Culture, Systems, and Enterprise Impact

Background

When I returned to CDC in a senior creative leadership role, I stepped into a talented but fragmented team operating within a rapidly evolving agency. The pace of public health communication had accelerated, creative expectations were rising, and the organization was entering a period of significant technological and structural change. The team had strong individual contributors, but lacked unified systems, strategic alignment, and modernized workflows to support a 10,000+ employee federal agency.

I was brought in to do more than manage creative output. My mandate was to rebuild cohesion, modernize operations, and position the creative function as a scalable, enterprise-ready partner inside a scientific institution. This was not incremental improvement. It was a foundational reset.

Challenge

The team had strong designers and deep institutional knowledge, but it lacked the structural alignment required to operate effectively at enterprise scale. Workflows were inconsistent, planning rhythms were reactive, and creative communication across centers was fragmented. Creative standards varied, and production systems had not evolved with the increasing volume and visibility of the agency’s work.

At the same time, the organization was entering a period of significant restructuring and uncertainty. Public health communication demands were accelerating, scrutiny was increasing, and expectations for clarity and consistency were higher than ever.

The challenge was not simply to improve output. It was to unify culture, modernize operations, and establish leadership infrastructure while maintaining active production. The team needed systems resilient enough to withstand structural change and adaptable enough to support the next decade of growth. This required coordinated transformation across culture, process, and technology, without pausing the work.

Culture and systems evolve together. When trust increases, performance follows.

Before Anything Else: Culture

Before modernizing systems, I focused on stabilizing the human foundation of the team. Sustainable operational change requires trust. I began by listening. I met individually with designers and managers, sought candid feedback about long-standing friction points, and surfaced assumptions that had gone unquestioned for years. Experience that had previously been underutilized became part of the conversation.

We established regular one-on-ones, consistent team forums, and clearer expectations around feedback and accountability. Transparency became the norm rather than the exception. Decisions were explained. Tradeoffs were discussed. Nothing was considered untouchable if it no longer served the work.

As trust increased, defensiveness decreased. Feedback became data. Change became collaborative rather than imposed. Within weeks, the tone of the team shifted. Designers felt ownership. Dialogue improved. And the groundwork for deeper operational transformation was in place.

Designing the Systems We Needed

With trust established, we turned to the systems shaping daily production. Legacy workflows slowed delivery and limited visibility into priorities. Intake lacked clarity, resource allocation was uneven, and planning was largely reactive. To support a 10,000+ employee agency, the creative function needed structure without losing flexibility.

We redesigned intake and prioritization, giving designers and managers clearer ownership of workload and timelines. We introduced formal planning rhythms to align production with agency-wide priorities, shifting the team from reactive execution to proactive partnership.

AI-enabled tools, including Firefly and Express, were integrated into workflows to increase efficiency while maintaining brand standards. At the same time, we secured new managerial roles and formalized growth pathways, ensuring the operational model could sustain long-term scale. Every system was built collaboratively and refined through feedback, designed not just to improve output, but to support the people doing the work.

A New Creative Identity for the Agency

As alignment and operational clarity improved, the team began thinking beyond production efficiency. We started asking larger questions about consistency, credibility, and how the agency presented itself to the public.

Through cross-center collaboration and senior leadership engagement, we initiated the development of a unified visual identity system spanning digital, print, social, motion, and enterprise templates across more than ten centers and offices.

This initiative did not emerge from mandate. It emerged from readiness. With culture stabilized and systems modernized, the team was positioned to lead a transformation that extended far beyond internal workflow, reshaping how millions of people experience the agency’s work.

Leading Through One of the Most Tumultuous Seasons in CDC History

During this transformation, the agency entered one of the most significant restructuring periods in recent history. Leadership transitions and structural shifts resulted in widespread uncertainty and the loss of colleagues, including members of our creative community. The pressure was real. Priorities shifted rapidly. Morale was fragile.

I chose to lead with transparency and steadiness. We communicated openly about what we knew and what we did not. We made space for concern without allowing it to derail performance. We protected focus where possible and supported one another as professionals and people.

Despite turnover and instability, the team maintained delivery, continued improving systems, and strengthened internal cohesion. The work did not pause, and neither did our commitment to each other.

The Outcome

The transformation was structural and measurable. The team evolved into a unified creative function capable of supporting a 10,000+ employee agency with greater clarity, consistency, and operational stability. Production workflows improved, planning became proactive, and stakeholder satisfaction increased through clearer intake and resource alignment.

AI-enabled processes reduced friction and modernized delivery. New leadership roles created sustainable management pathways and elevated internal talent. Cross-center collaboration strengthened, and the creative function shifted from reactive production to strategic partnership. What began as a cultural reset became a scalable creative operating model built for long-term resilience.

Why I Included This

This chapter reshaped how I think about creative leadership at scale. It reinforced that sustainable transformation requires both cultural trust and operational clarity. Systems alone are not enough. Inspiration alone is not enough. Organizations scale when people are aligned, infrastructure is intentional, and leadership remains steady under pressure.

I include this work because it reflects the kind of environments I am most effective in — complex, high-visibility organizations navigating change. I build clarity where there is fragmentation, structure where there is ambiguity, and alignment where there is drift. This is the standard I carry into every leadership role.

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