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Tara K.

Reformed marketer • Macmillan‑published author • Fractional creative/marketing director for underestimated brands

I build brands for the underestimated.

Nonprofits, climate tech, healthcare, EdTech, purpose-driven orgs — the organizations doing the hardest work with the least visibility. They don't need another agency selling the sexy. They need someone who sees the whole picture: the guts, the grind, and the stuff that keeps you standing.

I worked my way up the hard way: writer, designer, strategist, director. Macmillan-published author. Brand and creative leadership at Apple, NBC, and a string of mission-driven organizations. Twenty years of saying the thing out loud that everyone else is dancing around.

As a fractional brand and creative director, I embed with your team and lead — strategy through execution. Recent work: a year-end campaign that raised $2.1M and beat its goal with +444.8% impressions YoY. A climate tech founder whose qualified leads tripled in three months. A website redesign that lifted conversions 626%.

I don't build brands. I build brand humans.

If you're tired of fighting to be seen, let's talk.

Hire Tara
Tara K.

Testimonials

I had the pleasure of working with Tara Kelly at the Math Learning Center for over a year and a half. As an exceptional Marketing Automation Manager, Tara brought a unique blend of content strategy, brand development, video production, copywriting, and marketing operations. She consistently paid close attention to our organizational needs, delivering results that surpassed expectations. Tara's creative thinking, proactive problem-solving, and deep understanding consistently produced positive outcomes. With her initiative and expertise, Tara is a valuable team member and a pleasure to work with. I wholeheartedly recommend Tara, and I am confident she would be an excellent asset to any team.
AC
Amberlee Cooper
Tara is a human creative-swiss-army-knife! She is a musician, author, and design professional who is a pleasure to work with. Tara bleeds creativity, she enthusiastically tackles projects with a keen eye for design. She checks the box when it comes to being a communicative team player, an expert, awesome listener, and organized. There is no design project that Tara can not do!
LM
Lorenz Madarang
Tara is the most talented creative that I know. She is a master storyteller and it shows in her video work. From corporate to artistic, she can design what you are looking for.
JM
Jesse McCune
I had the privilege of working closely with Tara Kelly for eight months at The Math Learning Center. Throughout our collaboration, Tara consistently demonstrated commitment to open communication and allowed team members to grow their skills with project assignments. I also observed Tara’s strategic thinking and creativity in improving branding. One notable achievement includes Terra’s email campaign for MLC’s Summer Leadership Institute, where she successfully increased event attendance through targeted campaigns. Furthermore, she exhibited outstanding leadership skills by providing constructive feedback in art direction, which fostered a collaborative and motivated team environment. Tara possesses deep knowledge of the latest marketing trends, and her data-driven approach significantly contributed to our MLC’s success. I am confident that Tara will bring the same dedication, creativity, and strategic insight to any marketing team.
SM
Stephanie MeeksMarketing Strategist
Before working with Tara, I struggled to find a marketer who truly understood my business and could create content that met the high expectations of my clients. I often felt like I had to do everything myself. Tara took the time to understand my perspective, guiding me through strategic decisions while ensuring I remained actively involved. We strengthened Berkner Group’s visual identity and messaging, making it more compelling and tailored to our audience of climate tech and deep tech founders. She also led the redesign of our website, transforming it into a more sophisticated, marketing-ready platform. Beyond branding, Tara helped shape our content marketing efforts, producing high-quality LinkedIn videos featuring me and my team, which significantly increased engagement, click-through rates, and lead generation. She also introduced more sustainable marketing strategies, integrating AI-driven writing tools and helping us hire the right content support to continue building momentum. The results speak for themselves: a stronger brand presence, clearer messaging, and a more professional and polished online presence. If you’re looking for someone who is strategic, reliable, and committed to helping you refine and grow your brand, I highly recommend working with Tara.
CB
Chris BerknerCEO/Founder, Berkner Group

Work

Experience

May 2026 — Present
Brand Remix

Brand Remix

Chief Storyteller & Co-Founder

Brand Remix connects brand, operations, and AI to help founder-led companies, nonprofits, startups, and thought leaders build unforgettable, resilient brands and smarter business systems. The team combines storytelling, operations design, and AI workflow integration to help underdog brands stand out.

