will share our experience and opinions with clients to ensure that decisions are informed and aligned with the vision of each project. Each consultant who works for ANH is committed to lifting up and living into three core values: honesty, integrity, and accountability. Our hope is that changemakers are ready to work at a higher level of sophistication, unity, and clarity of work alignment by leaning into our three core values of working in healthy partnership.

Honesty

We believe that honest communication, analysis and process is essential to working in alignment with the progressive future we envision.

Integrity

We believe that our relationships and work product are reflections of our personal and collective commitment to social change. Keeping our word is central to the work culture at ANH

Accountability

We believe that mistakes will happen and being accountable is the first step in repairing breeches in trust. Accountability is a collective skill that all ANH consultants bring to bear on every project. "What happens between us is half yours and half mine" (as expressed by Dr. Melanie Tervalon) and when we are accountable we can identify better ways of working together to advance our shared commitment to social justice.