KATELYN
MITZEL
Creative Director.
Photo/Video Lead.
11+ Years of proven success.
I am a Creative Director and visual communications leader with 11+ years of experience leading high-performing creative teams, shaping brand strategy and delivering integrated campaigns across digital, social, recruitment, education and executive communications. I currently lead a team of 7 photo/video professionals, driving measurable results. What does that look like? 250+ projects in a year. 8,700% growth in YouTube subscribers. 1.1M views on YouTube Shorts through a strategic initiative.
I combine creative vision, production expertise, people leadership and data-driven decision making.
Outside of my full time work in the industry, I frequently have a Wacom pen in my hand as I edit freelance projects. And I love to get crafty by expanding my photography skills and working on home improvement projects.
Keep scrolling to learn more.
Selected Works
Children's Hospital Colorado Brand Campaign
Here for the Moments that Matter
Creative Director. Editor.
Due to HIPAA regulations, to see the work please visit this link: www.childrenscolorado.org/moments-that-matter
As a member of the core leadership team behind Children's Colorado's new brand campaign, Here for the Moments that Matter, I helped guide the campaign from agency selection through execution and rollout.
I participated in the selection of the creative agency partner and contributed to campaign concept development and refinement. I acted as in-house producer for the brand film, leading location scouting, coordinating production logistics with internal stakeholders and collaborating closely with the campaign photographer to identify and capture some of those "moments."
I served as creative director and editor for 20+ campaign assets, including photo montage spots and text-based social content created for a national media buy. I developed channel-specific creative approaches to ensure content resonated across platforms while maintaining campaign consistency.
To scale the campaign beyond initial launch, I wrote the visual standards and creative guidelines governing campaign photography and video production. I then trained and mentored our internal creative team to apply those standards, enabling the creation of ongoing campaign adaptions - such as an iteration for recruitment purposes:
VIDEO PRODUCTION LEADERSHIP AT
Children's Hospital Colorado
Creative Director. Photo/Video Manager.
The work featured here represents a portion of the video content created under my direction and in collaboration with a talented in-house production team. As manager of the team and Creative Director, I oversaw creative strategy, story development, production workflows, talent development, content reviews and content performance, ensuring every project aligned with organizational goals while maintaining a high creative standard.
My approach combines strong creative instincts, industry trends and data-driven decision making. From campaign storytelling to social-first video, I lead end-to-end production efforts that drove audience growth and engagement, increased insight into the hospital's programs and contributed to major YouTube performance milestones.
Developed a search-optimized "What to Expect" video strategy, aligning audience needs with platform SEO.
Role: Creative Director
Ideated and scaled the Meet our Docs series, creating a repeatable and scalable format that helps patients connect with providers before care.
Role: Creative Director
Co-created and creative directed a DifferenceMakers team spotlight series, using the initiative to mentor a team member in strategy and art direction and prepare him for a lead role.
Role: Creative Director, Manager
Directed, filmed and edited a patient story, establishing a format that showcases both patient impact and clinical expertise that served as a model for future video stories.
Role: Creative Director, Director, Editor
Digital and social strategies
Creative Director. Photo/Video Manager.
As a member of Marketing management, I developed short-form content strategies to expand audience reach and engagement across emerging platforms and formats. Recognizing the growing importance of short-form video, I led the development and launch of a YouTube Shorts strategy that significantly increased viewership and engagement, helping the organization reach new audience through platform-native storytelling. I also strategized use of YouTube ads for increasing our subscribers and engagement.
To further evolve our content approach, I co-led a short-form video pilot across multiple hospital social channels, leading a team to develop and test four distinct content formats designed to identify scalable, repeatable approaches to engage our target audiences and establish our expertise. The initiative combined creative experimentation with performance analysis, providing a framework for future content investments and channel growth.
Added department-specific, search optimized questions to existing interview opportunities to further engage online audiences.
Role: Creative Director
Concepted strategy to reuse existing content on YouTube shorts and social channels to further engagement with minimal lift.
Role: Creative Director
Developed strategy to create Shorts teasers for patient stories, linking back to full-length stories to increase engagement on YouTube channel.
Role: Creative Director, Director, Editor
Ideated creating Spanish-speaking content with a celebrity visitor to engage our Spanish-speaking patient audiences, a less common opportunity.
Role: Creative Director
Professional Experience
11+ Years of Leadership
Leading high-performance creative teams and shaping brand strategies across brand, digital, social, internal and executive communications for over a decade.
Strategic Campaign Success
Delivering high-impact visual storytelling and integrated campaign projects that drive measurable growth and brand loyalty across diverse sectors.
Integrated Digital Growth
Driving significant YouTube subscriber growth and increasing views through innovative content strategies and data-driven creative execution.
Impact & Results
YouTube Subscribers
8,700% Growth from 2015-2026
Engagement Metrics
980% Increase in monthly views from 2017-2026
Quantifying the success of our creative leadership through data-driven growth and strategic engagement.
Expertise & Skills
Brand Strategy
Visual Storytelling
Integrated Campaigns
Digital Strategy
Social Media
Video Production
Recruitment Strategy
Education Strategy
HIPAA Compliance, PHI and BAAs
Photography
Leadership
Vendor Management
Brand Identity
Executive Communications
Policy Development