Meet the 2021 Women in Content Marketing Awards Winners
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We’re thrilled to introduce you to the 2021 Women in Content Marketing Awards (WICMA) winners. Now in its third year, the Women in Content Marketing Awards recognizes outstanding women at every level of the ever-evolving content market industry. These innovators and leaders are paving the way with their forward-thinking and results-driven work.
The Women in Content Marketing Awards honors women across five categories: WICMA Content Marketer of the Year, Marketing Leader of the Year, Rising Star, Pivot, and Freelance Excellence. As you learn more about each of these women, you’ll see the incredible impact they’ve already had on their organizations, clients, and communities through their talent and creativity. There’s a common thread that unites them: a bold, fearless approach to their work. That mindset has led these women to launch transformative new campaigns, businesses, and brands.
Content Marketer of the Year Award Winners
Robin Bennefield
Robin Bennefield is Editorial Director at Marriott International, leading editorial storytelling and content strategy across Marriott Bonvoy brands. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Marriottʼs online magazine telling travel stories that inspire exploration of the worldʼs greatest destinations. Robin has 25 years of experience and a strong background in travel journalism and digital media. She has served as a journalist and digital media producer, encompassing work as a reporter for U.S. News & World Report, travel writer and expert for TravelChannel.com, as well as executive producer and editorial director of several Discovery web sites, including Discovery.com, TLC.com, and AnimalPlanet.com.
Layne Bernstein
Layne Bernstein is the Head of Social and Content for Rothyʼs, a sustainable lifestyle brand based in San Francisco. Layne has nearly a decade of experience in the marketing space and has led content marketing programs for retail and tech companies alike, championing the consumer experience every step of the way. In her current role, Layne builds integrated, omnichannel campaigns across owned, paid, and earned channels. Recently, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Layne and her team helped implement ideas from the Rothyʼs community to use the company’s factory to produce masks and other personal protective equipment for the community. Prior to joining Rothy’s, Layne held social media and content marketing roles at Uber and Method.
Stacie Dauffenbach
Stacie Dauffenbach is Director of Digital Brand at ADT, where she is responsible for developing and executing the social and content strategy and the digital media to amplify it. Her most recent focus has been building and scaling ADTʼs digital brand across organic and paid social media strategies. With Stacieʼs leadership, ADT has increased social organic reach by 2,400% and shares by 7,572% through paid media brand strategies. In her two decades of corporate experience, Stacieʼs roles stretching across creative, customer care, accounting, and tech support have provided exposure that translates into a uniquely diverse business foundation. Her work on social media helped earn ADT the designation as a top 10 most shared brand in 2020.
Ellen Gerstein
Ellen Gerstein is the Senior Director, Content Strategy & Engagement, Corporate Affairs for Pfizer, where she leads above-brand digital and social content strategy as the head of the digital communications team. She also led the content strategy for Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic. A leader with more than 20 years of experience, Gerstein is an accomplished marketer and communicator with a vast background in creating successful social media engagement and innovative marketing strategies. Before joining Pfizer, she held leadership positions at organizations in a diverse range of industries, including publishing, nonprofit, and media.
Nekasha Pratt
Nekasha (pronounced “Ne-kee-sha”) Pratt is an award-winning marketer with over 15 years of experience. She is a Vice President of Marketing for HarperCollins Publishers and the founder of her own marketing and strategy consultancy, Bright Advisory Group. Throughout her career, Nekasha has spearheaded national and international promotional campaigns in industries such as consumer goods, tourism, music, and financial services, and has held leadership positions at global organizations, marketing agencies, and worked with Fortune 500 companies. Campaigns she has helped lead have won 25 creative awards, including Webby, Clio, Effie, Addy, and Cannes Lions awards. Nekasha is also an active community volunteer, serving on the boards of March of Dimes, Nashville Association of Black Journalists, and Nashville Jazz Workshop.
Stephanie Reid-Simons
Stephanie Reid-Simons is the Senior Director, Content Strategy at Zillow, where she built a team of bloggers into a robust internal creative agency, Studio Z. She oversees a content strategy and editorial group within the agency while serving as its Chief of Staff and overseeing creative operations. Stephanie is also a founding member of Zillowʼs Content Council, a cross-functional group of content leaders that ensures alignment in content creation and messaging to give customers and partners a clear, consistent experience. Stephanie got her start in newspapers and transitioned to Amazon, where she helped launch their digital video service and held leadership roles at Amazon Studios and deals/humor site Woot!, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, where she helped create a summer sales event that served as an inspiration for Prime Day.
Colleen Stauffer
Colleen Stauffer is the Head of Global Creator Marketing for Pinterest. In her role, she oversees campaign planning, strategy, and execution to tell stories that drive inspiration for creators. She helped launch the Creator Marketing team and led the Make the World Make campaign for Pinterest Creators. Prior to joining Pinterest, she served as Global Brand Engagement Director at Clorox, where she oversaw digital media for the suite of Clorox brands, including Brita, Burtʼs Bees, and Hidden Valley. Colleen, a Chicago native, got her start working in the Windy City for numerous advertising agencies, including Cramer-Krasselt, Edelman, and Critical Mass.
Caroline Tell
Caroline Tell is a writer, content strategist, and storyteller across the editorial and brand space. Sheʼs currently serving as Editorial Director at womenʼs luxury brand, HATCH, where she manages and executes all content and copy-related initiatives. Caroline’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Condé Nast Traveler, and more. Sheʼs held staff positions at Time magazine and Womenʼs Wear Daily and served as a senior contributor to The New York Observer from 2012 to 2016. In 2010, Tell served as Digital Editor at Michael Kors, where she launched the brand’s global editorial content platform and social media channels.
