Julie Ray, Founder + Creative Director
Julie Ray started her career working with nonprofit organizations in program management, fundraising and communications. While serving as the Development and Communications Director for artworxla, a Los Angeles arts education organization, she worked closely with graphic designers who developed eye-catching materials for the organization. Her interest piqued, she took courses in L.A. and Tucson, where she moved in 2004, and launched her freelance practice. (Want to know even more? Click here.)
In 2008, Julie launched Julie Ray Creative (JRC) with the vision of bringing together social justice and design. JRC has helped dozens of nonprofit organizations in all aspects of design and marketing, from building websites to managing social media campaigns.
Julie is the Chair of the Chandler Arts Commission and a board member of Inspiration House Foundation. She lives in Chandler with her husband and daughter.
Photo by Harrison Hurwitz Photography
OUR TEAM
Jenni Pagano
Web/Graphic Design
Jenni has worn many hats as a manager, TV-segment creator, shop owner, interior space planner, and jewelry designer, and brings that experience to each new project. Today, she channels her versatility into crafting bold branding and websites for mission-driven groups. That voter ID card in your wallet? She designed that too!
A UCLA Design graduate, Jenni is constantly challenging assumptions, embracing fresh ideas, and learning new skills—she believes in the power of YouTube tutorials.
Maxine, her tiny canine co-worker, usually jumps into video calls for a quick lap-nap. Her free-time projects burst with vivid colors and considerable mess.
Teresa Villegas
Graphic Design, Illustration & Branding
Teresa started her career in publishing, designing and illustrating children’s books for Random House and Scholastic as well as creating editorial illustrations for newspapers and magazines.
After a decade in fine art, traveling back and forth between the US and Mexico, she designed public art for Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, AZ. Soon after, she transitioned from a home studio art practice to a location-free digital artist, and becoming a certified UI/UX designer.
Originally from the US, she now lives and works from her home in Valencia, Spain. Visual storytelling and nature profoundly inspires her, and admits to being a self professed tree hugger. She believes the climate crisis we’re in is the most important story to be telling and we all have a part to play. Protecting and planting more trees is one of many possible solutions.
She enjoys traveling, appreciates diverse cultures and loves spicy food, dogs, silly humor, foreign films, documentaries, and Latin literature.
Jessica Koslow
Project Management,
Copywriting
Jessica has been a professional writer for 30+ years. She lives in Inglewood, California, and contributes to local outlets and edits theses and dissertations. She loves food and dance and has been friends with Julie since they met in the 7th grade at LACES.
Roxane Ramos
Copywriting
Roxane is a communications consultant and writer with over 35 years of experience in shaping stories, distilling messages, identifying audiences, and impacting
outcomes for a wide array of clients, including the Center for Creative Photography, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, KQED, and Visa U.S.A. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking for family and friends and walking her dog, Sasha. As a girl in the Bronx, she created a comic strip featuring various saguaro-ish characters, never realizing that one day, she would make her home among those stately desert denizens.
Quinn Patterson
Graphic Design
Quinn is an ASU graduate and a graphic designer who currently works for Julie Ray Creative and ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions, designing all kinds of digital and print materials. She especially loves print design and making things you can hold or interact with in real life. Quinn is a hobbyist artist, and she loves trying new foods and playing video games.
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Biray Seitz
Video Content Creator
Biray brings 20+ years of experience translating stories into impactful content. With a degree in media and communications, she got her start in Hollywood as a segment producer and script coordinator for TV and film. She’s since parlayed that experience into digital marketing, where her primary focus on the team is video production. From educational videos to social media reels, Biray produces long- and short-form content that resonates.
When she’s not in the editing studio, you’ll find her walking with friends or in a pilates class.
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Sheila Wilensky
Copywriting/Editing
Sheila weaves a lifetime of book-loving experience as the owner of OZ Children’s Bookstore in Southwest Harbor, Maine, and administrator of the OZ Literacy Fund. She was associate editor of the Arizona Jewish Post for a decade and served as chair of the
Tucson Festival of Books history/memoir/biography committee and on the Festival’s Author
Committee.
She has edited children’s books for publishers, doctoral dissertations, and written articles for Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers Online, Desert Leaf, and Tucson Weekly.
You can find her in Minneapolis living close to her two magnificent grandchildren (and their parents)
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