Brought The Mills House through a $45M+ top-to-bottom renovation, award-winning rebrand and conversion to the Curio Collection by Hilton, culminating in exceeding budget by $2M+ in 2023 and 2024.

At The Mills House, history and the bold spirit of the modern South come together in the heart of Charleston. Here, refined yet relaxed design, reinvented Southern traditions, and genuine hospitality create a vibrant downtown retreat where guests can connect, celebrate, work, and feel truly at home. Our guests are curious, independent, free-spirited individuals of all ages who want to experience the real Charleston with a few fun surprises along the way.

I oversaw the development of our new hotel brand above as well as the hotel’s three signature restaurants, defining both the voice and visual identity in a way that felt true to our history and the city. From reimagining the guest journey to building four websites, producing new sales, advertising and guest materials, and developing programming, I brought the story to life across every touchpoint.

I created and defended comprehensive marketing budgets, clearly articulating ROI and strategic investment priorities to ownership, built a marketing team, led dozens of photo and video productions—including a global campaign shoot in partnership with the Hilton Brand team—and built a scalable content engine to power social media, PR, group sales, and on-property storytelling.

Southern Traditions Reimagined

Standout Campaigns

Cheers to 170 Years

Created and launched the “Cheers to 170 Years” campaign, a month‑long celebration that blended historic elegance with modern programming to honor the hotel’s milestone anniversary. The experience featured an art gallery and lounge with original works from the Gibbes Museum of Art, a Charleston‑centric library, and archival imagery showcasing the property’s evolution. I also built a digital history archive of photos, news stories and documents, and created a refreshed historic timeline that spotlights innovative figures from our history, showcasing our new brand positioning and shifting the conversation away from controversial Civil War history.

We brought this history to life through activations including Iron Rose’s “Throwback” dinner menu inspired by the hotel’s original 1853 dining options, a specialty cocktail menu inspired by Professor Jerry Thomas, a pop‑up barbershop honoring Joseph Rainey—a freedman who once operated his shop on the hotel’s first floor—and a robust social campaign featuring historic content and a week‑long giveaway of experiences.

The campaign delivered the strongest August in hotel history—driving the most monthly website traffic of 2023, the best monthly social performance on record, extensive media coverage, and exceeded monthly budget by $100K+ during what is the property’s slowest period.

Rebecca Illustrated at The Mills House

I created a highly successful long-term partnership with local artist Rebecca Miexner (Rebecca Illustrated) including a permanent retail shop and brand activation strategy. After commissioning a custom watercolor of the hotel as a giveaway for our Ribbon Cutting Celebration, I collaborated with Rebecca to convert an underutilized former gallery space into the Rebecca Illustrated Shop at The Mills House—her first-ever storefront with a revenue-sharing model that created a profitable, labor-free retail experience for the hotel.

The shop features Rebecca-designed retail items, from sweatshirts to prints, mugs and ornaments, as well as exclusive Mills House merchandise, reinforcing our positioning as a hub for Charleston’s spirit of creativity and female entrepreneurship while strengthening community trust and interest during a pivotal reintroduction of the property.

We also expanded the partnership into guest experience touch points including custom postcards mailed complimentary for guests, VIP gifting for groups and weddings, live painting activations, and interactive event programming. This culminated in three annual holiday activations, from a Stocking Stuffer Bar to Holiday Card Painting Station, which drove restaurant cross-promotion, earned media coverage, and hundreds of thousands of social impressions from hosting 20+ influencers each time.

This collaboration not only generated significant buzz, foot traffic, and incremental revenue, but also deepened community ties and elevated the hotel’s brand as an authentic, creative, and culturally connected destination.

Brand Experiences & Activations

Ideated, organized, and executed 50+ events and activations from local book clubs to entrepreneur meet-ups, plus influencer and launch events with top local brands, festivals, and businesses, driving customer engagement and awareness of our new hotel and spaces.