Marketing Leader of the Year Award Winners
Bethany Hale
Bethany Hale is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cedar, a data-driven healthcare consumer financial engagement platform that is transforming the financial and administrative experience for more than 9.5 million patients. Her background includes almost 20 years of experience across marketing strategy and operations, brand development, content marketing, and customer experience design. Prior to joining Cedar, Bethany spent seven years at IBM in a variety of marketing and strategy consulting roles as well as Chief of Staff to the global leader of IBMʼs healthcare and life sciences team. Bethany has also worked with other notable brands, including American Express, Samsung Electronics, Hertz, Pfizer, Microsoft, and Chevron.
Katie Jansen
Katie Jansen is the Chief Marketing Officer at AppLovin (Nasdaq: APP), a leading marketing software company providing solutions for developers to grow their mobile apps. She joined AppLovin in 2012 and has since been named by Business Insider as one of the most powerful women in mobile advertising. She was previously Vice President of Marketing at PlayFirst, a mobile gaming publisher acquired by Glu in 2014. Katie is an advocate for workplace equality and provides mentorship to help other women in tech. She serves as a marketing advisor to organizations such as Women 2.0 and Women in Wireless. She is also a board member of Amira Learning, an e-learning experience for children.
Rising Star Award Winners
Iman Isla Bashir
Iman Isla Bashir is the Founder of Craftly.AI, a female-run artificial intelligence (AI) copywriting company. Craftly.AI enables users to input information about what they’d like to write about, and the AI tool will craft unique and descriptive copy. Iman and her team are on a mission to challenge the norms and be the future of marketing, copywriting, and content creation. As an SEO specialist and entrepreneur, Iman also founded her own SEO company, ITSNU, which specializes in high-quality, organic traffic.
Brittany Manchisi
As an IBM Brand and Messaging Strategist, Brittany Manchisi combines her passions for consumer behavior, data analytics, and storytelling to inform, engage, and impact audiences around the world. As a member of IBM’s Global Market team, Brittany supported the production and curation of Healthcare, Government, and Life Sciences content. She recently served as the content lead on the One IBM Vaccine Management project, bringing together relevant content from across IBM to ensure a unified and collaborative narrative around vaccine distribution. Brittany previously held marketing roles with IBM Blockchain and 1–800-Flowers.com.
Pivot Award Winners
Christina Westbrook
Christina Westbrook serves as the Editor In Chief of Brand Publishing and Content Strategy at Dell Technologies. In addition to unifying internal communications and building enterprise credibility for the company, she also oversees the editorial operations of Perspectives and Realize, Dell Technologies’ award-winning digital and print publications. Under her leadership, the platforms have increased their breadth of coverage and roster of writers to reflect the diverse world of tech, while maintaining a keen focus on sustainability and social impact. With Christina at the helm, Realize won the MarCom Platinum Awards in the Industry Print Media and Print Media Corporate categories; Perspectives received the Gold Award for the Blog category.
Betty Wong Ortiz
Betty Wong Ortiz joined Dropbox in August 2020 as the Director of Marketing Content Strategy. In her role, she creates digital storytelling that answers customers’ needs while also fueling the brand’s campaign efforts across paid media, social, and email. She also led the launch of the companyʼs digital marketing platform, Experience Dropbox. Previously, Betty was the Director of Content for the digital discount pharmacy Blink Health and first pivoted into content marketing in 2019 when she joined the direct-to-consumer oral health brand Quip after more than 20 years in magazine media. Betty spent much of her career leading multiplatform content strategy and editorial teams at major consumer lifestyle titles including Parents, Family Circle, Fitness, Shape, Bon Appetit, and Runnerʼs World, where she was the titleʼs first female editor-in-chief in its 51-year history.
Fatima Zaidi
Fatima Zaidi is the CEO and Founder of Quill Inc., a full-service podcasting hosting platform and production agency that supports brands in launching their podcasts. She is also the owner of the Listen In Conference held in Los Angeles, and a member of the National Speakers Bureau. In addition to being a commentator for BNN Bloomberg on the challenges that female and BIPOC founders face in entrepreneurship, she is a frequent contributor to publications including The Globe and Mail and Huffington Post. She has won two Top 30 under 30 awards, the Young Professional of the Year by Notable Life, Veuve Clicquotʼs Bold Future Award, and one of Flare Magazineʼs Top 100 Women. Fatima teaches podcasting at the University of Toronto and serves as the Co-Chair of the #Tech4SickKids council for SickKids Hospital.
Freelance Excellence Award Winners
Kristen Geil
Kristen Geil is the Chief Content Officer at aSweatLife, a health and wellness media company. In her role, Kristen manages a team of global writers, oversees an email newsletter and social media content, hosts and produces the #WeGotGoals podcast, and leads a variety of special projects, such as aSweatLife’s annual State of Fitness Survey, gift guides, and more. She also serves as a freelance content writer and has worked with SimpleHealth, Reebok, AARP, type:A, RunnersWorld.com, Greatist, and USA Today’s 10Best.com.
Michelle Jackson
Michelle Jackson is a leader in the personal finance and entrepreneurship spaces and is the creator of the Michelle is Money Hungry website and podcast. She is a champion for women of color and equality and creates content designed to help people learn how to earn more money and improve their financial situations. Recently, Michelle worked with Experian to create a series of videos educating people on credit. She has shared her expertise at events like Podcast Movement, FinCon, Podthon, Denver Start Up Week, and many more. Michelle also was a member of the 2020 FinCon Community Advisory Panel tasked with supporting equity and inclusion initiatives within the organization.
The Women in Content Marketing Awards are presented by Masthead Media, a full-service content marketing company founded and led by women, in partnership with the Content Marketing Institute.
