I grew up in the burbs of Detroit drinking Faygo pop and hitting up Coney Islands at 2am. I thought I was gonna be a dancer until the Rockettes told me I was too damn short so I pivoted to musical theater until I realized you gotta be able to sing. So obviously I decided I wanted to work at Disney as an animator and went to art school where I realized I might want to be an editor or maybe a designer or maybe motion graphics artist or maybe get into film. Or maybe sitting at a computer sucks and I should be a stunt person so I started taking Martial Arts.
With my BFA, I stumbled into advertising, a career perfectly suited for someone who wants to do all the things. I filled in for a sick dancer for the launch of the Toyota Prius. Played Santa Claus and surprised people with the custom Mustang they designed on a web experience I worked on. Dropped clap backs in the form of beats with Reggie Watts. Wrote an episodic social series with the director of Freaks and Geeks and writers of The Simpsons. Designed a website for Jimmy Fallon and won an Emmy for it. Gave female directors grant money to even the score in Hollywood. Made an animated short with the reddit community. Turned the moon into a billboard everyone could see to hook the entire world up with free tacos. Relived my 90s era with the queen of all things hot, Paris Hilton. Jumped sedans with a real-life Hollywood Movie Stunt Team. Made an anime with animators in Japan. Created a musical starring Dolly Parton with a Grammy Winning duo while pissing of another Grammy Winner by making her do work to bring back her favorite Taco Bell menu item. And I've been recognized with some shiny objects along the way letting me know I did an ok job doing those things.
20+ years of experience has got me feeling pretty confident I’m on Ad Age's 1,000 under 1,000 and I’m well on my way of achieving the prestigious Most Creative Decks Built in a Lifetime Achievement Award.
When I’m not glued to my laptop, I love taking long ass walks outside. I've summited Mt. Whitney, hiked the W in Patagonia, thru-hiked the 486 mile Colorado Trail as well as the 213 miles of the John Muir Trail and am one three week PTO approval away from achieving the Triple Tiara by hiking the 272 Long Trail in Vermont. I volunteer teaching outdoor skills with the Sierra Club and blog seasonally for The Trek. Because my husband refuses to walk hundreds of miles with a backpack for some reason, we do the car camping thing where we pile into our 1984 VW Vanagon Westy with our Frenchie and take bets on whether we’ll make it somewhere, it’s an old AF Volkswagen after all. I've also practiced martial arts for over 20 years, which has taught me humility through being punched in the face a lot. And I take costume contests very fucking seriously.
EXPERIENCE
LOS ANGELES, CA / 7 YEARS
Executive Creative Director / MullenLowe leading teams on Ghirardelli, Perfect Bar and Suntory Brands Toki Whiskey and Roku along with new biz pitches.
SVP, Group Creative Director / Deutsch LA onTaco Bell where I led teams to create numerous integrated campaigns and award-winning work. I lead their first-ever brand campaign, their most talked-about Nacho Fries campaign, launched their first global campaign, created a musical starring Dolly Parton and helped them sell out of Mexican Pizzas in record time with the help of Doja Cat.
Group Creative Director at David & Goliath on Kia where I was a creative lead on multiple integrated campaign launches including the Kia K5 and the Telluride.
BOULDER, CO / 5 YEARS
Creative Director / WorkInProgress working on truTV, Nescafé, Gardein, Udi’s, 37.5 as well as being a part of the team who won new business pitches for Jimmy Johns and Village Inn.
Global Creative Director CP+B on American Airlines as well as a Creative Director on Hershey's and Kraft projects. While at CP+B I also worked across several accounts including Domino’s, Best Buy, Microsoft, Fruit of the Loom, Triscuit and won numerous awards including an Emmy Award for my digital work on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
DETROIT, MI / 11 YEARS
VP, Associate Creative Director / GTB Detroit, specializing in social and digital, where I spent five years working on Ford. During that time, I helped create the award-winning Mustang Customizer Integrated Campaign and the Fiesta Movement. I was also nominated for their high-potential program.
Newb / o2, a tiny, seven-person startup where I spent six years as an art director and content creator back when startups weren’t “cool” and art directors who were makers were unicorns.
TEACHING
College for Creative Studies, Detroit (2 years)
University of Colorado in Boulder (2 years)
Sierra Club's WTC program volunteer (2 years)
Adult Martial Arts instruction (lots of years)
EDUCATION
I studied film, editing, design and digital media at College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI graduating with a BFA and a serious amount of student loan debt I finally paid off in 2018.
SHINY SHIT 🏆
Clio Grand. Emmy. Cannes Lions. Cannes Shortlisted. Webby People’s Voice and multiple Webby Awards. Gold Effies. New York Festival Awards. One Show Merits and Shortlisted. Brand Film Award Finalist. Gold Obie. Facebook Studio Awards. Shorty Awards. FWA sites of the Days back in the day. AICP awards. Other dust collectors. I've also had the opportunity to judge multiple award shows from AICP, to AdClub and AdCraft as well as filled in on judging for a legendary ad person who will go unnamed because he gave me decent bottles of wine in exchange for doing it in secret.