Advocacy, partnership, and communications — and the judgment to know which the moment calls for.
A US-based global consultancy built on a conviction shaped by every campaign, coalition, and cause we have touched.
That conviction: communications, advocacy, and partnership — principled, strategic, and deeply human — are the most powerful forces available to companies and organizations that want to bring about change for people.
Each is a genuine strength on its own, and we know when to pursue them separately and when to pursue them together.
When a company cannot move a market, when a policy stands between a patient and the treatment they need, when a clinical trial cannot find the community it is meant to serve, when a cause finds itself without the voice or the allies to carry it forward, these are often the levers to pull.
We are structured as a networked advisory practice, built to assemble the right people, voices, and strategies around any challenge. Time and again we have seen that organizations unable to achieve what they want — therapies reaching fewer patients than they should, coalitions whose voices go unheard, causes that stall at the edge of possible — are missing a better-coordinated advocacy and communications strategy rather than a better product.
So we ask not just what a client needs, but who else needs to be at the table, what others need to hear from them, and how to make sure the right people are listening.
To advance patient outcomes and social progress by building the communications and advocacy infrastructure that transforms human insight into intelligent action.
Access to knowledge, treatment, care, and the systems that govern them is imperative. Advocacy, partnerships, campaigns, coalitions, and strategies are how we impact them.
What sets us apart
Eight things clients tell us they do not find elsewhere.
Deep credibility
25+ years of founder expertise across a wide array of social and health issues including women’s health, aging, rare disease, oncology, neuromuscular and genetic disorders, chronic care, sexual health, infectious disease, vaccines, mental health, health equity, coverage issues, product quality and safety, product approvals and switches, access to care and services, misinformation, issues management, and policy campaigns.
Networked expertise
We source and coordinate best-in-class subject matter experts, advocates, and specialists for each engagement, giving clients exactly the team their challenge demands.
Empathy and intelligence
Emotional intelligence paired with analytical rigor, integrating responsible AI to amplify human judgment rather than replace it.
Lean and accountable
Senior leadership engages directly on accounts, and the networked model flexes capacity up or down, including multi-region, multi-workstream programs.
Partnership
Shared goals, transparent communication, and outcomes measured by what changes for people. We bring compliance fluency — working alongside client compliance and legal teams — so partnerships are built right from the start and hold up under scrutiny.
Mission-aligned
Every engagement is passionately pursued for its potential to advance patient and social outcomes, and we measure success by what changes for people.
Built for ongoing partnership
Many engagements begin as a defined project and evolve into a retained relationship: sustained advocacy counsel, alliance management, and communications support as a client’s needs change.
Communications built around partnership
The most effective communications often aren’t built around a single voice. They’re built around credible voices aligned on one message, changing minds and shaping behavior further than any organization can alone.
Our partnership mindset
Advocacy does not happen alone. It happens when the right voices are raised, when shared purpose becomes shared strategy, and when individual commitment scales into collective power.
Every partnership we engage in — whether with a global advocacy organization or a single patient advocate — reflects genuine respect for that partner’s expertise, experience, and humanity. Partnerships are designed to create value for all parties. Trust is built over time, through consistent follow-through, honest communication, and shared commitment to mission.
Partnership is a sustained practice. This approach is why so many EmpathIQ relationships last for years.
Lee Lynch
CEO and Founding Partner
Lee has a passion for turning collaboration into real-world change, amplifying human insight through responsible technology to advance outcomes and causes. In her 25+ year career, she has led advocacy and alliance development functions and advocacy expert advisory boards at numerous leading communications consulting firms — including leading Edelman’s global health advocacy function by forming and leading Edelman Health Alliances for a decade — and has helped build and manage many initiatives, campaigns, and organizations, with deep expertise in writing, strategy, and execution across advocacy and communications.
She founded EmpathIQ Advisors, formerly Lynch Advocacy Solutions, on the conviction that advocacy and communications done early and well are the most powerful forces available to organizations trying to change something for people. One of the things Lee loves to do most is to bring together an array of stakeholders to see the full picture and progress client goals and health and social impact causes through partnership-focused initiatives, coalitions, policy communications and public affairs, access-focused and strategic communications campaigns, organizational development, and stakeholder-focused research.
Lee is a trained professional moderator and an executive board member of the Culmore Clinic, a nonprofit offering free, compassionate medical care, counseling, and specialty referrals to uninsured adults in northern Virginia. Her support for neurodiverse individuals and causes led her to found Rocket Around, a content provider supporting adventure and life for neurodiverse families through its website, social channels, and books including Rocket Around Washington DC, Rocket Around Switzerland, and Rocket Around Germany. Lee is also a travel writer, publishing regularly for the Healthy Travel blog. Lee and her family live in Alexandria, VA.
- Master’s degree in journalism, University of South Carolina
- Bachelor’s degree in speech communications and mass broadcasting, UNC Chapel Hill
- Autism Certificate, International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Services
- Trained professional moderator, panels, advisory boards, and stakeholder convenings
Tell us what’s standing in the way.
A regulatory hurdle, a policy environment that hasn’t moved, a community whose trust hasn’t been earned, a coalition that hasn’t come together. Communications and advocacy are very often the key. Whatever the issue or need, let’s talk through it and figure out the best solution.