  • Co-founded and led brand strategy, messaging, and storytelling for founder-led companies, nonprofits, startups, and thought leaders.
  • Built integrated brand systems — ensuring voice and differentiation show up across digital, operational, and customer touchpoints.
  • Designed and advised on AI-driven content and workflow integrations that align with client values and scale marketing operations.
  • Delivered award-quality storytelling and creative direction for clients across industries (including NASA, Apple, Adobe, Skechers, Humane Society).
  • Avoided cookie-cutter tactics: focused on research-first positioning and repeatable frameworks rather than short-term growth hacks.
Nov 2025 — May 2026
Medic One Foundation

Medic One Foundation

Director of Marketing and Communications

Medic One Foundation funds research and paramedic training that supports the Medic One pre-hospital emergency care system serving the Puget Sound region. The foundation invests in training, simulation, equipment, and community programs that improve out-of-hospital care and survival rates.

  • Led Marketing & Communications for a regional nonprofit supporting paramedic training and pre-hospital care.
  • Creative-directed survivor-story video for the GiveBIG campaign and led multi-location production to elevate donor storytelling.
  • Designed and executed the 2025 year-end digital campaign that exceeded the $2.1M goal and funded the largest paramedic cohort in the foundation’s history.
  • Drove major year-over-year digital gains: impressions +444.8%, engagements +343.7%, audience growth +42.7%; achieved 46–47% email open rates.
  • Built in-house video capability (equipment procurement, production workflows) and improved photography and visual storytelling across programs.
  • Led brand strategy diagnostics and provided direction for a 2026 brand refresh.
  • Established team operations and governance: defined roles/decision rights, intake workflows, campaign calendars, and produced a Marketing & Communications Team Playbook.
Feb 2024 — Apr 2025
Berkner Group

Berkner Group

Brand & Marketing Director

Berkner Group builds executive and technical teams for companies catalyzing a decarbonized economy, placing leaders across climate tech and deep tech sectors and supporting clients throughout the U.S. and Canada.

  • Directed Brand & Marketing initiatives to refine visual identity and messaging for a climate/deep-tech executive search firm.
  • Led website redesign to present a more sophisticated, marketing‑ready platform tailored to founders and technical buyers.
  • Produced high-quality LinkedIn video content featuring firm principals to increase engagement, CTRs, and lead generation.
  • Introduced sustainable content workflows and AI-assisted writing tools; hired and scaled content support to maintain momentum.
  • Worked cross-functionally to align candidate- and client-facing content with recruiting product strategy and employer brand.
Jul 2023 — Oct 2024
Podfly

Podfly

Content Director & Marketing Advisor

Podfly is an award‑winning creative and strategic podcast partner for brands, focused on story-driven production, marketing integration, distribution, and performance measurement.

  • Advised on content strategy and positioning to turn branded podcasts into strategic brand assets rather than one-off marketing pieces.
  • Provided actionable, evergreen reporting and follow-up documents that informed major positioning and production decisions.
  • Brought a storytelling-first approach to client engagements—prioritizing relationship fit and sustainable creative collaboration.
  • Helped clients (executives and marketing leaders) clarify audience, budget, and scope to produce higher-value, more strategic audio content.
  • Supported Podfly’s evolving stance on practical AI use—leveraging tools to increase efficiency while protecting creative quality.
Jun 2022 — Jan 2024
The Math Learning Center

The Math Learning Center

Marketing Manager

The Math Learning Center is a nonprofit organization producing research‑based K–5 math curriculum, supplemental resources, apps, and professional learning to develop conceptual understanding and procedural fluency for diverse learners.

