Vanesha and her team do an incredible amount of foundational work—some of which could be categorized as the proverbial “invisible work”: incredibly important work that touches and influences EVERYTHING but isn’t always the loudest or brightest light in the room.

Vanesha is capable of so much as a design leader, and in many ways, this year has been about figuring out what she should devote her finite capacity to—since she physically can’t do it all.

This year, she’s had to do a lot of project management and organization: growing her team, figuring out their identity, building new relationships, identifying new partnerships, evangelizing new tools—and trying to bring others on the design team along for the ride.

Plus, she’s had to take on the task of managing people who may work (and react to things) differently than she does, which is always a challenge.

Through it all, Vanesha has persisted and made great progress this year; even when she gets discouraged, she always rallies, and actively seeks out guidance when things get overwhelming. She and her team have delivered a lot of value to the firm and to Brand Creative this year, and I’m excited to see what we can do together in the coming year.