Historic Firsts
Historic Firsts
Following a bruising presidential cycle, we wanted to remind our community that progress didn’t stop at the top of the ticket. The Historic Firsts campaign was designed to reframe the post-election narrative by celebrating barrier-breaking victories across state legislatures — wins that represented tangible, lasting change in who holds power.
In late 2024, we partnered with Feminist — a women-founded, social-first nonprofit media company with a global reach of over 6 million people. The carousel of stories featured the first Iranian-American woman elected in Colorado, the first Hmong-American in Michigan’s Assembly, and many more—all framed to say: when we change who is in office, we change what’s possible.
The post quickly became one of our highest-performing organic pieces of the cycle — driving engagement, resharing, and media pickup while reinforcing our core message: state legislatures are where the fight for representation and rights begins.
The campaign was honored with the GAIN Powerful Idea Award for Creative Communication — a recognition of how sharp narrative + movement design can turn wins into inspiration and action.
States Win Rebrand
States Win Rebrand
In 2025, I began leading a full organizational rebrand of Sister District, in partnership with Tandem, an external progressive digital agency. The project includes a complete name change to States Win—a reflection of who we’ve become and where we’re headed. As the organization grew, so did our impact. We are now a national grassroots movement focused on building lasting progressive power in state legislatures. The name States Win captures that evolution: it’s about strategy, scale, and the truth that when we win in the states, the country moves forward.
This rebrand is more than a new visual identity—it’s a chance to tell our story with greater clarity and confidence. Every aspect of daily life—climate, labor, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedom—is shaped by the decisions made in statehouses. Our brand needed to reflect that urgency and purpose. Working closely with Tandem, our creative team developed a new identity system designed to feel bold, accessible, and rooted in movement energy. From early sketches and logo prototypes to a flexible chapter logo system, each round brought us closer to a brand that feels distinctly ours: strategic, modern, and built for action.
The States Win brand book and website are currently in development, with launch scheduled for January 2026. The brand guidelines will detail voice, tone, visual system, and storytelling framework, while the new site will bring our mission to life through interactive impact data, volunteer calls-to-action, and state-level storytelling. This portfolio series documents that journey—from discovery to design to rollout—and celebrates the collaborative process behind building a brand ready for the next decade of movement-building.
Virgina Special Elections
Virginia Special Elections
The first week of January 2025, we launched our first rapid-response campaign of the year — two high-stakes special elections in Virginia. With just weeks between the new year and Election Day, our goal was to help elect Kannan Srinivasan (SD-32) and JJ Singh (HD-26) and protect the narrow Democratic majorities that define Virginia’s political landscape. At stake was control of both chambers — and with it, the ability to block Governor Glenn Youngkin’s far-right agenda and defend reproductive freedom, gun safety, and workers’ rights.
We treated the specials as both a mobilization test and a storytelling opportunity: a way to keep our volunteer base engaged after the 2024 cycle while demonstrating that state power truly shapes the direction of democracy. In under three weeks, our team coordinated a full-scale integrated campaign across email, SMS, web, and press. We built a simple, energetic narrative — our first chance to organize in 2025 — and paired it with a digital infrastructure that made taking action seamless.
On January 7, both races were called for our candidates — a clean sweep that kept Virginia blue. The win email went out within hours: a thank-you and a call to keep the momentum going into the 2025 general elections. We emphasized that these victories weren’t isolated; they were proof that our model of distributed grassroots action works — that when we organize, we win.
Jonathan Van Ness
Jonathan Van Ness
For the past four years, we’ve collaborated with Jonathan Van Ness to help bring the fight for state power to a national audience. Jonathan has used their platform to highlight the importance of state legislatures—featuring our team multiple times on the Getting Curious podcast, joining live phonebanks, and sharing calls to action across social media.
Our partnership blends humor, hope, and civic education, reaching new audiences who might not see themselves as “political” but care deeply about justice, equality, and progress. Each appearance connects policy to real people, reminding listeners and followers that the most meaningful change often starts in their own statehouse.
