Aaron Van Leesten
Content Strategist
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Social Content Creator
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Digital Content Producer
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Photographer
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Visual Storyteller
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Videographer
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Content Strategist · Social Content Creator · Digital Content Producer · Photographer · Visual Storyteller · Videographer ·
I’m a mission-driven digital content producer, visual storyteller, and content strategist with proven experience leading digital communications and content creation for social impact organizations. I’m passionate about harnessing digital storytelling, social media, and content strategy to tell human-centered stories and create high-performing content that drives cross-channel audience growth and engagement. View some samples of my work below!
Video Production
With a comprehensive skill set spanning the entire video production process, I have demonstrated expertise in generating ideas that address strategic objectives, gaining alignment from stakeholders, shooting, editing, and delivering content across channels. I am passionate about creating captivating visual stories that resonate with audiences and deliver something valuable. My collaborative approach enables me to work effectively with cross-functional teams, ensuring the delivery of exceptional video content that meets business needs.
Welcome, Class of 2027!
Producer, Editor
I created a video to welcome each newly admitted undergraduate class. This one, dedicated to the class of 2027, was produced in horizontal and vertical formats to fit multiple platforms. It was also included in the email that notifies students of their admission to Harvard College. This video was shot by a student under my supervision, and I produced and edited the project.
Across platforms, the video earned over 150,000 views and serves as a good example of content that is lively, timely, and engaging to students while also achieving a high standard of production quality and brand alignment.
Mather House Dorm Tour
Producer, Videographer, Editor
This dorm tour video is a strong example of how I grew Harvard’s social channels by identifying content gaps and delivering clear value to viewers. After recognizing unmet demand among the audience of prospective students (many of whom actively search for authentic insight into campus living), I created a short-form, vertical video optimized for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, along with a longer horizontal version for YouTube. I independently shot, produced, and edited the video, which earned over 250,000 views across platforms. By addressing a specific and highly relevant question about student housing, the content met audience needs while supporting broader channel growth, messaging, and engagement goals.
Chobani’s Year of Impact (2024)
Writer, Producer, Videographer, Editor
Over the course of six weeks and within the first 90 days of my employment at Chobani, I conceptualized, pitched, and produced this end-of-year recap video covering the achievements of Chobani’s Social Impact Team by the numbers. Working closely with company leaders to assess needs and incorporate feedback, I even took a last-minute trip to Twin Falls, ID, where I gathered additional content to enhance the video. I pushed the project through the entire production process and delivered it two days before the due date. The video was the most-viewed internal communications video of the year. The video also has an average view percentage of 90%, making it the most engaging video of the year as well.
This video is a good example of content that corporate audiences find appealing, inspiring, and engaging.
Harvard Admissions Officers Answer the Web’s Most Searched Questions
Cinematographer, Producer
This Autocomplete-style interview is a good example of creating audience-first content that pairs strategic messaging with content genres students already know and trust. Inspired by WIRED’s Autocomplete series, I produced a long-form, horizontal interview featuring Harvard admissions officers answering commonly searched questions about Harvard, then strategically edited the footage into short, question-specific vertical clips optimized for TikTok and Instagram. This approach delivered concrete value by directly addressing the questions audiences are likely asking, while making institutional messaging feel accessible and authentic. The clip featured here earned over 500,000 views, and the combined cross-platform view count for the full-length video and short-form cutdowns exceeded 1.3 million views.
Future Ready Engineers Internship Celebration Post
Designer
I designed this social media post that was distributed to a set of students who earned an internship at RTX, one of NAF’s corporate partners. The students were then encouraged to use the graphic and post about their achievement on their personal social media channels.
Graphic Design
Graphic design is a strong complementary skill in my toolkit, developed through hands-on project work. While my primary strength is multimedia production, I’m proficient in Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign and regularly apply design principles across both static and motion-based projects. I’ve created social media graphics, flyers, and small-format brochures, often as part of integrated campaigns. As a visual media producer, I tend to emphasize strong imagery (especially photography of people) to support the human-centered storytelling at the core of my multimedia work. I’m particularly effective working within clear brand guidelines to produce cohesive, engaging designs.
Harvard College Financial Aid Brochure
Designer, Copywriter
Towards the end of my time at the Harvard Admissions Office, I designed this brochure to be distributed at the Admissions Visitor Center. The bi-fold brochure’s design aligns with Harvard College’s brand and visual style guidelines and highlights key information about the College’s financial aid program. The back cover contains a QR code that leads to more information about financial aid.
NAF’s 2025 Impact Report
Designer
In 2025, I was responsible for designing NAF’s annual impact report. I played a leading role in this multi-stakeholder project by gaining alignment on design direction, designing the report to meet project milestone deadlines, gathering stakeholder feedback, and iterating the design based on that feedback.
