TL;DR
Writing stuff in third person about yourself is weird. Steph does not do it. See? So fucking weird.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm an award-winning creative director / art director who has learned a lot from talented people at some of the best shops in the industry working on a some really big accounts like Taco Bell, Ford and Kia to smaller ones like Gardein.
I'm not a 'gotta do it myself' creative director. I know how to give constructive feedback and lead teams to create great ideas. I have a ton of experience delivering buzz-worthy headlines for disruptive brands as well as building great teams. I love making great work with great people and not being an asshole* while doing it.
*Great work is hard enough to make nowadays without the added assholery, so let's all be good partners already.
TL
I am married to my favorite human who is also an art director. Together we have collected a lot of mid-century modern furniture and shitloads of art we paid to have moved to three different cities before recently hanging it on our walls in LA. We have a French Bulldog slash miniature hippo named Leo.🦛
I also make time to have a life beyond my career. Like studying martial arts, which I have studied for eighteen years. I meditate every day and volunteer my time to teaching Martial Arts with an eagerness to share it with other women. I volunteer teaching backpacking and other outdoor skills with the Sierra Club WTC program. I'm a blogger for the Trek. Mostly, I live to play outside. I hike, backpack, thru-hike, mountain bike, car camp, snowboard and volunteer my time to the outdoors. I also love to load my 1984 VW Vanagon Westy with my dog and partner and see where the road takes us (or doesn't sometimes... it's an '84 VW after all.)
EXPERIENCE
LOS ANGELES / CURRENT
I am an Executive Creative Director at MullenLowe. Previous role was as a SVP, Group Creative Director at 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.
Prior to Deutsch, I was a 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, COLORADO / 5 YEARS
I was as a Creative Director and 2nd employee at startup 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.
Before WIP, I worked at the iconic shop CP+B for four years where I was Global Creative Director on American Airlines as well as a Creative Director on Hershey's, overseeing Twizzlers, Ice Breakers, barkTHINS and Breath Savers and various 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 / 11 YEARS
I was a VP, Associate Creative Director with a focus on social and digital at GTB Detroit where I worked on Ford for five years creating the award-winning Mustang Customizer Integrated Campaign and the Fiesta Movement. I was also a nominated member of their high-potential program. A born and bred kid from the Motor City, I worked on a lot of automotive early in my career before working on Ford including Lexus, Toyota, Cadillac and Chrysler at o2, a small seven person startup shop where I spent my first six years as an art director / content creator before startups were cool and art directors who were makers was a thing.
TEACHING
I have had the opportunity to teach at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and the University of Colorado in Boulder. I currently teach backpacking classes with the Sierra Club's WTC program.
EDUCATION
I studied film, editing, design and digital media at College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI where I graduated with a BFA. I was recognized with the Top Graduating Senior Award, received a featured Center Gallery Exhibition, made the Dean's List, won a SIGGRAPH Top Honors Interactive Award, Michigan Competitive Scholarship and CCS Scholarship and a lot of student loan debt I finally paid off in 2018.
SHINY SHIT 🏆
Clio Grand. Emmy Award. Cannes Lion Bronze. Cannes Shortlisted. Webby People’s Voice and multiple Webby Awards. Gold Effie. New York Festival Finalist Awards. One Show Merits and Shortlisted. Brand Film Award Finalist. Gold Obie. Facebook Studio Awards. Shorty Awards. FWA sites of the Days. AICP awards. Other dust collectors. I've also had the opportunity to judge multiple award shows from AICP, to AdClub Boston and AdCraft Detroit's D Show as well as filled in on judging for an iconic ad person who will go unnamed because he gave me decent bottles of wine in exchange for it. Award shows are a total racket anyway.