Resume

AIGA / Kansas City Chapter
President: 2017 - 2019
Executive Committee: 2013 - 2017
Director of Membership: 2022 - current

Garden of Eden (Historic Artist-built Environment)
Board of Directors: 2017 - current

Merkle

Group Creative Director, Experience & Commerce, Americas 2+ years

As Group Creative Director, thinking tactically, strategically, and creatively while overseeing a myriad of creative design and UX projects are table-stakes. My team's portfolio includes Adobe, AMC, Focus Brands, Hallmark, Hershey's, Jackson Family Wines, LVMH, MoMA, NAPA, Salvation Army, Smith Optics, Walmart, and more. Customer experiences are elevated along their entire journey including branding, UX/UI design, marketing, CRM, social and all facets of digital commerce.

Daily adventures include:
- Team and individual mentorship
- Managing the ever-growing creative team’s workflow and resourcing
- Creative ideation
- Pursuit of new-business opportunities
- Active participation in multiple integrations including rolling-out new systems from billing, resourcing and time management to implementation of company-wide communication tools.

DEG, a Merkle Company

Group Creative Director 2+ yrs
Creative Director 4+ yrs
Associate Creative Director 8 mos

Serving flagship brands including LVMH (Chandon, Hennessy, Veuve Clicquot) Purina, AMC, Hallmark, HUB International, Party City, Terlato Wine Group, Focus Brands, Salvation Army, PepsiCo, Walmart + Sam’s Club, Hershey’s and many others. I manage a team of designers, UX designers and art directors, and writers, while collaborating with strategists, UI development teams, contractors and senior leadership.

I believe that the role of a Group Creative Director is to not only provide creative guidance but to also support the team, elevate their work, clear roadblocks, recruit and nurture, all while ensuring the bottom line stays healthy and the strategy is on the mark. While this looked different during the Covid lockdown, I was able to quickly reset and promote our culture remotely, encourage creativity and became an even better manager for our remote teams.

Along with being in the business of creative direction and new business initiatives, I also am on the business of creative management, developing protocol and process, restructuring the teams, seeking efficiencies and collaboration internally, improving our external impact. Doing so increased the design team’s utilization rates over 15% in the first year alone. I have also led the charge mapping roles and responsibilities, as we navigate our second company-wide intergration within the dentsu family.

Detour Art

Executive Director 18+ yrs

Detour Art is designed to inform and celebrate outsider, folk, visionary, self-taught, vernacular art and environment discoveries found along the back roads around the world. Through my personal collection of art and photographs, I began the research and development of the database, which has served as the launchpad for the website, book, and traveling exhibit.

Kansas City Art Institute

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design 3 years
Program Head 1 year
Visiting Lecturer 3 years

The promotion of a positive creative learning environment for students and fellow professors was a primary goal as the department underwent the challenges of significant and frequent transition. I developed and presented courses at the sophomore, junior and senior levels and elective courses, including Human-centered Design, Online Presence, User Experience and Professional Practice.

Community outreach and connecting educational outcomes with professional practice was a passion. Partnerships with the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Folly Theater were incorporated into the curriculum. Students were also encouraged to partner with local community organizations, utilizing design thinking for social good, and creating a positive social impact. These initiatives also resulted in a significant increase of the program’s visibility, a strong internship program, and approximately 85% of the students have found work in their chosen field within 6 months of graduation.

Emphasizing our curriculum, I created strategies for recruitment and strengthening our presence in the design education community, including the development of the departmental website, kcai-graphicdesign.com.

Ludwig Design + The Ludwig Agency

Owner, Creative Director 17+ years

Experienced in creating award-winning concepts and managing teams specializing in marketing strategies, brand identity and development. I provide creative direction and solutions from conception through completion (as well as design consultation) to advertising agencies, design studios and broadcast producers.

Deeply rooted in human-centered design processes, I can move quickly between the tactical, strategic and creative roles. Collaborative and focused on understanding the needs and motivations of the audience, I approach challenges with a strong background in design thinking and can translate marketing objectives into creative strategies.

Propaganda3

Director of Mobile Products 1+ year

Combining my love of visual design and brand experience with the latest strategies in information architecture for both mobile and desktop design. While at Propaganda3, I streamlined and standardized the bidding and production processes (website and mobile development) to maximize efficiency.

Well-versed in Apple’s iOS mobile platform, I have successfully created and implemented mobile apps, working with producers and developers to navigate the mobile technologies, and strategies. I am adept at:
• UI/UX design
• Site maps, wire framing and prototyping
• Use case scenarios

RiseUp Publications

Vice President of Marketing and Production Management 6 months

Part of the launch team of a start-up weekly tabloid-style magazine on race and ethnicity. Distributed through national newspapers, including the Washington Post, Developed the marketing and sales materials, strategy as well as production scheduling and management of the teams.