Experience

I have 17 years of experience focused on brand strategy, creative direction, and scalable content production for marketing and merchandising teams. I enjoy building and mentoring design teams and collaborating cross-functionally with in-house and outsourced teams. My driving force is a balance of what is best for both strategic business initiatives and the customer.

Senior Creative Director, Mayo Clinic

Years: 10/2022 - Present

Location: Remote

Industry: Healthcare, B2C, B2B

Employer: Mayo Clinic

Department: Marketing

Team: Brand Strategy

Mayo Clinic’s mission is to inspire hope and contribute to health and well-being by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice, education, and research. The needs of the patient come first.

  • Responsible for elevating content creation including brand strategy and creative direction of internal and external-facing projects across the enterprise supporting clinical practice, education, and research

  • Interviewing, hiring, training, mentoring, and overall supervision of brand designers supporting multiple departments

  • Management of over 100 external agency and contractor relationships within the Brand Strategy division including sourcing, RFPs, contract negotiation, resource allocation, budgeting, and invoicing

  • Onboarding, brand training, remote access setup, and supervision of all external resources including creative agencies, recruitment agencies, multimedia production companies, art directors, designers, copywriters, stylists, talent agencies, audio specialists, 3D artists, project managers, and account managers

  • Sourcing creative assets and automation tools to improve operational workflow efficiencies and improve content scalability

  • Leadership Positions: Brand Creative Supervisor Team

3D Creative Director, Overstock, Inc.

Years: 11/2017 - 07/2022

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Industry: Retail, E-commerce, B2C, B2B

Employer: Overstock, Inc.

Department: Merchandising, Product Development

Team: 3D

Overstock.com is a tech-driven e-commerce retailer who's mission is to provide dream homes for all by providing smart value, quality merchandise, and exceptional service. Since starting in 1999, the exclusively online retailer has grown from a start up into a multi-billion dollar company using the latest in machine learning, automation, algorithms, and evolving technology.

  • Assembled multi-year team roadmaps, strategic initiatives, and OKRs to efficiently create e-commerce product and marketing content at scale

  • Delivered executive presentations to C-suite detailing team development and growth proposals, production scalability objectives, and brand strategy

  • Managed internal and outsourced vendor teams, allocated $5M annual team budget, directed product management, automation tool development and production workflows, directed and coached technical artists and designers, trained machine-learning-enabled content tools

  • Worked cross-functionally with product, UX, marketing, and analytics teams to launch product features, test prototypes, conduct user research studies, and analyze ROI

  • Created style guides to improve content standardization, quality, and consistency based on SEO best practices, analyzed competitive landscape and trends

  • Leadership Positions: Content Leadership Team, Merchandising Leadership Team, Studio Leadership Team, Marketing Leadership Team, Overstock Leadership Council, 3D Mentorship Director

Photography Director, Scandinavian Designs

Years: 05/2014 - 10/2017

Location: Petaluma, California

Industry: Retail, E-commerce, B2C

Employer: Scandinavian Designs (aka Interline, Inc.)

Department: Marketing

Team: Studio

Interline is a European furniture & home decor retailer specializing in modern designs with a Nordic influence. Since launching in 1963, the family-owned company has encompassed four brands including Scandinavian Designs, Dania Furniture, Plummers Furniture, and Scandis. Currently, Interline has launched an e-commerce presence as well as brick and mortar showrooms across California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Illinois.

  • Created e-commerce product content and marketing style guides to ensure consistency across all channels, assisted in marketing calendar creation

  • Reviewed 3 company websites to assure branding guidelines were achieved in layout, image quality, copy, product accuracy, content consistency, typography, and UX

  • Photographed, edited, and optimized products for e-commerce, styled and directed editorial photo shoots for catalogs and marketing campaigns, created content management workflow and archival metadata standards

  • Drafted over 200 visual merchandising plans for 35 showrooms, allocated products nationwide according to regional market trends, inventory volume, average order size, and customer segmentations

  • Traveled to European markets to assist in furniture and textile buying, introduced merchandising opportunities that would expand customer reach, complete product assortment, and drive business growth

Senior Photographer, Forms+Surfaces

Years: 03/2012-09/2013

Location: Carpenteria, California

Industry: Manufacturing, Commercial Architecture, B2C, B2B

Employer: Forms+Surfaces

Department: Marketing

Team: Studio

Forms+Surfaces is a leading designer and manufacturer of commercial architectural and outdoor products used in public spaces around the world. From innovative surfaces, wall systems and elevator interiors to site furnishings, lighting, and doors their interrelated product lines invite creativity and provide real-world solutions to the challenges customers face every day. F+S has been family-owned since 1964 with offices in Carpenteria, CA, Pittsburgh, PA, and Phoenix, AZ.

