Communications & Partnerships Strategist for the Digital Age
I help you Build Culture Capital
I work at the intersection of media, youth culture, digital behaviour, and systems change, helping mission-driven teams tell better stories, design produsts with cultural fluency, and build the kind of digital societies where people thrive.I'm the founder of Culture Signals Lab, a culture innovation studio based in Nairobi, working globally.With 11+ years of experience in digital storytelling, community engagement, and public-interest communications across East Africa, I bring a grounded, data-driven, human-centered approach to transforming how organizations connect with the people they serve.
Build Culture Capital™
Cultural leadership for the Digital Age
Hi, I’m Stella, culture strategist, storyteller, and founder of Culture Signals Lab, helping Africa and the world Build Culture Capital™.Culture capital is the new currency of leadership. It determines who thrives, who influences, and who shapes the future.I help creators, founders, and impact organisations build healthier digital societies by growing culture capital, the kind of influence that shapes identity, strengthens trust, and unlocks belonging.I care deeply about how people form meaning, how stories move communities, and how culture shapes the future.
Over the last decade, I’ve worked at the frontlines of youth media, climate storytelling, digital safety, and public-interest innovation, designing strategies that connect people, protect people, and inspire people towards action.My Approach:
My work blends three worlds:
1. Media Insight - understanding how young people consume, remix, and respond to stories.
2. Civic Storytelling - translating community realities into narratives that shift perception and inspire action.
3. Digital Behavior Research - decoding what shapes trust, misinformation, identity, and online influence.This fusion powers tools like the Culture Compass™, Social Signals Compass™, and SokoShaper™, frameworks that help organisations design culture-smart content, campaigns, and programmes, not just communication outputs.Who I’ve Worked With:I’ve collaborated with organisations across climate, food systems, digital literacy, governance, and youth culture including:- Shujaaz Inc (strategic communications, ecosystem building & climate storytelling)
- Food Culture Alliance (Strategic Partnerships, Ecosystem building, Youth Engagement)
- TED Countdown (research & film work on community-driven climate action)
- Facebook-funded digital literacy initiatives
- Youth-focused innovation labs, civic organisations, and grassroots creators across East AfricaWhat Drives Me:We live in a world shaped by fragmented attention, rising misinformation, and declining public trust.
I believe that the next wave of social change will be led by those who understand culture as infrastructure, the unseen force that shapes belief, belonging, and behaviour.Culture Signals Lab exists to equip those leaders.
Creative Sidequests
In 2018, I won an award for an experimental podcast I started as a personal audio diary. At my core, I am an artist who also loves creating impact in business and policy.When I’m not supporting organisations to position their work, I write about the power of new media through Culture Signals Lab, a culture capital research and education platform that I curate.My highlight as an artist so far has been a month-long residency in Italy in 2022. It was part of the EU-funded ArtXchange program where I collaborated with other African artists to stage an installation on art for social change.
My approach and Signature Framework:
The Culture Compass™I designed the Culture Compass to map culture into three interconnected spheres that help build inclusive brands, programs and technologies.
All three spheres have to be present and work together to create inclusion. They include:1. Institutional / Legacy Systems – catering to our formal structures, governance, and historical knowledge.
2. Communal / Collective Systems – honouring our shared values, collective memory, and social bonds.
3. Individual Agency Systems – enabling our personal identities, stories, and ability to act.When all three are integrated, we build futures where people, technology, and systems thrive together.
Strategic Communication for fundraising| Youth engagement | Movement & Partnership Building
I work with social innovators, philanthropists and development organisations to position them for fundraising and accelerated impact. Here's how we can work together:1. Strategic Communications and Brand Building
12 years of creating clarity out of complexity.
I build organisational communications strategies and brand messaging that simplify complex work and research into clear and compelling comms. My edge is deep expertise in digital strategy and content.2. Youth Engagement Advisor
Leverage over 10 years of insights into youth and digital culture to reach your impact goals.
Invite me to share insights on how to engage young people or to lead a design workshop for youth programs, movements or campaigns, especially in Africa.3. Movement & Partnership Building
Tap into seven years of advocacy and movement building.
How can you influence public opinion to shape policy or support a movement? I can help you develop creative communication and community strategies to design programs and campaigns that attract the right partners and community.
Speaking and Facilitating
Hire or invite me to speak at your next gathering, summit or panel on Movement Building, Climate, AI futures and the New Economy.- I keynote or join panels on Unlocking The Power of Digital culture, Tech and AI Social Systems, and Tapping into Youth Movements.
- I design and host round tables, panels or custom convenings for ecosystem building.
General Inquiries
I'm excited to hear from you and collaborate on building your brand or on making art for social change.
artist profile
Stella Njogo is a multidisciplinary artist working across writing, sound, and media.
Her practice explores the intersections of culture, identity, and collective memory, often through experimental formats that move between the digital and the analog.Selected Projects2016 – 2018 | Creative Blogging
Initiated a body of writing on pop and digital culture through a Medium publication, which has since evolved into Culture Signals Lab.2018 | Kalongolongo Life
Developed an exploratory podcast named after the Kenyan childhood role-play game. The audio diary series, composed of 5–10 minute episodes, was awarded Best Use of Podcast at the 2018 DMA Awards in Kenya.2022 | Santuri Music Producer Programme
Selected for Santuri’s music production programme, producing an original soundscape presented at the cohort showcase.
Listen to it here.
2022 | ArtXchange Residency, Italy
The residency was about knowledge exchange and exploring art as a tool for social change.
I produced an installation (I am Not an Actor) -pictured below, that highlighted how we change when we engage in digital spaces. An accidentally intentional self-evolution in the internet culture.
It featured the installation, a silent film on loop(Silence on Set), and a live performance piece at the Open Studio Day with other African artists.
2024 – Present | Cultural Blogging
Resumed publishing cultural essays on Medium, reflecting on the role of Kenyan Gen Z movements in shaping civic and cultural discourse.2025 | Digital Creator
Developing a YouTube-based review show examining how media shapes culture through contemporary African perspectives.Artistic StatementThrough her work, Stella Njogo investigates how culture is lived, contested, and re-imagined in everyday life.
Her practice aims to document emerging shifts while proposing new modes of storytelling across platforms and generations.