Associate Director, Content Strategy

Digitas North America — Chicago, IL | 2026–present

Brand narrative and user journey lead for General Motors multi-site, multi-brand digital modernization initiative (3-month contract)

• Leading AI-assisted discovery and narrative research to assess market conditions, industry trends, competitor strategies, narrative best practices, and storytelling differentiation.
• Leading auditing initiatives to inform taxonomy simplification and develop intuitive, inspiring end-to-end user journeys.
• Designing messaging frameworks and scalable content systems grounded in human-centered design principles, including driver personas and lifestyle journeys.
• Developing narrative variants and experience flows to support proof of concept, concept testing, and prototype design.
• Establishing storytelling integration and continuity protocols to align brand expression across GM’s portfolio of related assets.

Lead Content Designer

Expedia Group, Chicago, Illinois / 2020-2026

Leading content and creative strategy across high-impact, multi-channel, cross-brand initiatives (Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo).

• Translating business growth objectives into positioning strategies, structured content roadmaps, and messaging frameworks, driving record-setting annualized gross profits.
• Spearheading bold multi-item travel discovery and shopping narratives that generated $26M GP, reframing the mechanics of bundled travel in the marketplace.
• Owning narrative direction and scalable content strategy across high-impact digital ecosystems, including destination discovery, multi-item planning and shopping, experience personalization, and contextual recommendations.
• Integrating AI — prompt frameworks and narrative mapping to accelerate analysis, pattern recognition, and exploration within strict inventory constraints and crawl-walk-run timelines. Includes persona development, content audits, ideation, variant iteration, and brand differentiation.
• Developing repeatable content systems aligned to performance metrics and forced scalable simplicity to alleviate Dev resourcing, enable rapid iteration, and speed experimentation.
• Partnering with international XD, Product, Legal, Research, Localization, Marketing, Brand, and Engineering teams to define scope and develop envelope-pushing prototypes, MVPs, and run-don’t-walk concepts.
• Redefining XD / Legal team partnerships to expertly blend traveler-first, high-engagement content and UI design with PoSa-specific legal risk mitigation and regulatory requirements.
• Creating use case matrices, fringe case scenarios, and user personas to elevate user experiences, find “sweet spot” market differentiators, and target compelling value props.
• Developing quantitative and qualitative test prototypes, storyboards, and research syntheses to achieve optimized experience-led, human-centered designs.
• Identifying overlooked or under-utilized signals in traveler research studies, revealing the power of lightweight personalization cues and expectation-setting to improve engagement and conversion; developed integrated messaging frameworks and experimentation plans that translated these insights into measurable improvements.
• Leading workshops and critiques to brainstorm product enhancements and launches, mentor junior designers, and optimize content iterations.
• Leading immersive travel product concepting and prototyping for Hackathon submission, directing a cross-functional team to develop an app-first, AI-integrated, multi-destination trip discovery, planning, and shopping experience that was selected for regional presentation.
• Developing 3-in-a-box immersive trip board experiences to increase contextual relevance, reduce visual noise, enhance deal discovery, and elevate inspirational browsing. Test wins shaped crawl-walk-run innovations that continue to inform trip board design today.

Measurable impacts include,

• $26M annualized GP — Expanding multi-item shopping product value
  Led narrative strategy and content execution that fundamentally reframed “Bundle & Save” from a rigid package proposition to a flexible traveler-first system: book items together or book an item now and add later to save. Partnered across Product, Marketing, Legal, Localization, Brand, and Engineering to scale globally. Ultimately redefined how bundled value is communicated across Expedia Group platforms and achieved improved discoverability and engagement across shopping journeys.
  
• Low-effort personalization insights — enhancing relevance, trust, and engagement
  Identified overlooked research study signals that revealed the power of lightweight personalization cues and expectation-setting in improving engagement and conversion. Developed integrated messaging frameworks and experimentation plans that translated these insights into measurable experience improvements across travel categories through targeted content testing.
  
• 245% increase in search results engagement
  Repositioned cross-sell strategy from transactional urgency to assistive trip planning — helping users better understand options and make confident decisions, while increasing net orders per visitor by 48%.
  
• $2.5M incremental GP — simplified package product messaging
  Introduced scalable messaging frameworks that reduced decision friction and improved funnel progression by 8%, enabling teams to iterate rapidly while maintaining brand consistency and supporting experimentation across platforms.
  
