Communications Director · Creative Director · Brand & Narrative Strategy

Stephanie
B. Keane

I build communications engines that make complex missions impossible to ignore — for nonprofits and mission-driven brands.

Fifteen years leading creative and communications across Netflix, Estée Lauder, Omnicom, and environmental advocacy. I build the whole function: brand system, messaging architecture, campaigns, and the team and tools that keep it running.

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"The best narratives don't just reach audiences — they change what people believe is possible."

15+ Years in Narrative,
Creative & Strategy
8 Industries Across
Commercial & Nonprofit
20+ Global Markets
Reached
50+ Global Team
Led
Hermosa Beach, CA · Open to remote director-level roles
Beauty✦ Packaging✦ Entertainment✦ Pharmaceutical✦ Gaming✦ Music Videos✦ Art Direction✦ Nonprofit & Civic✦ Narrative Strategy✦ Campaign Execution✦ Communications Leadership✦ Climate Justice✦ Creative Direction✦ Brand Storytelling✦ Beauty✦ Packaging✦ Entertainment✦ Pharmaceutical✦ Gaming✦ Music Videos✦ Art Direction✦ Nonprofit & Civic✦ Narrative Strategy✦ Campaign Execution✦ Communications Leadership✦ Climate Justice✦ Creative Direction✦ Brand Storytelling✦
Narrative as Power

I make complex truths feel.

"Authoritative without being cold. Urgent without being alarmist. Joyful without being naive. Rooted in community without being insular."

My work begins with a simple premise: the best stories are already happening. Whether it's a beauty brand with a genuine mission, a community fighting for environmental justice, or a civic campaign trying to shift public understanding — the job of a narrative strategist is not to invent stories. It's to build the architecture that lets the right ones travel.

Over 15 years, I've built that architecture across commercial creative, global brand campaigns, and mission-driven advocacy. I've shaped visual culture for beauty, packaging, entertainment, gaming, music, and art. I've led nonprofit and civic work for women's shelters, city governments, and community organizations. And I've led the teams and built the systems that make it all sustainable at scale.

The through line is simple: I understand how stories travel — through media ecosystems, cultural moments, and the quiet power of the right voice at the right moment. That's the craft. And it's the work I'm here to do.

01 · Grounded
Rooted in Real Stakes

From frontline communities to global consumers — the most durable narratives emerge from lived experience, not top-down messaging frameworks.

02 · Resonant
Emotionally Intelligent

Science, policy, data, and product value only travel when they feel. I translate complexity into humanity — without losing rigor or accountability.

03 · Bold
Confident Point of View

No hedging, no jargon. Clear ideas, sharp language, and the courage to say what the work is actually about — whether the audience is a consumer or a community.

04 · Full Spectrum
Commercial Craft + Mission Drive

Rare fluency across both worlds — from $8M beauty launches to a women's shelter website rebrand. The skills transfer. The values stay consistent.

Core Expertise

What I Bring
to the Table

15+
01
Communications Leadership & Narrative Strategy

Building the communications function end to end — strategy, messaging architecture, and multi-year narrative frames that make complex issues legible, urgent, and action-oriented for nonprofits and mission-driven brands.

02
Brand Voice & Organizational Identity

Clarifying and evolving brand systems, voice, editorial standards, and public positioning — so an organization lands clearly and consistently across every touchpoint, from print and events to platform and press.

03
Campaign Design & Execution

End-to-end leadership from creative brief through distribution strategy, partner activation, and performance measurement — with a clear theory of how stories spread across platforms, media ecosystems, and cultural moments.

04
Media & Public Relations

Earned media strategy, rapid-response content, press briefings, and on-site spokesperson work. Co-directed media strategy behind New York Times and Los Angeles Times coverage; led campaigns reaching 1.6M+ cross-platform views.

05
Creative Direction & Digital Platforms

A decade+ directing video, motion, packaging, and AR across global platforms — with fluency in social, influencer, and emerging channels and a clear-eyed view of how ideas actually travel today.

06
Team, Vendor & Partner Leadership

Trust-based management of distributed teams (50+ across five countries), agencies, and consultant networks — plus relationships across media, entertainment, brands, and creators that open doors to new audiences.

Selected Case Studies

The work, start to finish.

Three engagements, one structure: the challenge, what I built, and what it delivered.

01 · Nonprofit · 2023 – Present

Building a communications function from zero

Samuel Lawrence Foundation · San Diego, CA
The challenge

SLF works on one of California's least intuitive public issues: 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel stored at San Onofre, on the coast. The science is dense, the policy is slow, and the industry's own talking points shape how the public sees the problem. The Foundation had the expertise but no communications infrastructure to carry it.

My role

Sole strategist as a consultant, then promoted to Director of Narrative & Strategic Communications — owning brand, message, design, media, and campaign execution end to end.

