Case Studies:
Brand & Growth Marketing
Fifteen years of marketing leadership across renewable energy, nonprofit, education, and government has taught me one thing: the channels change, but the discipline doesn't. Below are a few projects that show the range — from rebuilding a company's entire marketing function to driving enrollment and event revenue for mission-driven organizations. Each includes the challenge, the approach, and the results.
Chasing Sunshine: A Solar Growth Story
Industry: Renewable Energy
Challenge: Sun Collectors needed to scale marketing from execution-heavy, ad-hoc work into a systemized, performance-driven function — while navigating fast-changing federal solar policy that affected messaging in real time.
Approach: Promoted from Digital Marketing Specialist into the Director role, I rebuilt the marketing function end-to-end: owned strategy and budget, launched new paid channels (Nextdoor, expanded TikTok), implemented automation across Formidable Forms, Mailchimp, and CallRail to close the speed-to-lead gap, and led a full website rebuild focused on conversion.
Result:
1,300% increase in social followers in 7 months
82.25% average increase in website form submissions
86% increase in homepage consultation requests, 80% increase in free quote submissions
Community Marketing, Minus the Boring Part
Industry: Public Sector
Challenge: Peoria Park District needed integrated marketing support to drive awareness and participation across community programs and seasonal initiatives — communicating effectively across social, email, and direct mail to a public audience with much higher expectations of value and trust than a typical commercial list.
Approach: I led integrated campaign strategy spanning social, email, and direct mail, aligning messaging and timing across channels to support each program's seasonal push and building email campaigns designed to earn attention rather than just deliver it.
Result:
Up to 70% email open rates
Up to 40% click-through rate
Results significantly exceeded typical public-sector benchmarks
Recruiting Season, Reimagined
Industry: Higher Education
Challenge: Illinois Central College needed to drive enrollment through multimedia recruitment campaigns that could compete for prospective students' attention across video, social, and paid channels.
Approach: I directed multimedia recruitment campaigns built around video storytelling, social content, and targeted paid advertising, aligning creative direction with institutional recruitment goals.
Result:
11% increase in enrollment
Supported broader institutional growth objectives
The Business of Throwing a Great Party
Industry: Non-profit
Challenge: The Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce relied on a packed calendar of large-scale events and integrated marketing to drive member engagement, sponsorship revenue, and community visibility — all while managing vendors, budgets, and cross-functional stakeholders internally.
Approach: As Director of Marketing + Events, I led integrated marketing strategy across digital, print, and events, planned and executed 30+ large-scale events annually, and directed internal communications, sponsorship marketing, and creative production alongside vendor and budget management.
Result:
30+ large-scale events executed annually
Up to $75K net revenue generated per event