Impact Report
Impact Report
The Sister District 2024 Impact Report was built and launched as a multi-channel campaign across email, SMS, web, and PR. I led the editorial and creative process from outline to rollout. The goal was clear and simple—turn a dense compilation of program data into a compelling narrative that donors, volunteers, and press would actually read and share.
The report tells the story of headwinds down-ballot: 2M+ voter contacts, $2M+ invested in candidates and partners, 53 endorsements across 9 states with 30+ wins, and chamber-changing victories that broke GOP supermajorities in North Carolina and Wisconsin while defending narrow control in Pennsylvania and holding Minnesota in a pivotal special election. We paired those toplines with human stories—candidate spotlights from places like NC, WI, AZ, and GA—and wove in our ongoing narrative work on why state power matters. The campaign also elevated our research on down-ballot roll-off, pointing audiences to the Downballot Voter Toolkit and tested creative developed with A—B Partners.
Distribution was designed for momentum, not just a one-day drop. We ran a sequenced email series to donors, volunteers, and alumni candidates; coordinated SMS nudges to drive high-intent clicks to the PDF and landing page, and pitched targeted press and partner newsletters with embargoed quotes and pull graphics. Social assets extended the shelf life through the week, and a virtual briefing equipped partners and media with talking points and ready-to-use visuals.
It’s a snapshot of how we turn a year of work into a clear, credible story that moves people to action—and how the same narrative powers donor stewardship, volunteer retention, and press outreach.
Midterms Impact Report
Midterms Impact Report
The 2022 Impact Report marked a turning point in how we communicated our work — shifting from a dense year-end summary to a visual, narrative-driven story about state power. The goal was simple: show people that the real wins of the midterms happened in statehouses. Through design, storytelling, and digital strategy, we reframed a complicated election cycle into a clear message of hope and momentum.
The report celebrated record-breaking results: Democrats flipped chambers in Michigan and Pennsylvania, secured trifectas in Michigan and Minnesota, and defended razor-thin majorities in states like Nevada and Colorado. We paired data visualization with accessible storytelling to highlight what that meant in practice — more representation, more progress, and more protection for issues like abortion, climate, and democracy.
I led the creative direction and campaign rollout across email, SMS, and web, ensuring the design matched the energy of the moment: bold, confident, and forward-looking. Each channel told a piece of the story — from the high-level metrics shared in the press release to the interactive graphics and volunteer highlights featured online.
Sister District
Sister District
When I joined Sister District, the goal was clear but the identity was still taking shape. Over the years, I helped grow its creative and communications program into a cohesive national brand that could mobilize thousands of volunteers, donors, and candidates around a shared vision: building progressive power in state legislatures.
This collection includes a few of the graphics and campaign visuals that defined that era — not polished marketing pieces, but snapshots of how we told our story through movement design. They represent the foundation for the organization’s next evolution: our upcoming rebrand to States Win, launching in 2026, which will bring even greater clarity to our mission and message.
Vote Like a Woman
Vote Like A Woman
In the transformative landscape of 2020, I spearheaded the compelling campaign strategy for Vote Like A Woman, a trailblazing initiative dedicated to unleashing the full force of women’s voices in American democracy.
Our rallying cry was clear: Get every eligible woman voter to the polls on November 3, 2020. With the echoes of the 19th amendment’s centenary and the Voting Rights Act still resounding, our mission extended beyond a single election – it encompassed a resolute commitment to activate women’s voices for years to come.
Our canvas for change unfolded through innovative research, platforms, and the potent alchemy of creative talent. Guided by our core principles of inclusivity, creativity, grassroots empowerment, and unwavering honesty, we set forth to break down barriers hindering women’s voter participation.
Collaboration with top-tier creative minds and cutting-edge ad technology became our hallmark. Together, we crafted targeted, bilingual Facebook and Instagram campaigns, tailored to nudge and persuade those less civically engaged or unregistered, leaving no stone unturned.
Our endeavor was enriched through partnerships with kindred mission-led organizations. Notable allies included Wordland Design, Vision 2020, Alloy, Motivote, and Compete Everywhere, each adding a unique hue to our vibrant tapestry of change.