What I built
  • Brand system. A full identity system — color, type, and print and digital standards — so every touchpoint reads as one organization.
  • Messaging architecture. Reframed abstract waste figures into comparisons people can feel, using weight-based visuals for social and event audiences in place of the industry's "football field" framing.
  • Rapid-response content. Connected breaking news to SLF's mission in real time — such as tying the Artemis II splashdown near San Diego to gaps in federal space nuclear policy, with primary sources linked.
  • Signature event. Produced Following The Sun: A San Onofre Symposium On Clean Energy at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego) end to end — event identity, an interactive data visualization of renewable cost declines, projection layouts, and all print collateral.
  • Earned media. Co-directed the symposium's media strategy and prepared leadership and scientists for press briefings, supporting coverage in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
  • Education & outreach. Built a Nuclear Energy & Safety Educational Program with scientists, and led SLF's San Diego Climate Week 2026 presence as on-site spokesperson.
6xInstagram reach
Q1 → Q3 2026
2xEngagement across channels
Q1 → Q3 2026
321KImpressions across
six platforms in 2026
View the work →
02 · Mission-Driven Brand · 2021 – 2023

Making advocacy and product work as one story

Beautycounter · Santa Monica, CA
The challenge

A clean beauty brand whose mission included legislative advocacy for safer products. Every launch had to sell product and advance the cause at the same time — on an organic content budget of $80K.

My role

Associate Creative Director, Video — leading multimedia content and creative strategy.

What I built
  • Organic storytelling strategy. Rebuilt video content around authentic brand voice rather than paid reach.
  • Influencer narrative program. Grounded creator partnerships in genuine community trust and the brand's mission.
  • Advocacy-integrated launches. Paired legislative campaigns with product launches, turning policy wins into consumer brand moments.
  • Retail and digital rollouts. Took $8M+ launches across Ulta and digital channels from narrative brief through production and full-funnel distribution.
30xCTR growth
0.05% → 1.5%
78%YoY earned media value
$1.8M → $3.2M
$8M+Product launches
retail + digital
View the work →
03 · Global Campaigns · 2023 – 2024

One narrative, many markets

Omnicom Production · Los Angeles, CA
The challenge

Fortune 500 clients in pharmaceutical, automotive, and technology needed campaigns that held together across languages and cultures — including translating clinical complexity into stories patients could trust.

My role

Executive Post Producer, Creative Lead — leading a distributed creative team of 50+ across five countries.

What I built
  • Patient-centered storytelling. Teva Pharmaceuticals campaigns that made clinical information human for international audiences.
  • Cross-market alignment. HP, Nissan, Honda, Exxon, and Dow Jones Digital campaigns that matched creative narrative to stakeholder strategy and local context.
  • Team infrastructure. The operational and creative workflows that let a distributed team deliver at global scale.
  • New business. Pitch decks that secured executive alignment and new global campaign mandates.
6Global brands
Teva · HP · Nissan · Honda · Exxon · Dow Jones
3Channels
Paid social · Broadcast · Digital
50+Person team
across five countries
View the work →
Career Journey

Experience & Impact

2025 – Present
Full-time · Nonprofit

Director of Narrative & Strategic Communications

Samuel Lawrence Foundation · California (Remote)

Leading marketing, communications, and creative direction for a nonprofit focused on nuclear safety, clean energy, and community health — turning dense science and slow-moving policy into stories the public, press, and decision-makers can act on.

  • Doubled social engagement (+114%) and grew Instagram reach 6x on 22% fewer posts — 321K impressions across six platforms in 2026.
  • Produced the Following The Sun symposium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego) end to end, co-directing the narrative and media strategy that supported New York Times and Los Angeles Times coverage.
  • Prepared leadership and scientists for briefings with New York Times and Los Angeles Times reporters, and co-developed the scientific decks used to brief press.
  • Built SLF's Nuclear Energy & Safety Educational Program with scientists — a repeatable model now expanding.
  • Program-managed SLF's San Diego Climate Week 2026 sponsorship: designed a nuclear-waste education trifold and served as on-site spokesperson to Fox and Times of San Diego reporters.
  • Partner with executive leadership on brand voice, messaging frameworks, and design systems that drive awareness, donor engagement, and policy impact.
Portfolio Categories
Nonprofit Climate Earned Media Events Civic Campaigns
Read the case study →
Advocacy Media Narrative Climate
2023 – 2025
Consultant · Nonprofit

Director of Marketing & Creative Strategy

Samuel Lawrence Foundation · San Diego, CA

Brought in as a consultant to build the Foundation's communications function from the ground up as sole strategist — then promoted to full-time Director.