Web Design
Harvard College Homepage Takeovers
Designer, Content Creator, Content Strategist
At Harvard College, I designed “homepage takeovers” for college.harvard.edu to highlight major moments such as Commencement. I partnered closely with the Director of Digital Strategy to shape messaging and determine which content to feature, then built the page in Drupal by creatively combining modular blocks with visual media I captured. Like much of my design work, these pages emphasized rich, people-centered imagery to support human storytelling. For the Commencement takeover, I used footage from prior years and made editorial decisions about which blog posts and TikTok videos to feature, creating a cohesive and engaging homepage experience for website visitors who were seeking information about Commencement.
Social Media Management
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Social Media Manager, Content Creator
At the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, I managed social media with a focus on human-centered storytelling that made complex humanitarian research and global fieldwork accessible and engaging. By interviewing subject-matter experts and distilling technical research into clear, digestible content, I produced on-brand posts that resonated with the audience and improved performance across platforms. This role shaped how I approach social media as an integrated practice, bringing together elements of multimedia production, photography, content capture, copywriting, and editorial strategy so that each post functions as a cohesive, compelling storytelling unit.
We thank @DeputyGross for his support of #StuckOnReplay! Lots of good stuff in his post: https://t.co/QGl6qMd3RZ pic.twitter.com/UX0sWc44ut
— MassINC (@MassINC) July 15, 2016
Take action & fight for #cjreform @StuckOnReplay_'s 1yr anniversary. July 13 @hhbakerycafe - https://t.co/O0szaA4XGm #stuckonreplay pic.twitter.com/Ram8xNGqdQ
— MassINC (@MassINC) June 29, 2017
Discover the breadth of HHI's work in the humanitarian space via our Annual Report. Our mission = research & education to empower communities in crisis. Read report here (a new HHI site is on the way!) https://t.co/75kI9PlBXt #humanitarianismatHarvard @Harvard @HarvardChanSPH pic.twitter.com/06lmR2cYql
— Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (@HHI) May 7, 2020
NEW HHI REPORT: @HHI_Signal 's imagery analysis in our report w/ @WorldVision and @save_children captured rapid expansion of IDP camps and impact of aerial bombardment in #Idlib #Syria between 2017-19. Truly massive displacement & destruction. FULL REPORT: https://t.co/M1BYjbdkH6 pic.twitter.com/CpnmuOJf8r
— Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (@HHI) March 4, 2020
Senator @SoniaChangDiaz supporting the #StuckOnReplay cause at our event last Thursday! pic.twitter.com/Fha1KJTQzQ
— MassINC (@MassINC) July 11, 2016
Elevate your voice & fight for #cjreform @StuckOnReplay_'s 1yr anniversary! July 13 @hhbakerycafe - https://t.co/O0szaAmz4W #stuckonreplay pic.twitter.com/IM8wRbj2rw
— MassINC (@MassINC) July 5, 2017
Check out the the Inaugural #StuckOnReplay Event Recap! #CJReform https://t.co/fSCtIxurtw pic.twitter.com/1sEKn3DyEB
— MassINC (@MassINC) July 12, 2016
Speak up & fight for #cjreform @StuckOnReplay_'s 1yr anniversary event! July 13 @hhbakerycafe https://t.co/O0szaAmz4W #StuckOnReplay pic.twitter.com/Di4kz9kU7h
— MassINC (@MassINC) July 5, 2017
#StuckOnReplay Campaign
Social Media Manager, Social Media Strategist, Content Creator
In 2016, MassINC was on a mission to elevate the voices of grassroots community organizers for racial justice in Massachusetts. I was tasked with managing and producing StuckOnReplay - a digital communications and advocacy campaign focused on partnerships with diverse community leaders and elected officials, creating compelling media content, and facilitating community engagement through social media. The accompanying site, stuckonreplay.org, depicted many advocates attesting to the impacts of the criminal justice system on their lives.
Through the website and social media campaign, we succeeded in our goal of communicating the harsh impacts of a dysfunctional criminal justice system to key stakeholders in the fight for comprehensive criminal justice reform. The Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018 was finally passed as a result of a dedicated network of advocates, researchers, and policymakers whose efforts were often oriented around MassINC’s policy and communications apparatus.
Friday listen: New HHI podcast ep. on HHI’s humanitarian gender, peace, and security work. @meredithmblake asks @jtdkelly, Director of the Program on Gender, Rights and Resilience (GR2) what’s new. @HarvardGR2 https://t.co/Ogb9rRq6MT pic.twitter.com/QzpT1rtJG9
— Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (@HHI) May 1, 2020
Photography