  • Lead meetings with executive, marketing, and engineering teams to determine company content needs for website, marketing channels, advertising campaigns, designer portfolios, and design/development prototypes

  • Assisted in the design, development, and beta testing of company website and 3D rendering design tools including Augmented Reality, Elevator Design Studio, Virtual Quarry, and Zoom Digital Darkroom

  • Directed and produced all photography projects nationwide including scouting locations, arranging travel, obtaining permits, creating shot lists, directing photo shoots, editing digital photography, and overseeing content management database

  • Worked with marketing team to design and produce marketing materials including international advertising campaigns, omni-channel marketing content, catalogs, brochures, technical guides, case studies, promotional events, and multimedia demos

Senior Designer, Studio Capture

Years: 06/2008-03/2012

Location: Houston, Texas

Industry: Creative Agency, B2C

Employer: Studio Capture

Department: Production

Team: Studio

StudioCAPTURE was a photo studio in Houston, Texas with specialities in portrait, fashion, food, and commercial photography. After losing the visionary owner to cancer in 2010, the studio staff carried on for several years before going separate ways. James Tongol handed me my first camera, pushed me to be a self-starter, and will always be the very best mentor I have ever had.

  • Conducted photo and design consultations with clients, staff, and freelancers to determine specific project requirements, schedules, budgets, and contract restrictions

  • Directed photo shoots, edited digital photography, managed all graphic design projects, ordered and assessed quality of all print projects

  • Assisted in design of studio website, managed website content updates, created blog posts, designed content for social media, created all studio samples for client consultations, promotions, and trade show events

  • Monitored studio budget including invoicing clients, ordering equipment, hiring staff, managing vendors and contractors, and planning industry trade shows

Leadership

I believe that effective leaders work from the ground up and have the ability to assess a team's strengths and weaknesses to help constructively determine what resources are required to successfully do the job.

Understanding the process and the resources each team member needs and being able to step in to fill the gaps when necessary is what makes both a resourceful team member and leader.

Education

Physical Therapy Masters Program

08/2006 - 08/2007

Texas Woman’s University

Houston, Texas

B.S. Psychology, Pre-Physical Therapy

01/2002 - 05/2006

Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas

Skills

I enjoy building out, guiding, and mentoring creative content teams and look forward to not only sharing my expertise but also continuously learning new skills from others.

Software Skills

  • Microsoft Office

  • Microsoft Teams

  • Microsoft Word

  • Microsoft Excel

  • Microsoft Power Point

  • Microsoft Outlook

  • Microsoft OneDrive

  • Microsoft Copilot

  • Microsoft Authenticator

  • Microsoft Planner

  • Microsoft SharePoint

  • Microsoft Lists

  • Microsoft OneNote

  • Microsoft Forms

  • Microsoft To Do

  • G Suite

  • Google Docs

  • Google Pages

  • Google Slides

  • Google Meet

  • Google Analytics

  • Google Drive

  • Google Vision

  • Apple Pages

  • Apple Keynote

  • Apple Numbers

  • Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Adobe Photoshop

  • Adobe Bridge

  • Adobe Lightroom

  • Adobe InDesign

  • Adobe Acrobat

  • Adobe Workfront

  • Adobe Firefly

  • Autodesk Shotgrid

  • ChatGPT

  • Zoom

  • Oracle

  • Citrix

  • ZScaler

  • SailPoint

  • Workday

  • Asana

  • Basecamp

  • Wordpress

  • Squarespace

  • Miro

Hard Skills

  • Creative direction

  • Art direction

  • Brand strategy

  • Customer segmentation

  • Competitor analysis

  • Trend analysis

  • Brand design

  • Content production

  • Content management

  • E-commerce

  • Merchandising

  • Marketing

  • Project management

  • Product management

  • Workflow operations

  • Resource management

  • Budget management

  • Time management

  • Team management

  • Leadership

  • Presentations

  • Roadmap creation

  • OKRs

  • KPIs

  • Negotiating

  • Coaching

  • Mentoring

  • Hiring

  • Employee reviews

  • Photography

  • Graphic design

  • Social media

  • Case studies

  • Marketing campaigns

  • Advertising

  • Layout design

  • Copywriting

  • UX design

  • Catalog design

  • Brochure design

  • SEO

  • Data-driven decision making

  • A/B testing

  • Marketing analytics

Soft Skills

  • Active listening

  • Open communication

  • Transparency

  • Emotional intelligence

  • Team player mindset

  • Growth-oriented

  • Creative problem solving

  • Organization

  • Prioritization

  • Time management

  • Adaptability

  • Approachability

  • Dependability

  • Hard-working

  • Self-starter

  • Open to giving and receiving feedback

  • Ability to work independently or within a team

Get Connected

Connect on LinkedIn or send a message.