  • Developed and executed multi-channel marketing and storytelling strategies reaching 80,000+ educators and improving brand perception.
  • Built and led a team of specialists and SMEs to produce product and brand awareness campaigns and professional learning promotions.
  • Implemented HubSpot and data-hygiene practices that reduced bounces and lifted average email open rates to 60%+.
  • Improved engagement and conversion through audience segmentation, data-driven content, and targeted campaigns.
  • Launched a new podcast that ranked in the top 10% for downloads in its first week.
  • Improved cross-functional planning and project management to raise campaign quality and strengthen internal collaboration.
  • Authored a comprehensive brand strategy initiative to unify positioning and support future growth.
Jul 2020 — Nov 2025
Tansy Aster Creative

Tansy Aster Creative

Brand & Content Strategy Director

  • Being underestimated is your superpower. We hear you. We are you.
  • Brand & Business Remix is a small but mighty team that builds unforgettable brands and smarter businesses. We collaborate with ambitious startups, professionals with grit, and rebels with a cause ready to color outside the lines (ethically, of course). Through our Remix Roadmap, we can help you stand out in crowded markets, streamline your operations and integrate AI responsibly.
  • We don’t do flavor-of-the-month marketing tactics or bloated decks that collect dust. We roll up our sleeves, figure out what makes you different, and help you show up like you mean it—online, in your systems, and in every single touchpoint.
  • What we do:
  • Brand strategy & messaging that sounds like you
  • Fractional marketing & ops leadership
  • Visual identity, powerful videos, pitch decks & podcasts
  • AI tools and automation that give you your time back
  • High impact content that gets attention
  • Wins we’re proud of:
  • Tripled leads in 2 months for a climate tech firm by revamping their brand, messaging, and LinkedIn strategy
  • Produced podcasts in the top .5%
  • Increased website traffic by over 6500% for a social impact nonprofit and designed marketing strategies that helped exceed fundraising goals for multiple campaigns
  • Increased brand awareness for a tech start-up in the ESG space. High-profile guests have included Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and leaders of iconic brands
  • Took an ed-tech nonprofit from 20% to 60% email open rates—and doubled their event participation
  • Rebranded a national nonprofit post-restructure and increased social media engagement by 423%
  • Helped a podcast SaaS stand out with clearer messaging, better UX, and a refreshed brand voice that sounds human and--more importantly--truly represents who they are
  • Clients have included NASA, Adobe, Skechers, The Humane Society, Abaxx, and more
  • We’re here for the ones building something brave. If that’s you, let’s talk.
Aug 2017 — Jul 2020
Developmental Pathways

Developmental Pathways

Brand & UX Strategist

Developmental Pathways is a large Colorado nonprofit serving individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, providing early intervention, care coordination, Medicaid‑waiver supports, residential services, and community programs.

  • Led digital brand and UX strategy for a large nonprofit serving neurodiverse communities and multiple subsidiary sites.
  • Redesigned web experience and improved UX/data practices: reduced bounce rate from 50% to 31%, increased conversions by 626%, and boosted site engagement by 28%.
  • Improved ADA accessibility compliance and implemented analytics-driven optimizations.
  • Brought production of video storytelling in-house—planning, filming, and postproduction—delivering 15,000+ video views (≈+425%).
  • Built and executed social strategy that grew followers +157%, video views +1,265%, and engagement +423%.
  • Managed brand refresh, logo work, vendor partnerships, and trained internal staff on digital best practices.
Oct 2016 — Sep 2017
DDN

DDN

Creative Services Manager

  • Senior designer, motion graphics artist/video producer, and creator of the visual representation for the DDN Storage corporate brand.
  • My accomplishments included:
  • Helping the creative team function as a more cohesive and efficient unit.
  • Producing new, innovative marketing videos, which include motion graphics, on-brand and on-budget, saving the company a significant portion of the budget they use for outside vendors. Videos have increased video shares by 159% and subscribers by 41%.
  • Rebranding marketing materials and “brightening" their image.
  • Redesigning web pages for a better and more intuitive user experience.
  • More effective and concise messaging in marketing materials, tradeshow graphics, and videos.
Oct 2014 — Oct 2016

Sierra Sage Wellness Group

Creative Manager and Senior Designer

Sierra Sage Wellness Group provides recovery and wellness services (behavioral health and addiction recovery) and operates related treatment and publishing subsidiaries.

