University of Virginia College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Brand Development • Campaign Strategy • Research Communications • Executive Communications • Digital Design • Print Design • 2024–present
Since joining UVA Arts & Sciences in 2024, I've developed comprehensive campaigns, multimedia collateral, and brand frameworks that advance the College's mission of becoming a best-in-the-nation public institution.
Working with leadership, faculty, and staff across all levels, my projects support A&S's four strategic priorities through compelling, audience-driven communications.
Brand Development: Arts & Sciences Identity Guidelines
I developed comprehensive brand guidelines that create a distinct A&S identity within UVA's broader framework, including curated photography styles, new voice and tone standards, refined typography hierarchy, and strategic color recommendations. These guidelines now serve as the foundation for all College communications, ensuring visual consistency across diverse materials while maintaining our unique character in liberal arts education.
Campaign Development: Arts & Sciences Bicentennial Celebration
Celebrating 200 years of Arts & Sciences required more than just acknowledging a milestone—it demanded a comprehensive campaign that honored our legacy while pointing toward our future. I developed the branding strategy for A&S's Bicentennial celebration, creating both the messaging framework and visual identity that brought this historic moment to life.
I led our creative development to create the tagline “Reflect, Discover, Lead”—three words that capture both our College's evolution over two centuries and our ongoing mission. This messaging framework guided all communications, emphasizing how A&S has consistently been at the forefront of academic innovation while preparing leaders who shape the world.
Using this framework, I designed a commemorative graphic asset that served as the visual cornerstone of the campaign, applied across diverse collateral including pennants, custom notebooks, coffee bag stickers, and digital applications. I also led our creative session developing a key narrative strategy focused on our “firsts & bests”—showcasing the groundbreaking achievements, pioneering research, and distinguished alumni that have defined A&S throughout its history.
This campaign serves to unify celebration activities while reinforcing A&S's position as a leader in liberal arts education, creating lasting materials that continue to serve as symbols of our College's proud heritage and ambitious future.
Research Communications: Arts & Sciences Resarch Annual Report
I'm currently developing A&S's first-ever College-wide research annual report, a landmark publication that proudly provides a centralized overview of the diverse research in our college.
This project presents unique challenges: creating an engaging narrative that unites research across vastly different fields—from studio art to chemistry, archaeology to psychology—while highlighting the College's strategic investments in research support infrastructure.
The report addresses timely concerns about federal funding uncertainties by showcasing how A&S has proactively invested in professional research support staff. It features success stories from our world-class researchers across the sciences, arts, and social sciences, demonstrating the breadth and impact of discovery happening within our College.
A key section highlights A&S's investment in research communications—work I've been proud to contribute to. This showcases our commitment to translating academic discoveries for broader audiences, making cutting-edge research accessible and relevant beyond the academy.
The report is being designed for both print and digital distribution with ADA standards in mind, ensuring maximum reach and impact for this inaugural publication.
Note: This project is scheduled to be released summer 2025.
The cover of the inaugural UVA Arts & Sciences Research Annual Report.
Research Communications: Multimedia Research Storytelling
One of my favorite aspects of this role is bringing academic research to life through multimedia design.
I create dynamic visual illustrations that combine researcher headshots with evocative illustrations of their work, helping make complex academic concepts accessible and engaging.
These visual narratives serve multiple purposes: supporting recruitment efforts, enhancing donor communications, and celebrating the groundbreaking work happening across A&S.
Executive Communications: Digital Communications, Print Collateral
Much of my work involves creating communications materials for the highest levels of A&S leadership. I regularly produce presentations for executive leadership, develop templates for critical communications from the Dean to faculty and staff, and design internal email newsletters in Marketing Cloud that get faculty and staff the information they need, when they need it.
Print collateral representing leadership’s talking points in high-level fundraising interactions.
This high-level communications work requires understanding complex institutional priorities and translating them into clear, compelling communications that serve diverse audiences and a wide variety of organizational needs.
Internal Newsletter: Inside A&S Redesign in Marketing Cloud
One of my most transformative projects has been the complete redesign of the Inside A&S newsletter, our internal publication for faculty and staff. The existing format was severely outdated—we saw an opportunity to improve the publication to better serve its core purpose: celebrating the achievements and contributions of our A&S community.
Working closely with my colleagues in the content team, I collaborated on the conceptual evolution and led the design overhaul that modernized every aspect of the newsletter. We developed recurring content franchises organized into strategic categories, ensuring consistent value for readers while creating anticipation for each issue. I built our new template within Marketing Cloud, a sophisticated email marketing platform that's increasingly essential in higher education communications, which allows our team to better track metrics and engagement.
Another key innovation was integrating more video content, recognizing how multimedia storytelling could better showcase faculty research, staff achievements, and community highlights.
As part of my comprehensive design, I created an icon for the Discoveries section, which features a video highlighting research at A&S each month. Using thoughtful design like this to create a bridge between different media types—a video, a written article, and an email—is part of the overall strategic value I love to bring to multimedia communications.
The visual redesign brought the newsletter into the contemporary digital communications landscape while maintaining professional credibility and accessibility.
The redesigned Inside A&S has significantly improved engagement rates and now serves as a model for other internal communications, effectively fulfilling its mission to recognize and celebrate the people who make A&S excellent.
Social Media Marketing: Final Exercises Celebration Campaign
One of my most successful integrated marketing projects was developing a comprehensive graduation celebration campaign for Final Exercises 2025.
This multi-channel initiative demonstrated the power of cohesive design strategy across diverse content formats while directly supporting A&S's strategic priorities of undergraduate excellence and fostering belonging within our community.
The campaign centered around the theme "I'm a College grad," celebrating graduating A&S students through a coordinated video showcase strategy. Working collaboratively with my team, we developed an interview approach that would capture authentic student stories and pride in their A&S experience. While my colleagues coordinated interviews and handled video production, I simultaneously captured professional headshots of each participating student.
The key to this campaign's success was the unifying graphic burst element I designed—a dynamic visual motif symbolizing energy, celebration, and forward motion. This single design element became the thread connecting all campaign materials, from social media content to print advertising, creating instant recognition and cohesive brand presence across channels.
I edited the student headshots and combined them with the graphic burst elements to create social video content, video thumbnails, and preview graphics that maintained visual consistency while allowing for content variety.
The same design approach extended to a print advertisement we placed in the Cavalier Daily, ensuring our message reached audiences both digitally and in print with unified visual impact.
The campaign generated measurable results: increased social media engagement, enhanced student pride and sense of belonging, and elevated visibility for A&S during the crucial graduation period.
Most importantly, this work directly supported our strategic priorities by celebrating undergraduate excellence while reinforcing signals of intention and community belonging that are central to our institutional identity.
The campaign’s print ad which ran in the Cavalier Daily
This project exemplified the collaborative approach and strategic thinking that make content marketing most effective—combining authentic storytelling, consistent visual identity, and multi-channel distribution to create campaigns that truly serve institutional goals while celebrating the people who make A&S exceptional.
Program Branding: Global Spanish
Through strategic branding sessions adapted from my advertising background, I helped transform the University of Virginia’s Global Spanish initiative from abstract academic concepts (with large ambitions!) into a cohesive program identity.
Working directly with the initiative’s organizing professors, I helped stakeholders clarify and express what Global Spanish truly represents and means for the academic community.
Drawing inspiration from history, culture, and the rich traditions of Spanish-speaking regions, I developed a cohesive visual identity that honors this global perspective. The resulting brand standards have been applied across events, digital presence, and presentations, helping attract world-renowned researchers and establish UVA's leadership in global Spanish studies.
