“Heritage of Pride works toward a future without discrimination where all people have equal rights under the law. We do this by producing LGBTQIA+ Pride events that inspire, educate, commemorate and celebrate our diverse community.”

As Creative Director leading the creative vision for NYC Pride 2024, I drew on two decades of experience in the New York advertising and live-event landscape to shape work that honored the legacy of Pride while pushing the brand forward with contemporary relevance. Having spent my career balancing the analytical and the emotional, the strategic and the expressive, I approached Pride with both a marketer’s discipline and a queer creative’s lived understanding of what the moment means for our community. My role required translating a broad constellation of organizational objectives, partner expectations, community insights, and cultural truths into cohesive creative platforms deeply rooted in the heritage of Pride — work that resonated authentically while still moving at the pace and scale of a major NYC cultural institution.

I infused life into every step of the experiential community journey — from large-format environmental branding to digital ecosystems, editorially-driven video storytelling, and highly social-driven moments engineered for amplification. I leaned into my hybrid training across art direction and copywriting to craft visual languages, narrative frameworks, and design systems that worked seamlessly across tentpoles, mediums, and platforms. The work was not only about aesthetics; it was about building emotional continuity across touchpoints, ensuring that everyone who engaged with the Pride experience felt seen, welcomed, and connected to something larger than themselves.

My background with high-profile live event environments — including MSG, Major League Soccer, and other marquee entertainment brands — allowed me to elevate NYC Pride with a level of production sophistication and audience intelligence typically reserved for major sports and entertainment properties. I kept a constant pulse on marketplace innovations, from emerging experiential tech to evolving social behaviors, and proactively integrated those insights into concepts that could cut through the relentless noise of the NYC media landscape. Pride deserved nothing less than best-in-class creative rigor, and I made sure it received it.

In addition to leading key creative initiatives, I oversaw a large portfolio of high-value sponsorship platforms — managing the full creative process from concept development through execution and real-time refinement. I thrived in client-facing environments, especially with C-suite partners such as Mastercard, where I leveraged my storytelling expertise to communicate the strategic intent behind our work and to champion the team’s thinking in a way that was clear, compelling, and visually arresting. Many of these platforms ultimately evolved into award-winning Pride initiatives that strengthened partnerships, drove measurable business outcomes, and elevated NYC Pride as a leading and credible voice within the LGBTQIA+ movement.

I directed the overarching creative vision for a wide range of promotional and branded materials — including environmental design, stage and scenic design, special event branding, print collateral, digital assets, and social content — ensuring that every deliverable laddered up to a unified system rooted in Pride’s mission. My process was deeply collaborative: integrating client briefs, cross-functional conversations, evolving community expectations, and internal brand strategies into work that served all stakeholders without sacrificing creative integrity.

Throughout my tenure, I was recognized not just for the work itself but for the way I built the work — with integrity, clarity, optimism, and a relentless commitment to thoughtful representation. I bring a calm yet energized leadership presence, strong interpersonal intuition, and a work ethic shaped by years of navigating the fast, demanding, beautifully chaotic world of New York advertising as a queer creative. My goal has always been to inspire teams to go further, think deeper, and create platforms that feel not only powerful and premium, but meaningful — work that reflects NYC Pride as a transformative force in culture and a beacon for queer equality worldwide.