  • Provided/managed end-to-end creative services across brand, print and web design, video/audio production, photography, and content.
  • Produced marketing collateral: brochures, ads, newsletters, event materials, and brand style guides to ensure consistency.
  • Planned and executed video and audio projects from concept and scripting through filming, editing, color correction, and music.
  • Designed and managed responsive websites and maintained digital assets.
  • Managed social media, email marketing, and vendor relationships to support recruitment, patient engagement, and public relations.
Jan 2012 — Dec 2013

MediPro Direct

Assistant Creative Director

MediPro Direct is a commercial organization (supplier/partner) operating in the medical products/services space.

  • Served as Assistant Creative Director producing audience-focused creative across design, video, photography, and content.
  • Created marketing visuals and campaigns that combined strong design with story-led messaging to support sales and product awareness.
  • Produced short-form video and motion graphics tailored for social and web distribution.
  • Delivered photography assets (portrait, product, facility) and managed content editing to align with brand voice.
Jul 2011 — Aug 2012

Velocity Talent

Brand Marketing Manager

  • Copywriting for websites and marketing material
  • Video production
  • Product & portrait photography
  • Graphic Design and website maintenance & design
  • Social media/marketing assistance
Jul 2010 — Jul 2011
CorSource

CorSource

Technical Recruiter

CorSource Technology Group is a Portland-based technical staffing and consulting firm that helps organizations solve technology challenges through talent, digitalization, data insights, and security services.

  • Owned brand development and marketing for a technical staffing firm: created website content with SEO and an authentic employer/client voice.
  • Designed a new logo and rebuilt web and print marketing collateral to create a consistent visual identity.
  • Launched a social media program, company newsletter, and blog to engage both candidates and clients.
  • Authored original thought leadership and recruiting content tailored to technical audiences and hiring managers.
May 2008 — May 2015

Macmillan

Author

Macmillan is a major international publishing group producing trade and educational books across numerous imprints and markets.

  • Published award‑winning young adult fiction: debut HARMONIC FEEDBACK (2010) and AMPLIFIED (2011).
  • HARMONIC FEEDBACK received multiple honors (including the Oregon Spirit Book Award) and recognition from ALA and Bank Street.
  • Secured strong critical praise from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and engaged librarians, educators, and readers through outreach.
  • Managed direct marketing to educators and librarians and created and distributed promotional materials and social media engagement.
Aug 2006 — May 2014

Volatile Creations, LLC

Freelance Creative Strategist

Volatile Creations, LLC is a freelance creative studio offering graphic design, video/motion, photography, music/voiceover, and content strategy for small and medium businesses.

  • Provided full-service creative offerings: graphic design (print + web), motion/video for social and web, and professional photography.
  • Composed custom music and performed voiceover work to produce unique branded audio assets.
  • Developed content strategy and wrote targeted copy for websites, product descriptions, and marketing campaigns.
  • Partnered with clients to craft narrative-driven visuals that connect with target audiences and drive engagement.
Jan 2005 — Feb 2006
Apple

Apple

Marketing Specialist

Apple Inc. is a global technology company known for consumer electronics (iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch), software platforms, and services, with a focus on product design, integration, and innovation.

  • Supported marketing initiatives for product and/or digital campaigns (creative development, content production, and cross-team coordination).
  • Produced marketing collateral and digital assets aligned to brand standards and campaign objectives.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams (design, analytics, product) to optimize messaging and measure campaign performance.
  • Applied analytics and audience insights to improve engagement and inform creative iterations.