• Immersive travel product concept creation and prototyping
  Assembled a cross-functional team of designers, engineers, product managers, researchers, and analysts to rapidly prototype an app-first, AI-integrated discovery and itinerary-building experience for multi-city travel. Assessed market opportunity, product differentiation, interaction patterns, and visual identity, while developing scalable content systems and clear product messaging. Final concept balances content-rich inspiration with user-centered UI to reduce cognitive load and help travelers easily discover and shop trip ideas in one convenient place. This prototype formed the basis of crawl-walk-run iterations for testing and MVP launch.
  
• Traveler-first design within global regulatory constraints
  Recognized regulatory friction impacting traveler-first, human-centered content and UI design and partnered with international Legal teams to align PoSa requirements with XD strategy. Established a scalable XD–Legal collaboration model and governance framework that expanded design flexibility across complex product flows while maintaining regulatory compliance across global markets.
  
• Trip board discovery innovation
  Developed 3-in-a-box immersive trip board experiences to increase contextual relevance, reduce visual noise, enhance deal discovery, and elevate inspirational browsing. Test wins informed crawl-walk-run innovations that continue to shape trip board design.

Senior Copywriter & Content Strategist

Envisionit Agency, Chicago, Illinois / 2017- 2019

Strategic content lead for B2B, B2C, and destination marketing clients in a fast-paced agency environment.

• Led messaging strategy and content governance for the Choose Chicago website rebuild, ensuring tonal consistency and SEO alignment.
• Built persona-driven content frameworks and campaign narratives across tourism and membership industries.
• Redesigned, relaunched, and managed the Choose Chicago blog, elevating editorial voice and increasing engagement; managed editorial calendars, writer assignment, blog updates, and day-to-day workflows.
• Produced travel and brand marketing blog posts, campaign content, and brand messaging aligned to growth objectives
• Collaborated closely with art directors, creative and product strategists, and SEO teams to deliver fully integrated creative work.
• Partnered with freelancers and cross-disciplinary teams to maintain quality and strategic alignment.

Editor, Writer & Experience Designer

Freelance / Contract, International / 2010-2020

Creative partner to magazines, agencies, and organizations across B2B, B2C, and D2C sectors.

• Led editorial across city magazines, visitor publications, and lifestyle titles.
• Wrote award-winning, internationally published feature articles across lifestyle, travel, tourism, arts & entertainment, business, and design topics.Built brand positioning editorial systems and messaging frameworks for regulated and high-consideration industries.
• Crafted digital campaigns, website relaunch narratives, and editorial systems that strengthened brand positioning and audience engagement.
• Translated complex subject matter into accessible, persuasive storytelling for executive and consumer audiences.
• Served as client-facing creative lead, presenting and supporting strategic ideas with clarity and confidence.
  
  Select clients: Critical Mass, Cereals Canada, Project Management Institute (PMI), International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Arizona State University, Procter & Gamble, Medici Museums and others.

Director, Digital Publishing

Illinois CPA Society, Chicago, Illinois / 1999-2017

Defining multi-channel publishing and brand strategy across print and digital ecosystems.

• Built segmented email and content programs that increased engagement rates by 60%.
• Integrated editorial, marketing, and creative functions to create cohesive brand voice and growth strategy.
• Stewarded a multi-award-winning quarterly magazine highlighting high-impact topics on the business & finance landscape.
• Managed internal and external creative contributors to ensure consistent strategic direction.

Check out reviews and recommendations on my LinkedIn profile.

• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence, Magazines, Journals & Tabloids
• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence, Feature Writing, 10 Worst Business Decisions Ever Made
• Association Trends All Media Contest Gold Award for Annual or Quarterly Magazines or Journals
• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence for Magazines + Journals
• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence for Magazines + Journals
• Magnum Opus Award for Best Association Publication
• Graphic Design USA American In house Design Award for Publication Design
• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence for Magazines + Journals
• Magnum Opus Award for Best CSR/Green Series or Article
• Magnum Opus Award Honoree for Best CSR/Green Series or Article
• Communications Concepts Apex Award of Excellence for Magazine + Journal Writing
• Magnum Opus Award for Best All-around Association Publication