Reciprocity Consulting, LLC is a women-owned small business based in Tacoma, Washington that provides customized support to strengthen organizations, engage communities and build resilient, collaborative partnerships leading with equity, diversity and inclusion. The philosophy of reciprocity emphasizes care in building trusting relationships and opening dialog for authentic engagement, mutual learning and long-term impact. Reciprocity Consulting, LLC builds momentum for positive change.
Clients and partners include foundations, non-profits, governments, tribes, businesses and universities with work throughout the U.S. and internationally. In Washington state, Reciprocity Consulting, LLC is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE).
Founder Jennifer S. Arnold, Ph.D. has over 20 years of experience in facilitation and conflict management, community engagement, cultural exchange and participatory social science methods with an emphasis on anti-racism, tribal sovereignty and equity, diversity and inclusion. She works at all levels to support transformative change, from individual coaching and mentoring to organizational change and bridging communities to the development of partnerships and learning networks.
Jennifer’s facilitation style celebrates the diversity of the groups she works with and draws out the experience and expertise that every participant brings. She invests time in building relationships and getting to know the substantive issues that people care about, specializing in sustainable community development, holistic health, agriculture and conservation. She is fluent in Spanish and skilled at working in culturally diverse communities. Even when tensions are high and controversial issues bring out the most challenging group dynamics, Jennifer helps partners talk through their differences with civility and grace and reach meaningful decisions.
Jennifer has expertise in the social and natural sciences holding a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida, an M.S. in Rangeland Science and Management from The University of Arizona and a B.S. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught graduate courses and workshops in conflict and collaboration, qualitative research methods, community planning and community-based participatory research. She is an affiliate faculty member in Urban Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma.
Jennifer enjoys getting to know people and building community wherever she goes – feeling at home in the biggest cities and the most rural places. She enjoys organizing block parties, sharing good food and taking a cold plunge with friends in the Puget Sound as her husband and daughter cheer her on.
Jennifer works with a network of diverse, highly skilled colleagues to serve the breadth of client needs:
- Rocío Covarrubias – translation and cultural competency
- Casey Davis, Casey Davis Design – graphic design, social and environmental justice, restoration, community building
- Darryl Haddock – environmental justice, racial equity, community engagement, green infrastructure
- Diedre Houchen, Ph.D. – Faithworks Professional Consulting, LLC – qualitative, participatory, and historical methods, racial equity, community engagement, child, youth, and community education
- Julia Kagochi, Kagochi Consulting, LLC – diversity, equity and inclusion
- Krista Perez, Perez Consulting and Tacoma Women of Color Collective – racial equity, community engagement
- Rodney Robinson, Outside Perspective, LLC – strategy and equity
- Kate Rolph, Katopia Design – graphic design
- Adriane Wilson, Truth Teller Consulting – racial equity and community engagement
- Althea Wilson – indigenous knowledge, environmental justice, equity, decolonization
- KJ Williams and AJ Williams Rise with KJ – racial equity and healing
- Sebastian Galindo, Ph.D. – survey and research methods, translation, cultural competency