Hello There!

A 2009 graduate of Iowa State University, Valerie began her journey as a designer through courses pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, with a minor in Sociology. Her love of travel sparked from a semester studying abroad in Rome, Italy, where she also discovered her favorite gelato flavor is amaretto.

By day, you can find Valerie in the home office or downtown working at McDermott Will & Emery as the firm's Creative Services Manager. She helps lead the global creative team and applies her expert design skills to create cross-platform marketing materials including brochures, infographics, advertisements, event materials, landing pages, video graphics and various other internal and external deliverables while ensuring brand guidelines are embraced and adhered to in all executions.

 

Through the end of 2016, her full time role was with Rotary International in Evanston as the Graphics and Publications Specialist for their Meetings and Events team. She was responsible for creating general session stage graphics for the International Assembly and International Convention each year, as well as managing the production of all print materials produced for the events. This position took her from San Diego, California to Sydney, Australia, São Paulo, Brazil and Seoul, Korea!

Prior to her move to Chicago, Valerie served as the Law Enforcement Torch Run® Manager for Special Olympics Wisconsin from 2010-2013 at their headquarters in Madison. In this role, she was responsible for event planning and graphic design for major fundraisers supported by law enforcement volunteers, which included the creation of marketing materials for 12 Polar Plunges and coordinating registration and logistics for the World's Largest Truck Convoy. She now encourages everyone to jump into a frozen lake in February… it’s really quite fun!

Valerie continually strives to expand her portfolio, with recent work in the real estate and salon industries, wedding stationary, non-profit events and small business identities. You might also find a couple birthday party invitations as her side projects now revolve around her four year-old twins!