Leanna Johnson Lee
Writer, researcher, and content strategist on the future of work, disability, and workplace systems.
Hi, I’m Leanna. I’m a freelance writer, researcher, and content strategist who tends to end up in the complicated bit: emerging ideas, research that needs translating, subject-matter experts with a lot to say, and content projects with too many moving parts.
I’ve been self-employed since 2013, working across HR and the future of work, technology and SaaS, healthcare, finance and FinTech, mental health, and related fields. My work includes long-form editorial content, thought leadership, research reports, scripts and webinars, website programs, substantive editing, content strategy, and multi-stakeholder projects.
A lot of my earlier work is published under Leanna Lee. Same person; slightly longer name now.
What I do
Long-form and thought leadership
I write research-backed articles, reports, playbooks, guides, and bylined thought leadership that help smart people explain complicated ideas clearly without flattening them into generic content.
Research and reported content
I work upstream as well as on the page: developing questions, interviewing subject-matter experts, shaping surveys, synthesizing research, finding the useful thread in a pile of information, and turning it into something people can actually use.
Scripts, webinars, and multi-format storytelling
My work also extends beyond articles. I develop webinar narratives, discussion guides, presentation copy, podcast and video scripts, landing-page copy, and supporting content when a story needs to travel across formats.
Embedded thought partnership
For longer engagements, I work as an embedded thought and content partner: carrying context across projects, spotting gaps before they become problems, helping shape the thinking upstream, and staying close enough to the work to make each new piece stronger than the last.
What I know well
- Future of work, HR, employee experience, hiring, remote and flexible work, and workplace systems.
- Disability, accessibility, workability, chronic illness, mental health, and the practical realities of working with fluctuating capacity.
- Technology, SaaS, AI, WorkTech, cybersecurity, and complex products that need translating for nontechnical audiences.
- Healthcare, benefits, health technology, insurance, and healthcare affordability.
- Finance, FinTech, payments, small business, and self-employment.
Selected work and authority
My work has appeared through organizations and publications including Zapier, Fast Company, The Century Foundation, TechnologyAdvice, The Next Web, Marketing Dive, PowerToFly, and others. I’ve also created non-bylined content programs for major organizations across HR, healthcare, technology, and finance.
I co-authored The Digital Nomad Visa Whitepaper, an original research and policy project analyzing remote-work visa programs. The report has since been cited in academic and policy literature.
For a broader look at client work, research, playbooks, articles, and other projects, visit my content marketing portfolio.
Independent work
The Chronic Worker
The Chronic Worker is my independent publication and field guide to making chronic illness life more workable. It brings together reporting, practical resources, personal dispatches, and research-informed experiments across work, health, money, access, identity, and everyday life.
SIPS
SIPS—the Starr Institute of Physiological Shenanigans—is my experimental research and evidence project. It explores low-burden ways to observe chronic illness over time, build better context, and turn lived observations into better questions, field reports, and practical tools.
Chronically Self-Employed
Chronically Self-Employed is my personal field-journal column inside The Chronic Worker: dispatches about chronic illness, self-employment, identity, recovery, ambition, and the ongoing process of building a life that fits.
Bettermental
I co-created and co-host Bettermental, a long-running mental health and small-business podcast collaboration with corporate wellness speaker Mike Veny. Across its different iterations, the project has included podcast development, hosting, interviews, episode planning, production systems, workshops, and multimedia content.
Speaking and professional leadership
I speak and facilitate conversations about disability, accessibility, mental health, future-of-work issues, freelancing, and sustainable work. I’ve presented at conferences and professional events since 2017 and currently co-chair the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ DEAI Committee.
See my speaking work.
Work with me
I’m usually a good fit for organizations that need more than a pair of hands: complex subjects, research-backed thought leadership, content programs with multiple stakeholders, or a writer who can help improve the thinking as well as the finished copy.
My strongest engagements tend to be ongoing or multi-asset work—long-form content, reports, webinars and scripts, thought leadership, editorial programs, and embedded content support.
Want to see whether there’s a fit? Start with my portfolio, or email leannaleewriter@gmail.com.