I also created high-impact partnerships that gave a platform to the businesses and organizations that make Charleston known as the Southern center of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Ribbon Cutting Celebration

Concepted and executed the hotel’s official grand opening, hosting 150+ guests including key local business owners, influencers, media, the Mayor, ownership representatives, and executive leadership from Davidson Hospitality Group, Explore Charleston, and Hilton.
Cook Your Catch with Tia Clark

Created partnership with local sensation Tia Clark and her crabbing experience. Guests can go crabbing and our restaurant cooks up a Lowcountry boil for you using the bounty. Also adapted for larger groups of up to 40 to support group and catering sales efforts.
The Annual BDC Bday Party

Produced an annual all-day community activation at The Black Door Café designed to drive neighborhood engagement and brand affinity. The 2025 program featured pop-ins from Sweet Jessamine Flower Truck and The Pink Figgy, hair tinsel bar, free pastries and canned lattes, a Surfside canned cocktail giveaway, and curated raffles.
Weddings by Brackish at The Mills House

This hotel-exclusive collaboration with beloved accessory brand Brackish introduced perks for Mills House couples—private shopping experiences, discounts, and emergency product delivery—giving our sales team distinctive advantage in the Charleston market.
Charleston Wine + Food Festival

Coordinated partnership with Charleston Wine + Food for Iron Rose & The Mills House to be the official “Beverage Hub” for three years running. The hotel hosts several wine and liquor workshops and has an integrated marketing tradeout with the festival.
Holy City Sleep Package

The Holy City Sleep Package offers guests a holistic and sleep-focused stay. The experience features products from notable small businesses like Darling Loungewear PJs, The Tiny Tassel Beauty Bag, Oliver Pluff Tea Set Up, Old Whaling Co Calming Balm and an exclusive Mills House x Candlefish Candle featuring our signature scent to take home.
Summer Sizzle

Partnered with influencer Andrea Serrano, Grey Goose, and Patrón to host a curated launch event for the rooftop pool and bar, welcoming local tastemakers across creative industries. The party featured signature cocktails, DJ sets, a branded floral wall, and live-painted tote giveaways—driving buzz and positioning the venue as a vibrant new social hub.
Southern Ruetz Hat Bar

Brought in female-owned, local hat maker Southern Ruetz to launch a lobby retail display featuring limited edition hats for sale, which guests can then take to their shop, located across the street, for further personalization. The collaboration WOWs guests and drives incremental commission-based revenue for our front desk agents.

Digital Strategy & Performance

Oversaw completion of four websites (Mills House Vanity, Mills House Hilton, Iron Rose, The Black Door Cafe) and implemented comprehensive paid media campaigns including search, social, performance max, and metasearch for transient, weddings/local catering and group initiatives.

These campaigns drove 300+ group RFPs and increased YoY averages to vanity website: 76%+ in website traffic, 50%+ booking engine entrances, and 46%+ engaged sessions.

I also launched the Hilton.com website and it optimized for performance—bringing visits to 67K+ monthly visitors with an average monthly conversion rate of 9.5%+.

Generated $700K+ annually through strategically deployed e‑blasts leveraging Hilton’s marketing infrastructure and past guest database.

Social Media Spotlight

Hired and managed social media agency relationship, driving 20K+ new followers on The Mills House Instagram and generating 1M+ annual content impressions.

Launched campaigns showcasing the full hotel experience—from restaurants and poolside cabanas to live coverage of events, real weddings, corporate programs, and on-property partnerships and activations.

Conceptualized and took live monthly “Southern Stories” Instagram series, highlighting The Mills House and Charleston history, alongside tour guide partner features hidden historic treasures of the Pink Hotel.

PR Powerhouse

Led and managed the hotel’s PR agency strategy, hosting 100+ influencers and media across the property and its restaurants. Secured impactful opening coverage and sustained momentum through newsworthy programming and top-tier media engagement, resulting in 137 national, 75 regional, and 270 local media placements and establishing long-term brand visibility in key national markets.