  • Built the brand and communications function from zero: identity, messaging architecture, and modular creative toolkits (social kits, newsletters, video systems) for scalable civic storytelling.
  • Architected integrated campaigns across Meta, YouTube, and LinkedIn that translate complex regulatory and scientific material into narrative that drives civic engagement — owning creative testing, budget pacing, and performance reporting.
  • Turned complex environmental and public health science into community-facing narratives and campaign tools across social, newsletters, and video.
Portfolio Categories
Nonprofit Brand System Civic Campaigns Community Advocacy
Brand Advocacy Narrative
2024 – 2025
Civic & Nonprofit Creative

Creative Director

Lee Andrews Group · Los Angeles, CA

Recruited to lead creative strategy and brand storytelling for an agency serving civic, nonprofit, and social impact clients across Los Angeles. Brought commercial creative fluency to mission-driven briefs — running campaigns for organizations doing essential work in the community, from domestic violence shelters to city mobility programs to women's health networks.

  • City of West Hollywood Mobility Expo recap — oversaw production and the edit of the event film, winner of a Gold Stevie Award.
  • Women's shelter website rebrand — clarified messaging, structure, and navigation so donors and the people the shelter serves can quickly find what they need.
  • Women's health and community advocacy clients — developed visual and written brand identities that made mission legible and actionable for diverse, underserved audiences.
  • Partnered with analysts to translate attribution and performance data into real-time narrative and creative optimizations.
  • Omnichannel campaign storytelling with global creative team localization — from strategic brief through final distribution and performance measurement.
Portfolio Categories
Nonprofit Civic Campaigns Women's Advocacy City Mobility Community Social Impact
Civic Nonprofit Community Campaigns
2023 – 2024
Global Production

Executive Post Producer, Creative Lead

Omnicom Production · Los Angeles, CA

Led global narrative campaigns for Fortune 500 clients across pharmaceutical, automotive, technology, energy, and media sectors. Managed a distributed creative team of 50+ across five countries — building the operational and creative infrastructure for campaigns at genuine global scale.

  • Directed brand campaigns for Fortune 500 clients including Teva, HP, Nissan, Honda, and Dow Jones, spanning paid social, broadcast, and digital storytelling.
  • Teva Pharmaceuticals — global campaigns translating clinical complexity into human, patient-centered storytelling for international audiences.
  • HP, Nissan, Honda, Exxon, and Dow Jones Digital campaigns — aligning creative narrative with stakeholder strategy and cultural context across diverse markets simultaneously.
  • Developed and won pitch decks securing executive alignment and significant client investment for new global campaign mandates.
Portfolio Categories
Pharmaceutical Entertainment Global Campaigns Tech
Global Leadership Scale Pharma
2021 – 2023
Mission-Driven Beauty Brand

Associate Creative Director, Video

Beautycounter · Santa Monica, CA

Directed multimedia content and creative strategy for a mission-driven clean beauty brand — where product storytelling and values-based advocacy had to work together seamlessly. The rare commercial context where brand narrative and legislative advocacy were genuinely aligned, and where the creative had to do both at once.

  • CTR increased from 0.05% to 1.5% — 30x growth — through organic storytelling strategy on an $80K budget.
  • 78% YoY EMV increase ($1.8M → $3.2M) through influencer narrative strategy rooted in authentic brand voice and genuine community trust.
  • $8M+ beauty launches across Ulta retail and digital channels — from narrative brief through creative production and full-funnel distribution.
  • Led brand advocacy communications integrating legislative campaigns with product launches — turning policy wins into consumer brand moments.
Portfolio Categories
Beauty Packaging Brand Campaigns Influencer
Beauty Mission Influencer Brand
2020 – 2021
Brand Activations

Executive Producer

Whooden Studios · Los Angeles, CA

Produced interactive brand activations and launch campaigns for beauty, fragrance, and gaming talent — building full creative narratives from concept through studio production, with budgets up to $500K.

  • Produced a $500K live AR activation for Essie (L'Oréal) — blending design innovation with consumer engagement at the intersection of beauty, technology, and live storytelling.
  • Directed the Urban Decay x Prince “Live Loud in Color” launch.
  • Built influencer-driven storytelling for Maison Margiela Replica: Matcha Meditation, generating 17K+ Sephora.com engagements.
  • Creative production and AR campaigns for gaming creators including Kryoz and Ninjayla, plus music video campaigns for emerging and established artists.
Portfolio Categories
Beauty AR / Tech Gaming Music Videos
Beauty AR Activation Production
2018 – 2020
Global Beauty Media

Director, Global Media

Smashbox — Estée Lauder Companies · Culver City, CA

Directed global creative for a major Estée Lauder brand — overseeing packaging direction, campaign visuals, and social content across international markets. Led full-funnel campaigns with cross-platform reach and creative consistency across diverse global audiences and retail environments.

