Strategic Leadership
Building Teams, Breaking Silos, Driving Outcomes
I lead by building trust and creating alignment across teams.
I’ve led lean teams through state budget constraints, bridged silos in higher education, and guided enterprise-scale digital strategy for a Fortune 100 company. Across every context, my focus has been consistent: aligning people, processes, and purpose to achieve more together.
Northrop Grumman: Guiding Enterprise Web Strategy
I guide enterprise content strategy and process for NorthropGrumman.com.
NorthropGrumman.com serves as the company’s global platform for legislators, policymakers, military leaders, media, prospective employees, and the public. With 100,000 employees across multiple divisions and time zones, content was decentralized, processes varied, and the site risked falling behind in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
The challenge: strengthen discoverability, streamline governance, and cultivate a culture of collaboration across a highly matrixed enterprise.
Many of the teams I rely on to do not report to me. Success, therefore, depends on inspiring collaboration rather than mandating compliance.
By leading through influence, strengthening competitiveness in a high-stakes digital arena, and introducing technologies that anticipate evolving expectations, I help ensure NG.com remains a trusted authority and a powerful asset.
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Framing governance and standards as enablers, not constraints, giving teams ownership while aligning them with corporate goals.
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Created forums for input, ensuring contributors feel valued and invested.
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Position myself as a connector across divisions and time zones.
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Demonstrated results through data, proving that adherence to strategy leads to wins like higher traffic and improved.
Washington and Lee University: Creating a Collaborative Model
Washington and Lee recognized a gap: admissions and institutional marketing were working in parallel rather than in partnership.
Messaging was inconsistent, campaign efforts were duplicated, and enrollment goals weren’t fully aligned with the university’s broader brand identity.
To bridge this divide, the university created a new position—the Director of Marketing for Admissions & Financial Aid—with a mandate to unify strategies and deliver measurable results; which I did, including a 32.5% increase in applications, reaching record levels for the university.
By creating a collaborative structure where none had existed, I drove record application growth and shifted how admissions and organizational communications worked together, building a model that continues to strengthen W&L’s visibility and reach.
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Established new processes that connected admissions marketing directly with university communications and brand strategy—ensuring campaigns worked in concert rather than in isolation.
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Oversaw 50+ simultaneous initiatives spanning print, web, email, and social, aligning messaging across channels to deliver a consistent story to prospective students and families.
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Led change management for the university’s external website, modernizing user experience and ensuring alignment with institutional identity and enrollment needs.
Virginia Military Institute
As Director of Online Communications & Branding, I built and led a new marketing team under tight state budget constraints.
My charge was to deliver a bold institutional campaign, improve how communications worked across admissions, athletics, advancement, and alumni agencies, while earning trust from senior leadership including the Superintendent and the Board of Visitors.
By building a lean and powerful team, forging cross-campus collaboration, and aligning brand storytelling across audiences, we not only reshaped recruitment but also fueled record-setting advancement outcomes.
Today, Don’t Do Ordinary remains VMI’s primary brand identity—a testament to the staying power of leadership that unites tradition with transformation.
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Team Building & Governance
Created a high-output marketing team where no formal structure had existed before. Established brand standards, toolkits, and governance systems that ensured consistency across VMI, Advancement, and Alumni Agencies.
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Digital Ecosystem Design
Segmented a single, sprawling website into three distinct platforms tailored to recruitment, alumni/advancement, and athletics. This transformed how audiences engaged with content and delivered clear, user-centered pathways.
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Integrated Campaigns
Conceived and launched integrated campaigns including Don’t Do Ordinary, which shifted VMI from reactive PR to proactive storytelling—becoming the creative backbone for both recruitment and advancement.
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Social Strategy Adoption
Positioned social media as an integral component of a comprehensive marketing strategy—amplifying cadet voices, fostering authentic peer-to-peer storytelling, and expanding the Institute’s digital footprint.
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Audience Segmentation
Designed campaigns for key groups including women, ROTC candidates, parents, and alumni. These efforts personalized outreach while maintaining authenticity, expanding the applicant pool, and strengthening alumni connection.
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Data Informed
Introduced analytics frameworks that identified audience behaviors, guided campaign pivots, and created a culture of continuous improvement in communications strategy.
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Reputation Building
Tackled the challenge of mystery and misperceptions by humanizing the cadet experience through story-driven content. This work helped reposition the Institute as transparent, values-driven, and inclusive.
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Interdivisional Collaboration
Brought together traditionally siloed divisions through working groups, workshops, and training, aligning priorities and creating shared ownership of brand strategy.
My Approach
Leadership isn’t about authority—it’s about alignment. I’ve built my career on inspiring collaboration across silos, empowering teams I don’t directly supervise, and creating shared ownership of outcomes. The result: stronger strategies, more resilient teams, and measurable results that endure.