Stephanie led brand and creative at Sprout for 8+ years, and she built something much bigger than the role she was hired for.

She joined to lead our website and ended up building an entire creative organization from the ground up, starting with a pitch that turned into a full Brand Creative team. Over time she expanded that into UX research and Brand & Customer Insights, and more recently built out a Creative Intelligence discipline that used AI to understand what would perform before it even shipped.

She has great instincts for where creative needs to go next, and she builds the team and structure to get there before most people see the need. And she does it while creating a strong culture that is deeply committed to their stakeholders and the craft.

Any team would be lucky to have her leading their creative organization.

Before Stephanie, creatives at Sprout were scattered. Writers sat within marketing, designers were separate, and video operated in its own silo. There was no unified Creative organization.

Then Stephanie changed that.

She built Brand Creative into a true strategic function. Under her leadership, writers, designers, developers, researchers, and video storytellers came together around a shared vision, operating as partners who could shape ideas, influence strategy, and drive meaningful business impact.

Stephanie has a rare ability to see both the big picture and the people needed to bring that vision to life. She built a team with expanded capabilities, established a culture rooted in trust and connection, and challenged us to see Creative as more than an execution engine. She showed us that our role was to help shape the business, not just support it.

No one believed in Brand Creative’s potential more than Stephanie. She advocated for our team in rooms we weren’t in, earned us a stronger seat at the table, and built credibility with partners across the organization. Under her leadership, Creative moved from a service function to a strategic partner.

What stands out most about Stephanie is her ability to develop people. She saw potential before others did, trusted people with opportunities before they felt ready, and created an environment where leaders could grow. Personally, she empowered me to lead initiatives before I had the title or experience on paper, giving me the confidence to grow into the role.

Stephanie is the kind of creative executive who builds teams, elevates talent, and transforms the way organizations think about creativity. Any company looking for a leader who can connect creative vision to business strategy would be fortunate to have her.

Stephanie is the kind of executive who can sit in a room with the CMO in the morning and a junior designer in the afternoon — and make both conversations feel like the most important one of her day. Over the nearly six years I worked with her, I watched her consistently balance sharp business instincts, long-term creative vision, and a genuine investment in her people.

From day one, it was clear she studies her teammates — their interests, their skills, the kind of work that energizes them — and builds a team structure around those strengths rather than forcing people into a mold. She has an exceptional eye for potential, and I watched her turn more than one strong individual contributor into a confident leader in their own right.

She led us through several major rebrands and strategic pivots, including a shift to realign our brand with a new target audience. What made her effective wasn't just the vision — it was that she built genuine consensus with her team before moving forward, so the strategy actually stuck.

On a personal note: Stephanie taught me how to make research land at the executive level, how to navigate high-stakes strategic decisions, and how to connect creative performance and market data directly to business outcomes. Those lessons shaped how I manage today, and I'm genuinely grateful for that mentorship.

Any company looking for executive creative leadership — someone who can translate creative work into business results while genuinely developing the leaders below her — should look no further than Stephanie.

Stephanie was my direct manager for 8+ of the most formative years of my career. She took a scrappy team with a lot of heart and little organization and turned us into a best-in-class brand team that held up to the scrutiny of being a public company. Stephanie's superpowers are in her ability to respond to every fire calmly with a clear path forward, somehow making magic out of mud. She sees years into the future but also knows how to bring people with her in the present, ensuring that creative is deeply strategic and and positioned to move towards the bigger picture. She designs systems, builds cross-functional relationships and advocates for her teams with deep intention. She is a steady presence while also holding conviction and deep care under the surface, leading with empathy when it's needed most. She is a masterclass in weaving the craft of art and science into a great brand and marketing function, a set of skills I'll carry with me for the rest of my career. Any teams that work alongside Stephanie will no doubt be made better, as I was in our tenure working together.