Scaling for the mission.

Signal Centers has been a nonprofit in the Chattanooga community for 70 years. But the organization has seen more exponential growth in the last ten years than the 60 that came before it. As Director of Marketing, I have overseen the acquisition of new programs and organizations, the creation of processes and procedures to help us scale effectively, the elevation of the brand through three new website builds, and much more. The challenge that has driven me is how do you take on that much growth without losing the innate culture that got you to where you are. Signal Centers navigating that challenge well has made it a great success story for our community.

Large-Scale Print

As Signal Centers has grown, a major priority of mine has been to elevate the brand, especially how that is expressed throughout the organization’s physical spaces.

A large scale mural timeline of Signal Centers’ history and programming in the newly redesigned boardroom

A CARTA bus wrap promoting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

A Board Emeritus plaque honoring long-time board members

Door vinyls identifying satellite offices around the city reflecting the agency’s rebrand

A comprehensive external wayfinding project reflecting the agency’s rebrand

Small-Scale Print

I have designed and creative directed dozens of impact reports which have been used to secure grant funding, promote the agency at City Council meetings and with Chattanooga’s mayor, and communicated with the agency’s most important donors.

  • Agency Closure Graphic

  • Testimonial Graphic

  • Facebook Cover Image

  • Agency Closure Graphic

  • Trifold Timeline

  • Board Social Announcement

Video

Podcasting

Child Care WAGE$® Tennessee, one of Signal Centers’ statewide initiatives, offers salary supplements to early childhood educators to reduce turnover in the classroom. One challenge I faced as the Marketing & Communications Specialist for the program, was how to develop more community around a program that by it’s nature was very transactional.

During the height of COVID, I launched a self-care podcast for educators to create a second “product” our program enrollees could rally behind. We interviewed New York Times bestselling authors, staff members in the Obama administration, award-winning toy designers, people who wrote the book on nature-based pedagogy and much more. The show was downloaded nearly 20,000 times all across the world.

Check out this more in depth case study about the impact the show had on Tennessee’s early childhood community.

Lean Into You Case Study

Event production.

Women of Distinction (WOD) is an annual fundraiser benefitting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Hamilton County. My team assists the WOD Steering Committee, as well as Signal Centers’ development team to create content, promote registration, and develop day-of media assets. This two-hour luncheon nets nearly $100,000, providing free books for over 8,000 Hamilton County children for a year.

This Signal Centers Accessibility Awareness Summit takes place on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a day that promotes proactively thinking about how people of all abilities interact with physical and digital spaces. My team leads the day-of production of the event, promotes registration, and I, more recently, have developed the event’s programming. Keynotes have included Harvard Law School’s first Deafblind graduate, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist, and an award-winning blind architect.

Extravaganza is an annual art auction and fundraiser benefitting one of Signal Centers’ 13 programs, Hart Gallery. I lead the strategy, creative direction, and content development for the event, and, because of my hospitality background, advise the planning committee on how to maximize our attendees’ experience. I also sling some mean cocktails at the afterparty.