  • 1.6M+ cross-platform views for major product launches — driven by narrative-led influencer strategy with authentic brand alignment and cultural relevance.
  • Global packaging direction — maintaining brand consistency across international markets while building in cultural relevance for each regional context.
  • Rare full-funnel creative ownership at global scale — from retail packaging concept through digital campaign distribution and performance analysis.
Portfolio Categories
Beauty Packaging Global Media Campaigns
Global Beauty Packaging Media
2017 – 2018
Global Entertainment

Product Creative Specialist

Netflix · Hollywood, CA

Shaped narrative strategy for Netflix Originals across 20+ global markets — including Mindhunter and GLOW. Applied data insights and A/B testing to optimize creative performance across languages, platforms, and cultural contexts. This is what "how narratives travel" looks like at genuine scale.

  • Website launches for Netflix Originals including GLOW and Mindhunter — partnered with engineers to build and ship title sites in sync with each show's global release.
  • Cultural framing for diverse global audiences — ensuring stories resonated across vastly different contexts without losing their distinctiveness or power.
  • Full-funnel activations integrating video, web, and influencer marketing for global narrative consistency across 20+ simultaneous markets.
  • Data-driven creative iteration — using A/B testing to refine narrative framing in real time across languages and cultural contexts at scale.
Portfolio Categories
Entertainment Global Media Cultural Narrative
Entertainment Culture Global Media
Earlier Work
Foundational Creative Work

Senior Promo Producer & Creative Leader

Yahoo! · Agency & Studio Work

Years of building foundational fluency in how stories are made, distributed, and received across formats, audiences, and platforms — from motion graphics to branded entertainment and investor presentations. 500+ productions across entertainment, consumer brands, and art. The craft beneath everything else.

  • Yahoo! — 360° brand campaigns and narrative content for global consumer, tech, and entertainment brands, including trailers and branded storytelling for Yahoo! Originals.
  • Entertainment — on-air and digital promotions for Comedy Central, building visual storytelling fluency across broadcast and entertainment media at scale.
  • Art direction — visual creative work across commercial, editorial, and fine art contexts, building a design sensibility that informs everything from packaging to campaign concepting.
  • Yahoo! NewFronts — narrative-driven investor presentations for programming including Community, Other Space, and Sin City Saints, securing key investor engagement.
  • 500+ on-air and digital promotions for Comedy Central, AXE, Nintendo, Mountain Dew — building commercial creative stamina and genuine industry breadth across formats.
Portfolio Categories
Entertainment Art Direction Investor Presentations
Entertainment Art Production
15+
Years in Narrative,
Creative & Campaign Work
20+
Global Markets
Reached
78%
YoY Growth Delivered
on Mission-Driven Brand
500+
Productions Across
8 Industries
Purpose & Direction

Where I'm building next.

The thread through everything I've built — from beauty campaigns to gaming productions to civic nonprofit work — is a belief that stories are infrastructure. They determine what feels possible. Who gets to be the hero. What solutions look real. What communities are worth caring about.

The commercial work taught me craft: how to move fast, stay sharp, build for scale, and keep audiences genuinely engaged across every format and platform. The mission-driven work taught me stakes: how to center the people most impacted, build trust across communities, and create narratives that don't just perform — they shift culture.

I'm now focused on bringing both of those things fully together — commercial-grade creative in service of social change. Organizations building at the intersection of equity, community, and systems change are where my full range creates the most distinctive value. I'm drawn especially to climate, environmental justice, health equity, and civic power — the places where narrative and culture are genuinely on the line — and to mission-driven brands where values and growth align.

I'm ready to be the creative and strategic leader who builds a narrative engine that's both influential and iconic — while staying deeply accountable to the communities at the center.

🌱

Frontline-First Narrative

I don't amplify from above — I build narrative structures that emerge from and return power to frontline communities. Demonstrated at SLF, Lee Andrews Group, and across civic campaigns.

📡

I Understand How Stories Travel

Netflix (20+ markets), global Omnicom campaigns, TikTok-era advocacy — I've built distribution theory into every campaign I've led, at every scale.

🎬

Deep Creative Industry Networks

Existing relationships across beauty, entertainment, gaming, music, and brand sectors — ready to be leveraged for narrative reach, cultural partnerships, and authentic storytelling.

⚡

Strategic + Executional

I hold the vision and roll up my sleeves. I write, edit, brief, and build alongside my team. Every role I've led has needed both — and I bring both.

🤝

Trust-Based Leadership

I lead with accountability, care, and genuine joy in the work. The 50+ person global teams I've managed, and the communities I've served, have felt that difference.

Let's Build What's Next

Ready when
you are.

Whether you're building a mission-driven narrative program, need creative and strategic leadership, or want to explore what's possible together — I'd love to talk. Let's find the work worth doing.

Send Me a Message → LinkedIn ↗ Portfolio →