ABOUT
About Priya Maruthapillai
13+ years building communication plans and executing every piece of them — messaging, content, social, email, web, video and brand standards.
I'm Priya — a communications and brand professional with more than 13 years developing communication plans and executing every part of them. That means messaging and copy, press-ready materials, social and email calendars, website and intranet content, annual reports, video, and the brand standards that hold it all together.
I work best in mission-driven environments. I've run multi-year campaigns for veterans programs at CALIBRE, public-health awareness work for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the annual report and event identity for the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA. I care about accessibility and accuracy as much as aesthetics — the point is that people understand and act.
Day to day I manage deadlines and approvals across multiple initiatives, brief and align stakeholders, present to senior leadership, and keep an organized asset library so nothing goes out off-message. Adobe Creative Suite and Canva for production, Hootsuite for channels, and AI tools where they genuinely speed the work up.
Core competencies
- —Strategic communications planning
- —Writing, editing & storytelling
- —Social media & email campaigns
- —Website & CMS content management
- —Brand stewardship & guidelines
- —Video & multimedia production
- —Project & workflow management
- —Stakeholder & partner engagement
Career
Experience
2025 — Present
Southborough, MA
Creative Director & Graphic Design Strategist
JD Advisors
- —Subject matter expert on visual brand standards across print, digital, social and experiential channels.
- —Build and maintain style guides, presentation templates, color palettes and branding standards used by internal teams and outside partners.
- —Present concepts to senior leadership through sketches, layouts and visual comps.
- —Apply AI tools — Perplexity, Google Flow, Veo, Kling and generative design — to speed up creative workflows.
- —Design luxury real estate marketing: brochures, mailers, signage, email, social and web.
- —Govern the digital asset library for version control, accessibility and brand consistency.
2023 — 2025
Shrewsbury, MA
Freelance Graphic Designer
Independent · Notable client: Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA
- —End-to-end design for the 2023 Annual Report, 2025 Calendar, Fall Festival logo, T-shirt and promotional postcards.
- —Praised by the client for the 2023 Annual Report — high-impact visual solutions delivered on schedule.
2019 — 2023
Alexandria, VA
Graphic Designer III
CALIBRE Systems, Inc.
- —Led the Veterans Week Campaign (2019–2022): 10+ videos and 15+ social posts, increasing engagement 20%.
- —Directed a 20-minute NGEF documentary combining strategic editing and animation.
- —Produced promotional video for the CALIBRE Golf Classic and AUSA Conference social content (+10% engagement).
- —Received CALIBRE's Distinguished Service Award (2022) and multiple spot bonuses.
2017 — 2018
Rockville, MD
Graphic Designer, Marketing
American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)
- —Designed the National Addiction Treatment Week campaign — Gold, 2017 Association Trends All-Media Contest (social media).
- —Built branding and promotional materials for ASAM Hill Day 2017 across digital and print.
- —Designed the official ASAM journal cover plus brochures and postcards.
2015 — 2017
Richmond, VA
Freelance Graphic Designer
Initiate-it (Nextday Floors) · Vetha Innovations
- —Led strategy sessions and designed high-performing digital ads for Next Day Floors.
- —Defined digital presence, UI/UX framework and logo for nonprofit Vetha Innovations.
2013 — 2015
New Britain, CT
Corporate Graphic Designer
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.
- —Directed multimedia design and branding for internal engagement platforms.
- —Rebuilt intranet pages with SharePoint, jQuery, HTML and CSS — 10% adoption lift.
- —Produced 50+ videos and animations, including a financial explainer recognized by the CFO.
- —Winners Circle Award (2015) for outstanding design supporting controllership initiatives.
2012 — 2013
Raleigh, NC
UI/UX Designer
Yaarlo
- —Led UI/UX for mobile and web apps, raising engagement 10%.
- —Ran user research that improved retention 30%; built wireframes, mockups and user flows with engineering.
2011 — 2012
Raleigh, NC
Motion Graphics Designer
Robert Half Technology
- —Created 12 marketing training videos for LG Smart TV and LG Viper, delivered on time and on budget.
Recognition & study
Awards & education
Awards & recognition
2022
Distinguished Service Award
CALIBRE Systems, Inc.
2017
Gold — Association Trends All-Media Contest (Social Media)
ASAM · Opioid Aware Chat
2015
Winners Circle for outstanding design
Stanley Black & Decker
2009
Special effects design lead — Duel (sci-fi film, IMDb)
dir. Pavel Nikolajev
Education & certifications
2008 — 2011
MA, Art & Design — New Media & Animation
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
2002 — 2005
BA, Film & Animation — Dean's Award
Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
- —Business Intelligence Architect on Microsoft Azure (in progress)
- —Hootsuite Platform Certification, 2024
- —Tableau, 2024
- —Microsoft SQL, 2024
- —Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), 2019
- —User Experience Design, Rutgers University, 2017
Tools